Longtime friend of The Monarch, Aaron Roden hosts the Air-Raid podcast, in which he invites guests like Shana Cleveland of La Luz, John Roderick or Bob Saget into his home, sits them down, and talks with them for an hour, or so, about what they’re up to. Well, now Aaron has something else going on: a live version of his podcast, complete with music, comedy and interview, at Naked City. Given this big change for the guy, we wanted to ask him One Super Important Quesstion, about, well, how freaking nervous he is for this new undertaking. 

Jake Uitti: This is your first ever live Air-Raid show. Can you Explain the range of emotions you’re going through – I’m imagining butterflies, excitement and wanting to drink a lot.

Aaron Roden: This is kind of the perfect question for someone like me. I am, on any normal day, a very stressed and nervous person. So right now my family basically hates me. With the first live show on the horizon, I have become extremely scattered. There is a lot to think of, will my jokes be funny? How many tickets will we sell? Did I post enough fliers? Should I talk about the weird mole on the top of my head? I wouldn’t say that I am nervous about the show itself just yet, but very anxious and excited about what is to come. And now with less than a month to go all the ideas are there, I just need to put them all in order, write them out, and practice in front of my 3 yr old. I have never done anything like this before, putting a variety type show together that is. Luckily I can keep my nerves in check by keeping myself busy by doing all the promotional work that comes along with doing a show like this. The more time that passes, however, the more excited I get about the future of things as well. Maybe it’s just delusions of grandeur or being too optimistic, but if all goes well with this first live show then there will most definitely be more to come.

When I sat down with our sponsors two months ago this idea to do a live Air-Raid podcast just kind of came up in conversation, and I instantly said “Yeah, great idea!” without even thinking about how I would pull something like this off. I instantly had to start thinking of who would even be interested in coming and doing a live podcast. I mean, it is one thing to have musicians and comedians into my studio and chat about what can sometimes be pretty personal subjects. But how do you do something like that on a stage? In front of a live audience no less? So I decided for the first Air-Raid LIVE to go with people who not only have a great following in the city of Seattle, but who I also know pretty well and are themselves comfortable enough on a stage. I also thought that doing the normal Air-Raid format of one guest per show, was not going to work out for a live setting. So for Air-Raid LIVE we will have three guests all showcasing what they do best: comedian Derek Sheen will grace us with some fantastic stand-up comedy, Mackenzie and Troy of The Young Evils will play an acoustic set and also engage in a beer guzzling round of music trivia, and then the night will be rounded out by the music and conversation of the lovely and talented Shelby Earl. SO needless to say, I am very excited about the line up AND the potential for unscripted craziness that will most likely occur. Now we just need to get butts in the seats.

Actually… now that I am forced to think about it, I am pretty damn nervous.