2020 Concerts you saw before COVID / 2020 Concerts you missed because of COVID

I'm avoiding my temptation to email Deicide and ask them if I can pay them $1,000 to play private shows for me every Saturday

(u think I'm joking, this is exactly the type of stupid thing I would do w/ my money)

i think something like 60 venues have already gone out of business this year

worldwide? in New York? in the US as a whole? in Albania? it’s not a very useful figure unless you’re more specific

Read a US musician who used to work in nightclubs as well say that he hoped in the future the US could have more government funded venues to see music , and not be reliant so much on places that need to sell alcohol. He also asserted that avante and experimental musicians make more $ now doing house shows and alternative venues than bars. He is a fan of European culture venues that get support, and are not reliant on liquor sales.

I haven’t searched for a study yet comparing Europe to US in support of venues that host music.

In case it wasn't already clear just how badly the UK live music scene is being decimated by Covid...

41.6% of agents expected to lose their jobs by year end, 56% of promoters, etc. Startlingly bleak with no light at the end of the tunnel yet. https://t.co/K4iUCi3tq9 pic.twitter.com/SHtu0dsDwn

— Jack Stephens (@iamjackstephens) October 21, 2020

on a purely personal level i have existential concerns about my future that are feeling more relevant as we get into fall with no work on the horizon

"worldwide? in New York? in the US as a whole? in Albania? it’s not a very useful figure unless you’re more specific"

Sorry, in the US I assume. i think that was a figure from NIVA. National Independent Venue Association.

How have we been doing on reaching out to our reps on this?

Happy anniversary to the last show I saw before lockdown (also the last thing of any kind that I did before lockdown) Robyn Hitchcock at the Fremont Abbey in Seattle. I wrote about it upthread but was just thinking about it today, because wow, it's been a whole year.

last show i saw before covid was the chemical brothers in queens. i wanna say that was august 2019?

shows i had tickets for, but... y'know. four tet with the fancy squid lighting. thom yorke at hammerstein ballroom.

sad face emoji.

I saw Wye Oak a week before lockdown and was contemplating seeing Wire the night everything shut down entirely.

Gonna be a bonanza of gigs when things reopen.

Robyn has done dozens of zoom shows during this, he easily earned my Patreon buck. Kind of hoping he will be the first real show I see in the resumed world

Earache Records emailed me a survey about whether I'd be amenable to an Earache metal cruise in 2022. assuming it could only be their roster, that's kind of a bummer considering how far they've fallen, but I would be open to it if the 70000 Tons still isn't operational. or if it's still unsafe by January.

frankly i'm thinking the supply is going to be well outclassed by demand for a while. not every artist will have been vaccinated, might not feel it safe, different nations will be in different stages of vaccination, and some may be afraid to commit to a tour after what happened in 2020. we'll get there eventually but i can see pickings being slim for a bit.

I saw no concerts in 2020. Last one was Lana del Rey in November 2019, insanely packed show where it was hard to walk through the crowd. In 2020 I had tickets to see Vampire Weekend (taking my kids to their first concert, was the plan), SOBxRBE with ShooterGang Kony,The Decemberists with Fruit Bats, and maybe some others.

I didn't go to any shows in 2020 before the pandemic hit but I was supposed to see the 1975 (for the third time) and the Radio Dept

I went to quite a few. still remember going to Overkill on 3/10 and realizing this was probably the last one for a while (though in my mind, a "while" meant like 2-3 months - I still hadn't firmly grasped what was happening).

I got really drunk as a result because I knew it was the last one for a bit. the outdoor drive-thru Gwar show last year was the only other one since then.

still hadn't firmly grasped what was happening).

It could have been three months if the government had acted

(It could be only another three months if the replacement government would act)

lordy, don't remind me. the memories of last year's colossal government bungling already have me ready to destroy my laptop.

last saw: Mulatu Astatke, which itself had been rescheduled two or three times for at least a year. Glad that finally happened.

Rescheduled: Dead Can Dance (rescheduled to this May from last spring; not optimistic that this is going to happen either); Motley Crue/Def Lepperd/Joan Jett. Rescheduled to this July. Might happen? Not sure. It's outdoors at least. Pet Shop Boys and New Order: pushed out to this November. Maybe.

Cancelled: FKA Twigs (really bummed about this one); Nick Cave.

my last concert was a year ago today: King Promise (including guest appearances by several Dutch-Ghanaian and Dutch-Surinamese artist friends). i was quite wary to go and stayed on the balcony, with as few people around me as possible. the next day our government instated a lockdown. it was a good show.

meanwhile, after having been postponed from last June to April first, the Céline Dion show I have (quite expensive) tickets for has now been rescheduled for (gulp) September 2022.

monstrosity was the last one I caught

but was gearing up for a busy month or two. had tickets for: haru nemuri, steve roach, crowbar/sepultura, squarepusher, coffins

all cancelled, sucks

lol i just got an email from a promoter announcing an indoor show, love the optimism guys

Nowadays in BK is reopening and I've heard murmurs of April shows from at least one other NYC venue
it's gonna happen; here's hoping it's measured and responsible

variant numbers are rising everywhere so nothing short of putting everyone in plastic bubbles will be "measured and responsible"

anyway I should also mention I'm in Ontario, Canada where the vaccine rollout has been atrocious

measured and responsible means "in June" in my mind

lol i just got an email from a promoter announcing an indoor show, love the optimism guys

― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Tuesday, March 23, 2021 9:36 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

While it doesn't make sense to most (including me), I have seen photos of indoor shows in the northern Virginia suburbs of DC for awhile now. Some Instagram story clips I have seen included people standing and crowded together (kinda like a Florida spring break crowd) often without masks. Sadly, some don't care about measured and responsible.

I usually avoid Medium articles, but this one (on the subject at hand) appears to be good:

https://marker.medium.com/live-music-is-about-to-get-its-grand-reopening-e90015825fa8

That is all accurate

there's gonna be a lot of this kinda stuff but this one looks partic egregious: $45 to dance in place in public for an hour while David Byrne yells at you over an intercom

Beginning on Friday, April 9, SOCIAL! the social distance dance club offers an interactive music and movement-based experience conceived by choreographer Steven Hoggett, Tony Award-winning set designer Christine Jones—both of whom are currently Armory Artists-in-Residence—and multimedia artist and musician David Byrne (Talking Heads, David Byrne's American Utopia on stage and film, and Reasons to be Cheerful). With a playlist curated by Byrne, Hoggett, and Jones and mixed by New York City DJ Natasha Diggs, SOCIAL! invites participants to the Armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall to dance in their own socially distanced spotlights, all while listening to a wonderfully singular instructional voice over by David Byrne with choreography by Yasmine Lee. Moving free-form or in sync with the spoken choreography, audience members take part in a communal moment of cathartic release.

Get tickets now to be a part of this one-of-a-kind participatory dance experience.

After purchasing your ticket, you will receive an instructional dance video and welcome message from David Byrne. There will also be "dance ambassadors" mixed in the crowd to lead you through the moves—or you can choose your own style!

SOCIAL! the social distance dance club
A Social Distance Hall Production
Previews: Friday, April 9–Sunday, April 11, 2021
Performances: Tuesday, April 13–Thursday, April 22, 2021
Tickets: $45 (plus fees)
SOCIAL! is approximately 55 minutes with no intermission. This is a solitary participatory dance experience unsuitable for children under 10.

I just want to know why kids under 10 aren't allowed to participate

not cool enough

Steven Wilson just cancelled his European tour and is not rescheduling it. I have tickets for Van der Graaf Generator in the autumn but I'm not optimistic.

Sturgill Simpson cancelled his Webster Hall residency due to the current state of the pandemic. I actually went out to a bunch of shows for the first time in a long time last week, and Bob Mould's show at Webster Hall was one of them - I'd say most people (at least towards the back) weren't wearing masks despite requests by Mould, but there was a lot of beer consumption so it was difficult to see how mask-wearing would've been that prevalent and consistent.

The Lindsey Buckingham show at Town Hall had the most compliant audience in terms of mask wearing, mainly because the bars were outside of the actual theater rather than a part of it like most GA venues. Combined with a strict venue rule to wear masks at all other times (or be asked to leave), it was easily the safest show I had seen throughout the week.

I avoided seeing ZZ Top at our county fair, and while it was an outdoor concert, I didn’t feel like a county fair crowd with no vax or mask requirements would be a good place to immerse myself in right now.

Classical concerts however, I have no qualms about since everyone has to show proof of vaccination and be masked.

Tomorrow is my first live show since it all went down, Lucy Dacus/Bachelor. Given mask requirements, vax requirements, etc. and SF being just more on the ball in general, I'm looking forward, though my general plan for shows for the time being will be maybe hover briefly up front to get a quick photo or two and then go the back of the venue for more space/closer access to the outside if I feel I need it.

The Stones have even put it out a PSA for their fans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQew-5jkEw

I think it all really comes down to the venue. Buckingham did talk about the pandemic in the context of the long, convoluted road it took to get the our started (basically a two-year delay which began with his open-heart surgery), but otherwise he didn't have to ask or plead - Town Hall's setup and rules took care of everything. Mould apparently has been butting heads with anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers on his own Facebook page - he asked nicely at his Webster Hall show, but I think he had enough after some of the more obnoxious assholes made a stink on his social media feeds.

Over at the tiny Poisson Rouge, there was no mask rule. Thurston Moore simply said, "I trust you're all vaccinated" before asking related follow-up questions like "how many have had their booster shot?" After the show, he masked up and hung out with the fans, but he didn't seem to give anyone a hard time for not wearing one if they asked for a photo or autograph. Patti Smith gently asked people to wear a mask because it wasn't a big deal, the least they can do - the older members of the crowd were all pretty good about it, but it was actually a pretty young crowd up front (college age) and I want to say most did comply. Regardless, there's a vaccine requirement at all shows and venues thanks to the city, and honestly, that's really the only way to do it at this point.

I should add it's been a week since I've been to shows and it doesn't look like I caught anything. Fully vaccinated, but I also wear an N95 that I wear properly and never take off - goes on before I leave home and stays on until I step back through the same door. (i.e no drinking much less eating at any of the shows) I don't even touch it unless my hands have been thoroughly washed or at least hand-sanitized.

Bob Dylan just announced the first batch of dates for the “Rough and Rowdy Ways” World Wide Tour 2021-2024.

My first show back was Wilco/Sleater-Kinney a month or so ago, an outdoor/vax required event so I felt pretty safe. It was a good warm-up for the college football game I attended a couple weeks after that, 110,000 screamers and no vax requirement! At this point I would feel comfortable at any kind of outdoor event, but am still a little wary of indoor venues.

Hopefully Bob swings back through Chicago at some point over that four year tour, I'm not ready to pull the trigger on tickets for an indoor show just yet.

Shows I had tickets for before Covid:
Holly Herndon
Floating Points
Squarepusher
Jenny Hval
Dan Deacon

Shows I bought tickets for in May/June thinking it would be safe to see and didn't go to because of my concerns with Delta:
Madlib & Freddie Gibbs

I think the Deacon show has been rescheduled, not sure of the rest (I think most if not all were canceled and either refunded or given to the artists)

Dead and Company cancelled their two Florida shows coming up next month. Official reasoning being "routing and production logistics", but I won't be surprised to lean that is has more to do with DeSantis and his anti-vaccine proof stance. They've been pretty big on proof of vaccine requirements at their shows and vocally concerned about Delta. Considering they are still managing the "routing and production logistics" are still getting them through North Carolina and Georgia, it's hard not to read between the lines about why only the Florida shows got scratched.

Shit, wrong thread, thought this was the other COVID tour thread.