It’s tough out there folks. We all anticipated that Coronavirus would eventually rear it’s ugly head stateside, but I don’t think that any of us were really quite prepared for the harsh reality that this virus would really bring.
After dragging their feet, those that are in charge finally made decisions to try and enforce the necessary social distancing in order to slow down the spread of this virus. This sadly means that many of the normal aspects of our daily lives are being altered, including forms of entertainment such as going to the movies, our favorite sports such as the upcoming MLB season, NBA playoffs and live music.
It’s no surprise that the latter is a killer for music lovers such as myself, especially since our concert coverage is such a crucial component of the site. We miss going out to see our favorite bands perform for us, but considering this virus and the nature of sharing a space with hundreds, if not thousands of other people, sadly concerts seemed doomed possibly till the summer, if not even longer. This is a rather depressing reality but one that is necessary.
As we are all at home practicing the necessary social distancing, what are music lovers to do to get their fix?
One of the benefits of living in the digital era is that new music is still thankfully able to come out pretty steadily as normal. Of course, along with streaming services, you got your physical media such as vinyl that you can spend plenty of time with and obsess over during the next few weeks of quarantine.
On a more intricate level, although live music isn’t something that we’re going to be taking part of anytime soon, many of our favorite artists are bringing the concert to your own home via livestreams. Artists such as Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Kevin Morby were some of the first to take this idea to the task. They’ve not only provided a source of live music and comfort in a scary time, but they have made this experience interactive, allowing fans to participate by asking questions, requesting covers and in Kevin Morby’s case, even allowing fans to join them during their Instagram live stream and play along with them.
In addition, there are always a ton of great live concerts that are available to find and watch on Youtube to help re-create the concert experience. On a different level, this is also a good time to finally check off those music documentaries that you have been putting off. Many of them are streaming on services such at Netflix and will help provide a cinematic experience detailing the background of some music legends.
We can also look to artists to use this time stuck at home to cause some new inspiration and ideas for new music and future endeavors. Bands such as White Denim have already started working on new albums that they are recording throughout this month of quarantine that are sure to unlock new bouts of creativity that normal circumstances may not have necessarily brought out. It sucks that we can’t really leave the house in the same way but if we can get a few interesting records out of it, this will all be a much more bearable situation.
We don’t know how much longer we’re going to be forced to live like this but looking at the current situations in Italy and elsewhere, it seems that sadly the worst has yet to come for the United States. With that said, it’s not quite an optimistic view to think of seeing any live music anytime soon. Music festivals such as Coachella and Shakey Knees have already taken action to postpone until the fall and it seems likely that many more are about to follow.
We can begin to overanalyze this potentially depressing reality or take it one day at a time and realize that we just have to make the best out of what we have and take care of each other in this unique and scary time. Live music will be there waiting for us when we get out of this and we will be much more appreciative of its warm embrace when it finally greets us again like an old friend.
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