Some insider info: When you are a music journalist in search of a guest list spot at a show, your best course of action is to send the band's publicist a short email explaining who you are, what media outlet you represent, and what coverage you are planning. Said publicist will then attempt to accommodate your request as best as he or she can.
Or you could try Beatle Bob's approach, which apparently mostly involves tweeting at bands and musicians when you want to go to their shows and then whining about it loudly when you don't get your way.
"Kid Congo typically never replies," Bob tweeted this morning. "You failed to get our reporter on the guest list. You should have least had the courtesy to reply either way."
Kid Congo himself later found the post and retweeted it, offering up the same sage advice we're imparting:
"You could have called our publicist," he tweeted in response. "I’m just the guitar player. You should have come and bought a ticket. It was a blast!"
You could have called our publicist . I’m just the guitar player. You should have come and bought a ticket.. it was a blast ! https://t.co/BBhrH8ckYD
— Kid Congo Powers (@kidcongopowers) August 29, 2018
Over the years, Beatle Bob's reputation among locals has drifted somewhere between questionably lovable oddity and insufferable musical mooch, depending on whom you ask, owing to his tendency to do whatever it takes, including misrepresent himself, to gain entry to concerts without paying.
But you don't have to know much backstory to find his demands for tickets a bit annoying. Especially considering that despite his claims to be a "community radio DJ, music journalist and cable TV music reporter," there is little in the real world to back any of that up. He claims to host a radio show on WEW 770 AM, but the station's website has no mention of him whatsoever in its programming lineup (he used to say the same about KDHX, where he was also not a host). His music journalism mostly involves sending plagiarized reviews of records and bands to the unwitting recipients of his email newsletter, and if he has a show on cable, we've never seen it.
Predictably, Kid Congo fans jumped in on the debate, and it wasn't long before Bob was getting thoroughly dragged by the internet:
You’re not a reporter, Bob
— Chris Ward Running Unopposed (@WorldOfWard) August 29, 2018
this dude spends a lot of time tweeting hustles for guest lists & even more time tweeting complaints he didnt get any
— Ray Gange (@realraygange) August 29, 2018
Haha! Such whiney entitlement - just buy a ticket ffs. Good for you Kid!💖
— Cáit O'Riordan (@rockyoriordan) August 29, 2018
Oh shut the fuck up Bob you whiny prick. Your whole Twitter is full of begging for guestlist spots n bitching when you don’t get them. That is not how a professional person operates. How dare you say a word to a hard working professional musician like KCP? Hang your head in shame
— L.S.Dee Brown (@NotYou_83) August 29, 2018
Here’s a reply, sweetie: next time, buy the tickets. Go the show feeling good that you supported an artist instead of begging for guest list or free tickets and then bitching when you don’t get it.
— Ashley (@Smasha23) August 29, 2018
The band's booking agent even got in on it, even going so far as to share that Bob has apparently been guest-listed as a "reporter" for decades now.
@Beatle_Bob
— LeafyGreenTodd (@LeafyGreenTodd) August 29, 2018
Dude your reporter= you. You've been on every St Louis guest list for my clients for 25+ years. Mistakes happen and supporting the artist and buying a $10 ticket rather than complaining would have been the appropriate response.
It's easy to see why Bob would be so disappointed. After all, he posted this glowing review of the band to his Facebook page the day of the show:
Beatle Bob is geared up tonight for the Off-Broadway Club for the buzzy stomping of Kid Congo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds. Kid Congo Powers spent his career in the '80s and '90s as a sideman, putting his idiosyncratic talents as a guitarist to the service of others. (It's true Powers co-founded the Gun Club, but Jeffrey Lee Pierce was clearly the man in charge of that group.) Thankfully, Kid Congo still hits his stride as a frontman and songwriter with his new Pink Monkey Birds band which is commanding as his wild talent deserves. Powers and his bandmates sound both casual and tight on their new material, full of fire but with a loose-limbed feels like anything can happen with this PMB lineup, and their fusion of blues, garage rock, early punk, and Chicano rock is potent. While his sound is rock & roll, Powers' music has a depth and texture that belie the elemental nature of his songs showing that he and his new band are still making as strong as his resume deserves.And if you think that's a good write-up, you should check out the one Bob plagiarized in order to write it.
It seems unlikely that St. Louis' favorite freeloader will learn from his mistakes. At present the "Tweets and Replies" section of his Twitter account is a sea of copy-and-pasted requests for free tickets, including no less than three tweets to Darius Rucker alone. None of them has seen any reply.
Safe to say our local scarab will have some choice words come September 14, the day after Rucker's St. Louis show, if the situation doesn't get rectified soon. Better get on it, Hootie.
