BY MATTHEW DIAS
The pandemic has affected all people and aspects of society in unique ways. Understandably (of course), all concerts were cancelled or postponed in March 2020 when the world unofficially ‘shut down.’ On the national level with major recording and touring artists, some chose to postpone their shows, hoping that they could perform as soon as possible. As we all know now, that wasn’t in the cards. There was a brief return to concerts during part of the summer and fall of 2020 with ‘drive-in concerts.’ Some of these were pre-recorded by artists in isolation, who sent out video and audio feeds to drive-in venues, while others involved the artists actually performing live at these venues. These were controversial because, especially with the ‘live drive-in concerts’, many attendees (and artists) did not follow coronavirus regulations. Of course, this depended on different parts of the country – most of these venues were in the South (either in southern states, or southern parts of other states – such as Southern California). Artists who did not handle the situation well typically included country artists, along with (the politically conservative) half of The Beach Boys (The Beach Boys have been touring in two separate ‘camps’ since September 2012, not because of politics, but that’s a long story that we don’t have time to get into).
With vaccine distribution in the United States, Europe, and other Western countries having increased since December 2020, the hope was that we could get back to normal sooner than later. (Of course, that has been prevented by vaccine hesitancy and the development of new variants of the coronavirus that are catchier and deadlier.) On a fairly local level for me (and possibly some others here at Stonehill), as many local regulations were eased here in New England – Bristol, RI resumed their Fourth of July concert series. All shows had been moved to a larger outdoor venue (the grounds of Roger Williams University) rather than the normal site (Independence Park, along the waterfront). As time progressed onwards, indoor venues began reopening, which led to new debates along political and geographical lines – how should we address and limit the spread of the coronavirus at concerts? This also depended on the artists’ opinions. Surviving members of The Monkees announced plans to make these rescheduled dates their farewell tour (for several reasons, again, that are too off-topic to discuss here). Both separately touring halves of The Beach Boys resumed performing, as did The Rolling Stones, Kiss, The Doobie Brothers, Willie Nelson, Guns ‘n’ Roses, etc. Some of the (likely) many musicians waiting until 2022 include ABBA (well, kind of, with their virtual “Voyage” residency), Robert Plant, and Alison Krauss. (If you hadn’t noticed, these lists are largely biased towards what I listen to, but) I’ll also give more modern examples that most readers here probably prefer to listen to: The Jonas Brothers and Luke Bryan returned to touring in 2021, and Billie Eilish, Adele, and Kenny Chesney will not be touring until 2022. (Obviously, these are just a few of the many for both the musicians that have resumed and those that are holding off for now.)
So that’s where we are now, but we still didn’t answer the question – how do we limit the cases? Do we return to concerts? Concerts on campus have returned, with both Olivia Lunny and Lisa Heller having performed at The Hill recently, and it can only be expected that this will continue in greater numbers in the spring and beyond. Obviously, the second question is largely up to how comfortable individual people are going to concerts (though in the event of a major surge, there could be a good reason to close down all shows again, if necessary to slow/stop further spread). With regards to the first question, some venues and artists have been mandating negative tests within no more than three days of shows; others require vaccination; yet others allow attendees to choose one of these two options. The size of the venue is also an interesting factor: it would be easier for the coronavirus to spread in smaller, indoor venues. Even the musicians and their crews are frequently testing positive, which has most notably happened to The Doobie Brothers and Kiss. Unfortunately, as we have continually learned, crowd storming events show that is difficult to generally control audiences. Of course, there are those who are hesitant or outright refusing to get vaccinated, which could hinder a larger-scale return towards normalcy and/or concerts. I personally won’t be attending any soon – because I’d rather wait to attend a concert until I feel much safer than the present, – but I hope things change because I definitely miss the music. Stay safe, everyone: because this isn’t over yet, but hopefully we’ll continue moving in the right direction.