The Agency and Venues Behind EL’s Evolving Live Music Scene

East Lansing has a pretty impressive musical past, opening the doors and stages for many notable rock musicians and singer-songwriters over the decades. 

While older venues like The Small Planet or Rick’s American Cafe are gone or no longer cater to rock crowds, live music has taken the stage at other local businesses lately. If you’ve noticed an uptick in performances at The Graduate Rock Bar, Crunchy’s, The Peanut Barrel, or the newly-opened Mash Bar, it’s partly because of Dan Laird. Laird is the founder and behind-the-scenes booking agent of Angry Talent Entertainment. 

The company helps connect performing musicians and bands with local stages and participating venues across the state. Based in East Lansing, the goal is to build the music culture in town. Laird is a Detroit native, but went to school at Michigan State University in the ‘90s, and is a musician himself. 

“Having played for a long time, I’ve seen that side of things,” Laird said. “Struggling to see where there are opportunities to play, not really understanding why some places have music and some don’t, how to get your foot in the door, who the gatekeepers are, and things like that.”

Angry Talent Entertainment was created in October 2022. Coming out of COVID, as doors reopened to guests and musicians, performers were looking to take the stage again. As Laird’s own schedule of gigs returned, he also looked to book other musicians with venues in town. 

“There are a lot of musicians in the Lansing area who, for certain reasons, don’t play in the Lansing area a lot because of some of those gatekeepers I mentioned,” Laird said. “They prefer not to work with them locally. It gave me an opportunity to help these friends of mine that I’ve accumulated over 30 years from playing in the area. It gave me an opportunity to give them a place to play right in their hometown.”

From there, Angry Talent Entertainment took off and Laird started booking more talent on stages and in bars across town. Today, he books shows with Harrison Roadhouse, Cleats Bar and Grill, Old Bag of Nails, Lansing Shuffle and even the Lansing Lugnuts. 

“Very quickly, it’s been steamrolling into a bigger and bigger operation. I’m semi-retired from performing, but the booking has taken off,” Laird said. “As the name has gotten some credibility, so has the number of venues.”

The most recent venue to add live music is Mash Bar, which provides a very welcome addition to the local music scene – an actual stage in the restaurant. The bourbon, whiskey and beer bar is located at 212 Albert Street. 

“Stages are kind of an endangered species in the Lansing area,” Laird said. “They were opening their doors with a building specifically designed to have full bands, which is an exciting thing to have.”

Inside Mash, there is an overhead balcony with seating, and a raised stage in the center. The location provides a good view of the stage, whether you’re on the floor or upstairs. 

“It’s almost built like it was meant to be a small concert venue, it’s pretty cool,” Laird said. 

The first band to play Mash was The Further Adventures of FatBoy & JiveTurkey, on Jan. 26.  Laird admits that he didn’t know what kind of crowd to expect.

“They are top-notch musicians,” Laird said. “They’re a unique New Orleans jazz/blues kind of act. They got in there, and I went just to see what it was going to be like on day two of their business. The place was packed to the gills with people. The crowd loved it, and ate it up.”

Benjamin Hall is the band leader of The Further Adventures of FatBoy and JiveTurkey. The Michigan-based band typically plays around three times each month. Locally, they’ve played Moriarty’s Pub, The Green Door, Stober’s Bar, The Avenue, UrbanBeat and Horrocks Farm Market. 

“Having a stage like at Mash is fantastic,” Hall said. “It kind of puts a little bit more of a focus on you than if you’re on the same level as everybody.”

Hall also enjoyed the energy from the crowd, which was mostly made up of students. 

“The kids were just in it,” he said. “They were loving it. There was a line out the door all night long. There were people on the dance floor the entire night, and we played from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. They were out there enjoying it the entire time.”

The musician is happy to see more venues open their doors and create platforms – literally and figuratively for the local music scene. 

“There are so many good musicians in this town, and a lot of us have to leave town to play,” Hall said. “To get gigs and to be appreciated, we have to leave town. It’s nice to play here and be appreciated. That’s probably one of the most appreciative crowds that I’ve ever played for in my life.”

Laird also enjoyed the crowd participation and liveliness the show brought. The atmosphere helped solidify his belief that Mash will be a venue that can host a wide variety of music, regardless of style. Other bookings have included R&B, a party-style band, Country/Americana and more. The plan is to have a different live band each Friday night. 

It’s a scene that’s getting better, but went through quite a lull as venues like The Small Planet went away, or the focus of locales like Harper’s shifted to DJs. 

“Part of the problem is that there’s really not a lot of promotion for being a live music town,” Laird said. “That’s one of my big efforts. My goal this whole time has been to try to open up more places for music. A lot of venues, if they’re not built to host music, or that was never part of their original business plan, they don’t know the first thing on how to get started.”

Angry Talent Entertainment aims to help take some of that off their plate by connecting with bands, educating on music licensing, helping to set up shows and assisting with promotion. 

It’s a three-pronged mission: to continue advocating for musicians’ time and talent, supporting the venues willing to host live music and fostering and supporting the community. 

“Last December, I gave $500 to the MSU Community Music School,” Laird said. “I don’t make a whole lot doing this, but I think it’s important for a company, organization or business to be a part of the community and support it.”

Looking ahead, Laird hopes to expand Angry Talent Entertainment’s reach, get into more venues and help up-and-coming businesses and musicians alike.