At 46 years old, I never thought I would see anything like the Covid-19 pandemic in my lifetime. Pandemics aren’t something that happen in North America. They happen in 3rd world countries, in villages, and in other countries. Well, 2020 proved that belief wrong and it has had the single biggest effect on the music industry than it has ever seen.
It all seemed to hit so fast and I can remember it well. On Friday, March 6th me and my drummer Luis were at Center Stage Theater attending the Devin Townsend show. That day there was definitely a buzz about Covid-19 but at this point, it didn’t seem like anything to really worry about. The show was packed, I was hugging old and new friends, we were all hanging at the bar enjoying drinks like it was just another show. This would all change in a matter of a week.
I was supposed to attend the Geoff Tate performance the following weekend on the 13th but as the show date got close, the news about the spreading of this virus kept getting grimmer and more frequent. I watched the number of cases increasing dramatically on a daily basis and I made the hard decision to not attend the show. The show that weekend was packed and all I could think of was all of those people potentially carrying this horrible virus and spreading it among the masses. It was and still is horrifying.
One by one I saw bands canceling or postponing tours. Lacuna Coil and Apocalyptica canceled their tour until early 2021. Devin Townsend full-on canceled the remaining dates of his tour which was in progress, and festivals all over the world were canceled for the first time in their existence. Download Festival canceled, Sabaton Open Air canceled, Jazz Fest in New Orleans canceled along with countless other festivals. Swedish classic rockers Blues Pills have even postponed the release of their new album Holy Moly to an as of yet to be announced date.
The music world is taking a huge blow and it’s not just the bigger bands canceling and postponing tours. The smaller tier bands that usually make their living playing 100 or more shows a year have really taken a hit. Some bands got lucky. Bands like German psych rockers Kadavar and Swedish roots rockers Graveyard had just completed extensive tours and are using this time to be productive in writing sessions and looking toward new albums for a 2021 release.
Even with the devastating blow, music proves to one of the biggest healing sources around. Plenty of bands have done some really cool things such as intimate acoustic shows from their homes while bigger bands such as Dead & Company, Pink Floyd, and Metallica have offered to fans free concert streams one night a week.
In these trying times, we need music more than ever but the artists also need US more than ever. Find out if your favorite bands or singer/songwriters are performing virtual concerts. You will see them advertising on Facebook and some of them will even have virtual tip jars where you can support them by making a donation of any size to them via PayPal or Venmo.
We need music now more than ever and our musicians need us. If they are helping you get through these rough and crazy times, consider helping them as well. After all, they are the ones making sure that the music never stops.
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