Concerts are starting again but in strange ways
An actual live concert is scheduled to take place in Arkansas on Friday.
Travis McCready, frontman for the Southern rock band Bishop Gunn, will perform at TempleLive in Fort Smith, to a crowd of fans sitting in assigned “fan pods” at least 6 feet apart from other groups. The 1,100-seat venue is reducing capacity by 80%, down to 229 people.
According to Billboard, it is likely “one of the first live concert events since mass gatherings were banned across the U.S. in mid-March due to the spread of the coronavirus.” That was the weekend when Pittsburgh band Code Orange performed its historic livestream release show to an empty room at the Roxian.
The ticket map for TempleLive shows pods of two to 12 people who have been socially distancing together separated in different rows. Fans will have their temperatures taken upon entry and will be required to wear face masks.
Among the other regulations are oneway walkways, a 10-person limit in the bathroom and no-touch soap and paper towel dispensers. All beverages will be prepackaged or have lids.
The concert is scheduled to happen three days prior to May 18, when Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has declared that indoor venues can resume live shows with fewer than 50 people in attendance and social distancing in the audience.
TempleLive has decided to test those regulations with this show.
On April 24, in Aarhus, Denmark, singer Mads Langer played a “drive-in” concert to 500 fans who listened from their cars via a designated FM station like people do at a drive-in movie.
Electronic artist Marc Rebillet has announced a drive-in tour for June and July in Charlotte, N.C.; Kansas City, Kan.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Fort Worth and Houston, Texas.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino told Rolling Stone last week that given the company’s losses in the first quarter — LN shares have dropped about 48% — it’s ready to experiment with different models.
“It’s important for us to keep doing drive-in concerts, which we’re going to test and roll out, which we’re having some success with; fanless concerts, which have great broadcasting opportunities; reducedcapacity festival concerts, which could be outdoors, could be in a theater, could be in a large stadium floor where there’s enough room to be safe. We have all of these plans in place depending on the market and where that local city may sit in their reopening phases.”
Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf moved driveins into the “yellow” phase or reopening, where normally gatherings of more than 25 people are prohibited.
Dependable Drive-in in Moon, Riverside in Armstrong County, Evergreen in West- moreland County, Skyview in Greene County and Brownsville in Fayette County will open on Friday with limited capacities.
Rick Glaus, who has owned Dependable since 1968, says that he’s had discussions with promoters about doing concerts there.
“Years and years ago, we’d show a movie, some rock movie, and we put two tractor trailers in front of the screen and had bands playing. If they want to give it a try and we get the OK from everybody, I’m OK with it.”
With only a handful of major films set for release this summer — including “Tenet” (July 17), “Mulan” (July 24), “The SpongeBob Movie” (Aug. 7) and “Wonder Woman 1984” (Aug. 14) — he’s short on product and knows that going with classic drive-in films will draw only so many people when they’re available to watch at home.
Pittsburgh promoters have told the PostGazette that they are hopeful of an August return for some concerts.
Meanwhile, at press time, the May 30 Heinz Field show with Kenny Chesney has yet to be postponed, but the county would have to be in the “green” phase for that show to happen.