A SOUND ARGUMENT
We can drink in bars now, but still have to make do with pre-recorded soundtracks
Kelly Cairns, a co-owner of the staff-owned restaurant and venue The Cure, stands near the piano in the 11th Avenue establishment. The restaurant has reopened at half capacity but Cairns is frustrated she can’t offer music. She is hoping to be able to host ticketed shows, something currently not allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can choose e place, I’m not picky, I’ll go anywhere
The floors can be sticky, I don’t need a chair
In fact packed like sardines is the stuff of my dreams
People and music is all that I need.
Mathias Kom of Canadian indie band The Burning Hell wrote those words during the first week of coronavirus lockdown. He released the song — titled I Want To Drink In A Bar — on Bandcamp on May 1 as a fundraiser to help venues stay open.
As Saskatchewan’s COVID -19 restrictions slowly and methodically let up, the wishful thinking of Kom’s song is becoming a reality: We can drink in bars now, two metres distanced from other people, our hands freshly sanitized and our servers hygienically masked. But, so far, the soundtrack is pre-recorded; live music remains elusive.
“We aren’t allowed to do any entertainment, but we would love to,” said Kelly Cairns, one of four staff co-owners of Regina restaurant and venue The Cure.
Cairns is a music fan: In addition to running a venue, she hosts a weekly community radio show on CJTR, highlighting local and lesser-known artists. Pre-pandemic, she attended at least one show a week.
“We’d love to do limited numbers kind of shows, so that we can still support bands and stuff,” said Cairns. Her plan is to sell tickets and require people to stay at their strategically placed seats.
“But from what I’ve heard, they’re not allowing any kind of entertainment, not even karaoke or billiards or anything like that. So it might be a fight, or it might just be a wait, we’re not sure.”
In an online session held in mid-june by the Saskatchewan Arts Board, a representative from the Ministry of Trade and Export Development addressed 100 arts organizations, individuals and venues, from the small and rural (like The Happy Nun in Forget) to the large and cosmopolitan (like the Remai gallery in Saskatoon).
It was a “relief ” to learn that most arts organizations will be included in Phase 4 of the province’s five-phase reopening plan, said arts board CEO Michael Jones.
“We are looked at largely as part of 4.2,” said Jones.
Indeed, when the government announced its Phase 4 update last week, it included art galleries and theatres, which are allowed to reopen effective June 29.
The ministry staffer referenced “test cohorts,” added Jones, like the graduations and large church services allowed in Phase 3, which lets public health officials monitor the impact of reopening. (Like churches, theatres will be allowed to reopen the lesser of 30-percent capacity or up to 150 guests.)
Permitting church services piqued Cairns’ attention because “I do think that for a lot of people, live music is sort of a comparable outing. It’s something that is just near and dear to a lot of people. It goes beyond being at a bar, you know? It’s more than entertainment.”
It’s clear people want to go out. On a recent Thursday night, every table in The Cure’s half-capacity restaurant was full — with no performer on the corner stage.
In a Nanos survey in May, 1,001 Canadians shared their feelings about arts and culture events — in-person and digitally — during COVID-19. It found that 21 per cent of respondents from the Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) would immediately return to indoor cultural events; and 28 per cent of Prairies respondents would immediately return to outdoor cultural events.
The Regina Symphony Orchestra conducted its own survey in June, which garnered responses from 500 current and past supporters: About 190 said they’d come back immediately.
“Yes, they would like to see hand sanitizer; yes, if masks were provided, they would use them,” said RSO executive director Mike Forrester.
“Very few said they would want to wait until a vaccine was available, so I think the reality that this particular virus is now with us permanently is starting to sink in.”
The RSO and Globe Theatre, Regina’s two largest and prolific performance companies, are each planning some form of performance for the fall.
Whenever she gets the go-ahead, “we have a lineup of bands ready to play, too … It’ll be full steam; it’ll be a lot of shows.”
Whether that’s sooner or later is to be determined. Cairns’ idea for a ticketed and seated event sounds an awful lot like a theatre. But live music venues are not specifically mentioned in the Reopen plan — at least not yet.
She added, the shows will be “all local — no one’s really touring anymore.”
That fact hits home for Neil Donnelly, the CEO of Regina’s Conexus Arts Centre, which houses the city’s largest auditorium, as well as convention halls.
“There’s just too much uncertainty as to when things are going to reopen fully and artists don’t want to go back on the road ... until they know they’re at a more secure time,” said Donnelly.
While smaller, local events — like dance recitals or luncheons — may be feasible in the meantime, the idea of a Phase 5 business-as-usual is “extremely disheartening.”
“It’s tough for people that work in this industry to accept that reality,” said Donnelly, who has undertaken widespread layoffs of casual and full-time staff — like many organizations and businesses in the province.
According to an industry-led survey, three quarters of the province’s 10 largest arts organizations have laid off staff; they estimate lost gross domestic product of $12.7 million, from March through the end of 2020.
According to a Saskmusic survey from early in the pandemic, 349 Saskatchewan music industry professionals reported COVID-19 would cost them income; 55 of them anticipated losing gross revenues of at least $51,000 each.
As some artists venture into the world of ticketed online concerts, it’s unclear how lucrative that will be; the Nanos survey found just three per cent of Prairies respondents would pay the full ticket price for an online concert, and just 10 per cent would pay half price. I get it. Especially now that summer is here, the idea of watching a screen — indoors — doesn’t appeal to me. And not everyone can pull off a Brett Kissel-style drive-in show.
But maybe there’s an opportunity, while venues remain closed, artists need work and the weather is warm.
You can host a concert in your back yard
With up to 30 people two metres apart
Support a musician and be entertained
Just bring an umbrella in case of rain.
I wrote this song, channelling Mathias Kom. Seriously, can we make small outdoor concerts happen — safely — this summer?