April 20, 1990. An obscure, unsigned band is booked to play Cutler Quad on Earth Day. The band? Now-Platinum and Grammy-nominated rock band Phish. The promoter? CC student Don Strasburg ’91.
That was the first concert Strasburg ever booked. Now President of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest Region at AEG, Strasburg has promoted thousands of shows and opened iconic theaters.
At CC, Strasburg was a Political Science and History major and a Beta Theta Pi member. But his one love was live music. “Most Block Breaks, if there was a Grateful Dead concert somewhere, my friends and I would get in a car and drive there.”
After hearing Phish out east in 1989, he returned to school with a mission to bring them to Colorado. He started conversations with Live Sounds and Tim Swope ’89 of the Outdoor Recreation Committee (ORC), and they formed a plan for an Earth Day concert on campus.
“I just started working the phones and calling people. Things started connecting. I helped the band by calling little clubs in Colorado to find shows.”
He was even “just aggressive and foolhardy enough” to book Phish at the Boulder Theater. There, Strasburg’s friends were supposed to help as stagehands but showed up late. He turned the situation around by making an apology beer run for the crew – his first lesson in managing relationships in the industry.
Ultimately the tour was a tremendous success, with sold-out shows.
“After that, I had the bug,” shares Strasburg. He apprenticed under Mario Valdez, manager of KRCC, and booked Blues Traveler, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and others on campus.
Strasburg started pitching the idea of opening a venue in Boulder. He went door-to-door around CC and CU Boulder asking for investors. “Every one of their parents thought we were absolutely nuts, but a couple of them somehow believed in us,” he laughs. He opened the Fox Theater in 1992 with Dickie Sidman and John O’Leary and is still an owner.
The rest is hallowed music history. Strasburg brought world-class musicians to the Fox and built the Fillmore Auditorium in 1999. After the LiveNation acquisitions of the 90s and 00s, Strasburg left the company in 2007 to join AEG. The AEG portfolio includes Bluebird Theater, Gothic Theater, The Ogden Theater, Mission Ballroom, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater, Gerald Ford in Vail, and the new Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs. The company also promotes over 140 shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater plus countless other shows across Colorado.
Strasburg attends over 200 shows per year. The best concert he attended in 2024? Phish.
Looking back, Strasburg reflects on a Heidegger term he learned from Professor Fuller at CC.
“Dasein is the pure essence of being in the moment. I believe that is exemplified when you’re in music and dancing in blissful existence. I realized at CC this communion is not something that automatically exists, someone needs to take the responsibility to organize it. I am honored to do the work and take it very seriously.”