Full band "secret" live streams during shutdown

[eric]

I feel like I've read snippets of this in other threads, so please forgive me if it has been covered. It has become a super relevant topic for me in the past few days and wanted to get some perspectives on this.

 

I live in Virginia and our governor has us in a "stay safe at home" mode through at least June 10th. I've been very compliant and tend to be more paranoid/conservative when it comes to things like this.

 

There are a few venues around the state that are starting to do these "secret live stream" shows where they've set up an impressive live room with apparently little staff and they're inviting bands/musicians to use their venues for live streaming shows, keeping to the under 10 people guideline. Videos are also kept for YouTube after the fact.

 

I've received three offers in the past two days to consider doing this kind of show, one as a backline player to a well-known regional singer/songwriter, one as a reunion show for my old regionally famous band, and one with my usual band. None of this seems ok to me and I'm basically saying no to all of it. I can't come to grips with time in a place that has people in it from multiple family/life situations, some of them are 1-2 hours away and I just can't feel comfortable. I get a little nervous on my bi-weekly grocery store trips.

 

Seems like some of my musician friends are warming up to the idea and saying things like "come on man, there are only like two guys running the thing and we'll be on this huge stage like 20 feet away from each other" etc.

 

There have been some live streams of these types of shows appearing on Facebook and it has troubled me. I know some musicians really need this sort of thing to fuel a "virtual tip jar" and earn money. Music is a sidebar profession for me, so maybe I'm just less desperate.

 

My stance is to hunker down and wait until the health professionals have cleared us and even then wait a bit longer.

 

If this has been covered before, sorry! Just wanted to share what's cropping up around me and would love to hear how others are approaching this topic.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[ElmerJFudd]

Only you can make this call.

If you decide to do it

I"d wear face mask and gloves

Keep good distance between you and everyone else involved

Have them wash down the backline instrument before you play it or bring your own

 

Construction work has continued outside in my area. The guys are in smaller crews and masked/gloved up. I also see guys that work alone, mostly tradesmen still willing to enter the home for plumbing, electrical work, etc. I think the risk is too high if they have families to care for - but I"m sure they feel the risk is too high for them not to bring $ into the house.

[Outkaster]

People are going to start fighting against these lockdowns. I am worried about violence the longer it goes on.

[ElmerJFudd]

I"m worried about checks not arriving soon enough or where they"re needed most to keep people from desperation - the last thing we need is an up tick in crime, looting, riots and the like. People need to be good to one another, share and be gracious. Hard to do when times get tough.

[Baldwin Funster]

There is an animated model online showing a cloud of virus that jump many yards from a guy coughing in a grocery store. It spans a couple of aisles in seconds. These quarantines aren't to protect you from me. It's to protect me from YOU. In other words we all most likely have it and staying home protects others.

On the live stream gigs, I thought about it and the idea doesn't appeal to me at all. I like playing for an audience. In the room. I can tell if I played good by the instant reaction to my solo or applause at the end of a song. In fact if I dont get enthusiastic approval I consider the gig a failure. A live streamed gig with no audience is like a grand finale fireworks display with nobody seeing it except on YouTube. The awesomeness of the experience for both the fireworks and the viewer is great diminished.

[Ken Beaumont]

I live near Williamsburg VA and on FB there is a stream of a band playing. No audience is shown, they started with masks but the singer quickly removed his. It was sponsored by a local brewery and a local restaurant. It looks like they are on a stage, but really it could be setup in the bands garage. No way to tell. My band doesn't even practice. But I really don't care what these guys are doing. There was no evidence of there being an audience. So its 3 guys jamming over the internet. I spent 20 years in the Air Force so I firmly believe in the concept of liberty. It was less than 10 people, so its following the guidelines. But to see some of the posts on FB you would think that they were killing people on stage. Some people have started posting pictures of their neighbors in the community not strictly following the "rules". A couple of posts wanted to beat up a senior citizen at a Food Lion because his nose wasn't covered just a piece of cloth around his mouth. They even post the damning photographic "evidence". Really? Whatever happened to peace, love and understanding? Please don't take this as political in any way. But some people should worry less about what others do, and just live their "I'm better than the rest" lives.

[Mykhailo]

 

 

My stance is to hunker down and wait until the health professionals have cleared us and even then wait a bit longer.

 

 

Thanks,

Eric

 

good on you man, this is what I"m doing...I took some flak too for bailing on similar offers. No way will I go out until it"s deemed ok...

[TommyRude]

I would do it, but only if I could achieve my self-imposed 100ft social distance rule. So it would have to be a really big venue.

 

Seriously, is it worth getting sick and dying? Seems to be common sense to wait until the all clear has been called by the experts.

[KuruPrionz]

If you stay home and live, there will be lots of gigs for the d\uration of your time on this planet.

If you go and don't diie it will stress you out, not a fun gig.

If you go and you die, then you are dead and that was your last gig.

 

I only see one win.

[MAJUSCULE]

I haven't had to turn anything down myself, but I feel nervous seeing people get together, even at a distance. There's a studio in town that has hosted several live streamed shows (Facebook Canada and the National Arts Centre are funding 100 $1,000 online gigs for selected artists) and it just seems too risky.

 

It's awesome to see people putting on shows from home, bands editing videos of themselves together, all that stuff, but I'm not super into getting together in any closed space. Maybe borderline if it's an outdoor thing, like I saw Big Sam's Funky Nation doing in NOLA.

[Mykhailo]

I think just doing a lo-fi, solo thing out of your home with whatever you have is way cooler than risking your life, and the lives of loved ones to do a souped up 'live' show where at the end of the day, you"re basically taking the rules of social distancing to the limit...

 

that Denis Deyoung clip in other thread won me over way more than some slick ensemble setup...

[Sospiri]

Eric,

 

This is a time when you have to make decisions for yourself and your family, and if bandmates don't like it, tough. At the age of 83 I no longer perform or drive, my decision as I have both heart & lung conditions and my eyesight is not too good. But aside from all that, I wouldn't want to do a gig under those surreal conditions whilst at the same time possibly endangering my life and that of my other half - for what? Only you should make the decision as you perceive the pros and cons and the possible cost -v- benefit.

[Moonglow]

 

 

My stance is to hunker down and wait until the health professionals have cleared us and even then wait a bit longer.

 

 

Thanks,

Eric

 

good on you man, this is what I"m doing...I took some flak too for bailing on similar offers. No way will I go out until it"s deemed ok...

I"m adopting a similar, conservative approach. I only leave the house to go grocery shopping (with face mask, latex gloves, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes) and to check on my 88-year-old mom. Despite what I anticipate to be more cavalier attitudes among some of the musicians with whom I"m involved, I"ll be explicitly following our state"s guidance.

 

If you stay home and live, there will be lots of gigs for the d\uration of your time on this planet.

If you go and don't diie it will stress you out, not a fun gig.

If you go and you die, then you are dead and that was your last gig.

 

I only see one win.

 

This really stuck with me. My sentiments, as well. I"m going to reference these points with my compadres, although their stress tolerance (your second point) will probably be different than mine.

[Josh Paxton]

A band I'm in got offered a similar thing, and we turned it down. Not worth it at this point. Had they decided to do it, I'd have told them to do it without me.

[harmonizer]

I think figuring when different categories of activities may be resumed will be a tricky thing.

 

I'm not suggesting either of these examples would be safe now; I am just mentioning them as food for thought:

 

The covers band I play in does not do much musical interaction outside of our band. None of us are touring musicians.

If we got together in the private place where we rehearse, a place that no other musicians use, the risk would be a lot less than getting together

with some more famous musician who presumably will do similar interactions with other musicians, in other venues.

 

Having a baseball team play for television audiences in a stadium with no fans present would be less risk than doing this with 50,000 fans there.

 

Holding a pro golf tournament, also with no fans present and just for the TV audience, if done with the isolation possible when playing golf, would be less risk than holding baseball games in a stadium with no fans just for TV.

 

I am not any kind of public health expert. But whenever get to the point of doing less isolation, I wonder if we will need to have awareness about different types of activities that have different risk levels, and come up with policies that can be followed that make sense as a result.

 

The hardest part of this in the US is that Americans have a tendency to do what they want, when they want. Currently the situation is so bad that there are clear rules in place, that very few activities are allowed. These rules are simple to understand and people are for the most part following them. Once we start to loosen restrictions, those among who are less inclined to care about following guidelines will probably ignore them, at least in the US. This will make it trickier to develop effective policies for safely resuming activities, a situation for which I can't think of a precedent in modern times, with rapid transportation so available to so many.

[Doc Tonewheel]

Is a gig worth the risk of getting a potentially fatal virus. I am a virologist and I"ve seen people die on ventilators. Is a gig really worth the risk of you getting it or worse, bringing it home to your loved ones? Since both the old and young are dying, I wouldn"t want to play Russian roulette.

[Joe Muscara]

A big (in terms of history) jazz club closed down here last year, and a few local musicians reopened it in another location. I don't think they were open a month when this hit. So, in conjunction with another venue in the next county north of here, they've been putting on livestreams from the other venue. I've seen screen shots of the streams and they don't look six feet apart to me. It doesn't make me happy. These are good people, too. I get why they're doing it, they need the bread, but I don't like going anywhere there might be people too close by.

 

In fact, I did have a thread about it, sorta. It's not exactly the same situation, but close enough, methinks. Fortunately they were cool about me telling them no.