Though Ring says the band didn’t have much musical prowess, the talent they had for promoting their band was what got them on plenty of bills. Growing up, Ring and his cousin Donnie Walker, would book local bands at VFW halls and roller rinks for fun, and they started their own band called “The Budgets” during their senior year of high school. With that knowledge, Ring was able to start promoting his own shows. This experience gave Ring the knowledge to work with big agents, work with big budgets, and to produce big shows. With his elected position, he booked entertainment for the college, and booked larger acts including Good Charlotte, Nickelback, The Roots, and The Used. Ring was then voted as entertainment chairman, and was in charge of all of the student activities at Buff State. He started looking to go to schools out of state, but since his friends were going to Buffalo State College, he wanted to go there as well.Īttending Buff State was Ring’s springboard into the promotions world. Starting in 1997, while at Buff State, Ring’s advisor knew that he had a passion for music and encouraged him to join the student union board. Though Ring has a two-decade resume of accomplishments, growing up, he didn’t intend on becoming a promoter. Ring grew up on the hardcore music scene, and with that, he was straightedge, didn’t drink, was a vegetarian, was big into animal rights, and with that, he decided he wanted to go to school for environmental science. When Waiting Room closed its doors, Ring immediately began working on creating a new meeting place for the music community, and most recently, Ring introduced his new venture and new concert venue, Rec Room, which is slated to open this coming September on Chippewa. is a screen-printing company that Ring runs alongside Justin Tartick to provide affordable merchandise for bands and businesses alike. Ring also started Fanbassador in 2016, as a means for fans to connect with artists, giving fans the ability to vote to pick their ideal concert lineup out of a pool of artists to choose from. The Tailor Made Festival in 2017 was the inaugural festival of Fanbassador, in which fans voted for, and curated their ideal lineup to include Travis Scott and 2 Chainz as headliners. These are only a few of Ring’s accomplishments spanning the past few decades.Īside from booking and promoting shows over the years at venues like Club Infinity, Mohawk Place, the Showplace Theatre, Town Ballroom, Xtreme Wheels and many others, Ring owned the concert venue, Waiting Room, where he booked hundreds of shows between 20. After Dark is known for bringing in a wide array of genres, including punk rock, hardcore, and hip hop music. A Day to Remember, A$AP Rocky, Bayside, Circa Survive, Every Time I Die, New Found Glory, Rise Against, Taking Back Sunday, and Wu-Tang Clan are only a small sampling of the acts that After Dark has booked in the past.Īfter Dark’s sister company, Tour City, Inc. In 2001, Ring started a music promotions company, After Dark Entertainment, Inc., which has brought hundreds of live shows to the Buffalo area since its inception. “Do it for the kids” is the tagline of one of Buffalo’s longstanding entrepreneurs. The catchphrase is evident in everything that Chris Ring does for the Buffalo music community he brings live music for the local, all-ages fan base-“the kids”-and he has been one of the most important elements on the scene since the early 2000s.
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