Saskatoon band plans ‘virtual tour’ to replace live one
Like so many other bands, Saskatoon’s Alien to the Ignorant had a big summer tour planned — before COVID -19 put a damper on everyone’s scheduled travels.
Swade Orchard with Alien to the Ignorant decided to try a different avenue to keep the concert plans alive: a “virtual tour,” playing livestreamed concerts through the digital spaces of the venues where they were scheduled to play live.
“I was trying to think of things the band could do that other bands weren’t doing,” he said. “People are watching live streams as it is, but they’re only watching them locally, it seems like.”
Musical tours take a lot of preparation and planning. Orchard already was finalizing his band’s tour dates in the waning months of 2019.
This tour was going to be a big one for the up-and-coming Saskatoon group. Orchard said the band’s 2020 tour was supposed to be a five-week venture at venues throughout Canada and the United States, playing for people who had never heard the punkrock group before. With so much effort put into getting their music to a new audience, Orchard didn’t want the opportunity to fall by the wayside.
So he’s been in touch with some of the venues in Canada and the U.S. to arrange for concerts to be livestreamed to their Facebook pages.
That way, while they won’t be at the venues in person, fans of the venues will still get to see the concert through a local presenter.
“It kind of gives us a leg up the next time touring is OK, so these places already kind of know of us,” Orchard said. “It’s networking with them in advance, and it’s no risk to them.”
Orchard said they’d be doing everything in their power to make their performance resemble a live show, including by renting lights and other technology for their home performance space. When he spoke to The Starphoenix, Alien to the Ignorant had scheduled their “virtual tour” from July 3 to July 9 through the Facebook pages of venues in Buffalo, Winnipeg, Montreal, Fort Wayne, Hamilton and Saskatoon.
Though he said the band is “really small still,” he noted that they hope their little virtual tour can help get their name out to a broader audience — and help local venues that have been struggling for shows and support during a time when they can’t host any concerts live.
If other Saskatoon bands like the idea and follow suit, all the better.
“It’s important to us that these venues stay open, so that when we go tour, whenever that happens, we can actually go there,” he said.