By Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen

AEG Live is opening a new regional office in Minneapolis to complement offices in Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, San Diego, Denver, Seattle, Dallas, Nashville, St. Louis and the area comprising North and South Carolina. It will be headed by talent buyer Brad Saks, who will book events into numerous venues in the area, including the Target Center and various theaters and clubs.

“Brad represents the quality our young talent buyers possess and is a welcome addition to the AEG Live booking team,” said Larry Vallon, senior vice president of AEG Live, in a statement.

“Minneapolis is a great music town,” added Saks in the statement. “AEG Live is a remarkable concert promotion company.”

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Saks was most recently a senior talent buyer at OCESA Presents in New York, where he was responsible for booking shows throughout Mexico, including My Chemical Romance, Daft Punk and Avril Lavigne at the Palacio de los Deportes and Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs at the Auditorium National. Saks was a talent buyer in New York for Metropolitan Talent Presents prior to joining OCESA.