Let's Talk Punk With Yvonne Spence

Punk Globe: Hi thanks for chatting with us. Can you tell us how you started booking shows?

Yvonne:I started booking shows for my husband’s band Rat Feces and kept saying I wasn’t interested in being a promoter lol. Then I was introduced to Mike Brennan, founder of Twisted Soul entertainment, and started out helping book bands on shows he needed help with. Within a year he asked me to join his team that was in December of 2021.

Punk Globe: Tell us about the first show you booked. 

Yvonne: I Booked my first show ever in 2021 at the doll hut in Anaheim. My band van that got rat feces to all their shows and was my primary vehicle no less lol had broken down so I put together a comedy punk show! I had comedians come perform between bands such as Mistress K and Dark Mark , it was the start of a beautiful thing! 

Punk Globe: How many shows do you book a month? Favorite spot to book?

Yvonne: I try to book at least one show a month , usually a punk night. During the spring through summer it’s 2-3 a month because I do 2 swap meet dates monthly at the doll hut in Anaheim. Starting this year I started doing punk nights once a month at rockefellas in Corona. The doll hut in Anaheim is my home away from home and definitely my favorite place to book.

Punk Globe: What’s your favorite superhero and why?

Yvonne: I’m gonna go with the flash, because if I was the flash I could go to every show in the world I wanted to with enough time to catch all my favorite bands!

Punk Globe: What drew you to the music industry?

Yvonne: I grew up in it! My mom was in bands from the time I could remember, vocals , putting bands together , joining bands and making them her own. Putting together promo packs to get her bands shows I learned everything, that led into what I do and then got lucky and met Mike Brennan was ho took everything I learned from my mother and taught me how to put into the right ways of making it a career.

Punk Globe: Do you have any hidden talents?

Yvonne: I’m a singer… mostly karaoke, but when I was in jr high I sang in a No Doubt  cover band , then as a young adult I would do featured vocals with random house bands.

Punk Globe: What are the biggest challenges in booking and how do you overcome them? 

Yvonne: my biggest challenges are one: bands dropping off shows short notice, and two: bands not promoting shows they’re on. I tend to try and “kill them with kindness” so I do my best to find replacement bands. If it’s a true understandable reason I’ll continue to work with that band but if it’s just flakey business I have a no book list they get added to . And as far as bands not promoting enough I just try my best to get the shoes out there myself !

Punk Globe: If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why? 

Yvonne: Michelangelo , so I could pick his brain on all his painting techniques, I am an artist and painting is one of my favourite forms of showing my art.

Punk Globe: What’s the most bizarre thing that’s ever happened to you at a show?

Yvonne: In 1997 my mom took me to the warp tour, we had backstage passes ! But the vandals were on stage throwing random stuff out to the crowd and I got a pink satin fuzzy bikini!!!! Then was picked up onto what seemed like a giant’s shoulders and thrown onto the stage where I got to give all them hugs!

Punk Globe: Describe a time when you and a band didn’t see eye to eye.

Yvonne: I have a zero tolerance to meth and I booked this show one time and a band I booked were shooting up in front of the venue , and I asked them to leave and never booked them again! They couldn’t understand what they did wrong ….

Punk Globe: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?

Yvonne: Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see – John Robert Prowse (adopted father)

Punk Globe: Describe a time when you had to overcome a challenge booking a show. 

Yvonne: i had my headliner drop off my event 3 weeks before my punk night this past July , I reached out to so many trying to fix it and had zero luck so what I did was got a cool tribute band to headline , lowered presale and entry fee and worked with what I had to work with… it ended up being a slow night and not what I expected but bands still rocked it!