Most days, Keith DeCoons fidgets through finance class. The marketing major is antsy to get back to his labor of love—booking music acts.

“I’m just looking at the clock,” he says with a laugh, “waiting until I can go home and get on that phone and e-mail, and start booking shows, and not have to worry about price decline and market value.”

DeCoons is a middler who already has his own artist-management company, Saurus Entertainment. And though it’s just a sideline right now—there is school to consider—he says he’s in the music business to stay.

When the Hawthorne, New Jersey, native got to Northeastern, he knew he liked business, but he wasn’t sure about his career path. Inspiration appeared freshman year. A band named Granian, whom he knew from Jersey, asked if he could get them $250 to play a show in a dorm lobby.

“So I collected ten dollars from each of my friends and took a little extra money out of my FleetBank account,” DeCoons recalls. The concert was a hit. And his efforts got noticed: The Resident Student Association offered him money to arrange other shows.

Three years later, he’s set up about two dozen shows—in dorms, at the university’s afterHours nightclub, at other local venues. “I had no intention of ever getting into the music business,” DeCoons admits. “I kind of fell into it.”

His main client, the Laura Glyda Band—all Northeastern graduates, by the way—releases its first CD this month. And he’s seen fortunes rise for some former clients. He once booked singer-songwriter Ari Hest for a gig at Stetson West. These days, Hest is playing gigs across the country and recently signed with Columbia Records. “He’s just exploding,” DeCoons says proudly. “I enjoy discovering talent in the early stages.”

DeCoons is pairing his marketing studies with a minor in music indus- try. He had a co-op experience with Boston artist manager Ralph Jaccodine, for whom he now works part time. Jaccodine is teaching him a lot about merchandising. “I’ve learned that promoting an artist is not only about the music,” DeCoons says. “You can put out a book about the artist. You can make a DVD.”

The main thing DeCoons has learned: Promoting requires persistence. “People say no all the time,” he says. “I’ve e-mailed some clubs over and over. But you just have to keep believing in the music and believing that, one day, people will say yes. I mean, people turned down the Beatles.”

DeCoons works mornings for Jaccodine, takes afternoon or evening classes, then books shows after dinner. “Whatever downtime I have goes toward homework,” he says. “My parents don’t think that’s the proper way of doing things. But somehow I find a way to still do well in school.”

He doesn’t mind the grind because he loves the work. “In the music business, no two days are ever the same,” DeCoons says. “And when a show comes about, it just makes that day so special.”

And, someday, one of his bands may hit the big time. “To think that one day we could play the FleetCenter,” he says, “and have fans outside trying to scalp tickets and make T-shirts without our approval. It’s kind of nice to have that dream.”

Ministry of Sound

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