Covidiots in music

Yeah, I was shocked to see that move. Really unexpected.

I honestly don't get it. They didn't have to sell tickets; it was sold out. It's an AEG show, but iirc AEG requires vaccines. And it's in California, which has been pretty strict about stuff. Even the Coachella website still says "We will be requiring all attendees and staff to provide proof of full vaccination for entry into our owned & operated venues unless medically or religiously exempt." So why change now? Maybe a headliner refuses to get vaccinated? Maybe it was a mistake?

Maybe Kyrie wants to come

I'm not going, but I have tickets to a show in March, and if this happened there, I definitely wouldn't go unless the state of the pandemic drastically changes. That could happen but since the holdouts are mainly down to antivax morons, it's tough to say.

It's frustrating watching all of these sensible, hard line mandates and requirements evaporate when they encounter any kind of resistance.

What was the resistance wrt Coachella?

Oh I don't know anything specific, but something clearly motivated the change. My suspicion is that one or more big name headliners refused.

Someone thweatened to hold their bweath until daddy bought them an ice cweam afaict

Unless these headliners have degrees in epidemiology, they should shut the fuck up and get a goddamn jab.

I mean, I hate festival culture and Coachella in particular, but still.

FWIW, Goldenvoice also made the same change for Stagecoach; so the weird reversal may not be related to a Coachella headliner raising a stink.

(or maybe it is and they went for parity, idk)

Well, I'd think it still could be related to a headliner, since they run both festivals it was probably easier to blanket change both of them instead of one having different requirements.

Also, just pure speculation, who really knows. Just seems weird that they'd make the change AFTER it was sold out and given how serious California has been about mandates. I just imagined that a big name headliner refusing to get vaccinated and threatening to pull out after tickets were sold might be enough to make them back down. Either way, depressing to see. We need more of these hard line, vaxx only requirements, not less.

I have another theory or guess, and that's they expect a lot of people not to show up, regardless. My friend who runs clubs here says he's had sold out shows with literally hundreds of no-shows, because they were rescheduled for a year and a half past the previous date. I just saw the Drive-By Truckers last week, and that show was technically sold out as well, yet they still put a bunch of extra tickets up for sale at the last minute, because it was sold out back in March 2020, and they knew fewer people were going to show up than expected. So maybe Coachella is nervous about turnout? Doesn't make it the right decision.

Coachella has long been sold out, so what do they care if not everyone shows? The money's in the bank...

there's more than just ticket sales. there's millions of dollars of merch, beer, etc.

ah yeah, I guess so

Yikes, now it’s A Guy Called Gerald (who I always thought was kinda a righteous dude) going on about the “manufactured disease” and dedicating his music to his own immune system, handed down to him by descendants older than Jesus.

A full-on denier no less, opines that COVID is a hoax and that not a single person has died from it. Well OK.

A full-on denier no less, opines that COVID is a hoax and that not a single person has died from it. Well OK.

Travis Tritt has leveled-up to Tucker-approved Covid pundit.

time to turn to the experts pic.twitter.com/6lNsMWjVCg

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2021

urgh, re GcG. fucks sake.

:(

This has been mentioned but dance music/DJ culture seems particularly incapable of dealing with the idea of a pandemic.

Despite a decent percentage of the dance music scene having spent the lead up to the pandemic wolfing down all manner of untested chemicals without a second thought.

Maybe the excessive amount of said chemicals are to blame for the bad takes.

I noticed some vaguely anti-vax stuff on Richie Hawtin's instagram a while back, but it seems he might actually be jabbed— it's his fans that are complete morons.

look man..... all you need is a smart drink or two

A fan, not an artist, but this is hilarious and worth watching.

Does it make me a bad person that I feel good about her losing all that money? 🤐 pic.twitter.com/G90ZVMbBv4

— chris evans (@chris_notcapn) October 19, 2021

I'm surprised Aldean played a show with vax/test requirements.

there's no way that guy is going to turn down a paycheck on principle.

Maybe the excessive amount of said chemicals are to blame for the bad takes.

I'd say the main thing is that if you're a DJ the nightlife is your livelihood and in many cases you've sort of forgotten how to function without it anyway. So you're v predisposed to believing lockdown conspiracy theories and from there it's just a small skip to anti-vaxx.

the peace-love-and-unity hippy end of dance music culture, the kind of person who wants to "keep politics out" of hedonism (as if it isn't inherently political), the type of person who identifies as left-wing and anti-Government etc - this allows people in dance music culture to align themselves as anti-vax without being attached to what you normally picture when you think of these people.

Yes. Never trust a hippy.

who are the other vocal anti-vaxxers / covid truthers in dance music, aside from a guy called gerald and rdj?

Danny Rampling has been quite vocal on the subject. Osunlade has tweeted some nonsense about it. Arp Frique did a bit praising Eric Clapton's new material (?!). I get what you're getting at though - I don't think it's a problem unique to dance music, I think it just seems more so because the culture skews younger and towards people you would expect to be dealing with it better.

It's not the same but a lot of names have played at events and parties that really shouldn't have taken place. "Plague raves" in areas where the infection rate is high and those in charge haven't done a lot to protect people from themselves. I get that people have to earn a living but could you, in good faith, play at a 2000-capacity venue back when this seemed like it was far from over?

Danny Rampling has been nuts for a number of years, predating Covid.

Dave Clarke (emphatically *not* a Covidiot) has been really good at using his social media platforms to call out a lot of his fellow DJs over those plague raves

Whoever runs the ‘Business Teshno’ Twitter / Insta account has also been great at holding the plague rave DJs to account.

i wasn't getting at anything, just generally curious!

Arp Frique did a bit praising Eric Clapton's new material

very unexpected and wrong on so many levels. :(

Yeah my comment wasn't really about ultra high profile DJs so much as local guys on my feeds, and anecdotally I've seen other ppl on here mention the same. Again, I think the pandemic just hit that culture harder, large amounts of ppl congregating is essential to it more than other genres.

for sure. one of the biggest disappointments for me was berghain opening its doors for bottega veneta to hold a "secret" fashion party

https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/bottega-veneta-berghain/

back when this seemed like it was far from over

……………

Yes. Never trust a hippy.

Except the actual hippies seem to be pretty sensible about this. The entire Dead & Co. tour has been outdoors and still required negative tests or vaccinations, the latter only to get in any of the general admission areas. When they encountered resistance in Florida about enforcing this due to Governor Dipshit, they noped out of their shows there. I was pleasantly surprised.

I figure it might have something to do with the members of the Dead being a) old and b) no doubt in some perpetual state of compromised immunity. Though if that were a real concern they probably wouldn't be comfortable with John Mayer standing so close to them.

I doubt he'd hit on them.

Undoubtedly the age thing plays into it, I understand they took it super seriously backstage, to the point that Mayer was Instagramming about how boring it was to be stuck in the hotel all the time. Can't say I blame them.

The best part of it was, imho, watching the minority of vocal MAGA idiots that are also somehow Deadheads get chased out, fuming about the vaxx requirements.

bit of nice news - non Covidiot Elvis Costello cancels his casino gig at Mystic Lake Casino because they wouldn't require vaccination/tests for entry and reschedules it at First Avenue (which, weirdly is his first time playing there in all these years

https://www.startribune.com/vaccine-requiring-elvis-costello-has-abruptly-switched-his-mystic-lake-gig-into-his-first-ave-debut/600108480/

Similar sitch, he's old and a recent cancer survivor.

That's a great upgrade in venue, I must say. Win-win!