April 2025
A thriving DIY music scene is the sum of lots of moving parts and pieces. While the bands and musicians themselves tend to be the most visible and talked about part of the equation, they’re often just the perceptible portion of an iceberg that consists of visual artists, production engineers, blog writers and Tik Tok posters, and event organizers all working mostly beneath the surface.
Enter Reno’s Nathaniel Shiffer, the person behind the Outside Eye Productions branding that for nearly a year has been booking hardcore, metal, and punk bands in venues that include show spaces, coffee shops and a pizzeria.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Shiffer says when he talks about when he originally began putting the first shows together.
Having moved to Reno from El Centro, California when he was 15, a family friend had mentioned The Holland Project, Reno’s inclusive and all ages youth oriented music and arts space, as a place where Shiffer might find a local energy that matched his interests.
“I remember the first show I saw there. It was August of 2021, the bands were Scowl and Zulu, along with Bug Bath and Ego Trip.” With paper show flyers hung up on the wall of his room, Shiffer recalls with an excitement and detail that encapsulates just how earth moving the DIY scene and community was and is to younger kids discovering this alternative scene.
Shiffer began emailing bands and tour agents, letting them know that he would be eager to set up shows for them if they came to Reno. He was persistent enough that one agent eventually replied, ‘I got you, we’ll reach out if we’re coming.’ At that point, Shiffer realized maybe he was too eager.
“That’s fine. That’s the process of learning,” he reflects while being able to laugh about it now.
What Shiffer describes is what many early bands and participants in the scene experience – that while maybe a roadmap exists and there are certain ways that things are done in the more conventional and traditional ‘industry’, the DIY scene is made up of a younger crowd who often far more often let passion and excitement be their guide than than routine.
Since he began booking shows, Shiffer has worked with both established spaces like The Holland Project and The Empire, as well as putting on shows in alternative spaces like Midnight Coffee Roasters and Piazzava, a small late night pizza place in Sparks. Shiffer jokingly emphasizes that the entire experience has definitely presented experiences that have forced him to learn while he goes – he’ll mention certain venues lacking equipment which he needs to figure out how to find or borrow, and juggling between bands being paid in guarantees or door splits. But he also mentions waking up to living rooms with touring band members splayed out everywhere and mentions how sometimes the turnouts might be smaller or affected by other events happening elsewhere on the same night.
He’s also quick to credit the others who have helped along the way, whether that’s the artists who have helped create flyers for his shows or friends who have invited him to host his shows inside venues that they help run.
While these days he has a bit more experience and is able to pace himself and focus more on taking on projects that align with what he’s interested in.
“At the core of it all, it’s still very much a DIY mentality in a sense that musicianship is done out of a need to create and express yourself. This applies whether you are performing or exhibiting art. The DIY virtue is held to a high regard in punk and hardcore,” Shiffer says about what motivates the way he chooses who he works with.
He continues working staunchly with smaller DIY artists, and emphasizes that Outside Eye Productions has always been an outlet that emphasizes fun and community rather than business.
“Sometimes there’s not a lot of money, or maybe you’re even losing money. But at the end of the day the bands got paid. Everyone was happy. I was happy, and you can’t put a price on that,” Shiffer says.
Follow Outside Eye Productions on their Instagram page.
And check out their upcoming event, Bestial Mouths, Doll Wings and Ratdemon at the Goth themed Black Easter at the Holland Project on Saturday, April 12th.
Read up on others contributing to the Reno and Lake Tahoe DIY music and arts scenes:
