CONCERTS AND PLAYS AREN’T DEAD, BUT MAY HAVE NEW COMPETITION
Music venues are hurting, but live music and comedy will be back. The question is, what will those venues look like?
No- touch sales for T- shirts or CDs, perhaps. Masks will be mandated in the near term and whenever there’s a bug going around. Mosh pits could be banned, fewer meetand- greets, lower seat density, standard temperature checks at entrances... everything is on the table, say officials. And while artists are performing free or for pay online during the shutdown, how much of that will continue when the live concerts return?
The pandemic and shutdown has “gutted” state music venues, says Keith Mahler of Premier Concerts and Manic Presents, producing shows for College Street Music Hall in New Haven and Space Ballroom in Hamden.
The two venues have joined in the newly formed National Independent Venue Association, with more than 450 charter members in 43 states, to fight for the survival of independent venues with the latest rounds of public aid.
Mahler said the governor’s guidance will determine a reopening date, and then it’s up to artists’ tours to schedule new dates.
Shows with STRKFR and Little Dragon this spring, for example, have been postponed for months, and Mahler is cautious about how things will proceed for music shows, although he is optimistic it will be a busy fall and winter for concerts.
Mahler said Plexiglas partitions aren’t going to be part of such a music scene but there will be continued use of hand sanitizers and whatever else the government’s public health officials require.
“These are standing venues for the most part,” Mahler said. “We gather people in a crowded, sweaty environment and have people enjoy themselves, and they’ve been doing that since the live music business started.”
As for the music hall staying afloat financially, Mahler said, “We remain concerned with it but we obviously think there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
At the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, Brett Elliot said rescheduling ( of 77 shows so far) is changing daily, but there are shows on the calendar as of mid- June that could happen.
It’s the same delicate balance between the government’s health requirements and how the artists are able to restart and fill in a new tour. ( Two nights awaiting new dates are the sold- out concerts with Herb Alpert, who is 85.)
“We love our artists and we want them to be in a strong place when they come back,” said Elliot, executive director of The Kate. “And sure, we’re disappointed that a summer date might need to be moved to the fall but the most important thing is that an artist is able to survive, get back here and do it another date.”
Venues like the 250- seat The Kate don’t build productions ( like Goodspeed) so there’s not as big a live, online presence, except to share artists’ content and that of National Theatre Live and the Metropolitan Opera simulcasts. But the venue also has the CPTV- produced series “The
Kate” with taped performances running on the TV channel and streaming at PBS. org.
Elliot said The Kate should be able to survive because donors want to have it there long- term, but two of the biggest fund- raisers occur in August. So that’s a concern, as is the new normal.
Artists, meanwhile, have been among the many personalities seen on TV and online in Zoom and Facebook Live sessions.
Indy singer songwriter Nick Fradiani of Guilford, who bought a house last year in Connecticut, said that “Musicians live or die by going out on the road.”
Fradiani also has done an online concert or two from his house. Asked if there will be regular online shows after the pandemic, he said, “That’s a good question. It’s expensive to tour, so if we were playing in Alabama or on the West Coast ( where he is likely to have fewer sold- out venues), I might try a night online from there.”
Singer/ songwriter Lara Herscovitch of Guilford has done a few online concerts and said she and other folkies have been asking for donations ( there’s a virtual tip jar on her website), while other artists are putting performances behind a paywall, such as StageIt. com.
“I... really feel it’s important for it to be free,” she said. “I don’t want money or credit card or whatnot to keep anybody away from my music.”
After the shutdown, said Herscovitch, “I might still do a periodic online series because what I have realized, and I think a lot of artists are realizing, is that I’m touring in the United States, and maybe there is someone who really wants to hear me who’s not in the U. S. Online just immediately allows me to reach that person, ... It’s a connector, and I just didn’t realize the power of that connection.”
“MUSICIANS LIVE OR DIE BY GOING OUT ON THE ROAD.”