if you want an artist to come to your town, put in some work to make it happen -
venue - don't just list places, find the owners, talk price, make sure it can handle that type of show etc. I know for a fact, SB had a show several years ago. Find out who threw it and see if they are interested in doing it again.
demand - make sure there is a demand, not just 5 or 10 fans. Get people to send the artist email to ask them to roll through. If the same 2 people are the only ones requesting the artist, it's not going to happen.
how do you think nickatina came to usc? i went to the school's activity board, gave em all the info I could find on Nickatina's past performances, record sales, popularity, etc. From the time I did this til the time he performed, it took about 4-5 months.