.Behind The Scene: Alex Shapiro

Let me start by naming a double handful of the best venues and show series on the scene—Railroad Square Music Fest, Jake Ward’s Sexy Sexy Star Wars, The Arlene Francis Center, The Lost Church, River Town Revival, Balanced Breakfast, SOMO Village Productions and my own North Bay Fashion Ball.

What do they all have in common besides the vital color they add to our community? It would be production lynchpin Alex Shapiro, one of North Bay’s most in-demand day-of trouble-shooters. He is the best. And it’s high time to spotlight a key player whose name is rarely on the posters or marquee—this scene’s M.V.P.

CH: Alex, I have already named “overall production manager” among your venue jobs and skill sets. Can you complete the list?

AS: Host, promotor, pipe and drape, cables, sound set-up, ticket-taker, bartender, stage manager, go-for, stage builder, roadie, janitor, set decorator, sound guy, logician, photographer, sound recordist, camera operator, filmmaker and I can even hop on stage and play a song.

CH: Wowie. As I said, you can do it all—with humility and grace. I have even seen you landscaping a venue and putting up posters on the day of an event. Whatever needs to be done, you are the king of gaps. Alex, on the day of a big show or festival, when little fires start up and everyone is losing their minds, you are known for your slow and methodical calm. What is your secret?

AS: I get calm by focusing on the most important task at hand. And then moving on to the second most important task and so on. And what task I don’t get to, I don’t worry about because I have already covered the most important task first. The other things tend to be incidental, and the audience won’t miss them.

CH: Besides the bread … or bread crumbs, why do you help the scene so much?

AS : Music and art make the world a better place. They expand the perspective of people who participate. So, I want to help and collaborate to make the most music and art available. And it creates a place and platform for my own art.

Learn more about Shapiro. The following QR code Linktrees to his music—grungy soul with EDM attacks, his vast scene photography and his film-making—including the music video he directed for cookie-fueled chanteuse Gabby LaLa with Eats The Fish Productions. Hire him to make beautiful things happen.