"When things get back to normal . . .". "When was the last time you went out to eat in a restaurant?" These are becoming all too common questions/phrases that we are currently hearing regularly in conversation. In fact, I initiated an email thread a couple of weeks ago asking my long-time concert companion Jamie what were his first and LAST shows. For those keeping score at home, for me it was August 28, 1991: George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers with Johnny Winter at Waterloo (Stanhope, NJ), while for Jamie it was July 27, 1986: Mr. Mister with The Bangles at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (Saratoga Springs, NY). And to keep us in the way-back machine, the first show that we ever attended together was November 23, 1994: G Love & Special Sauce at Maxwell's (Hoboken, NJ). We have come a long from those days, but obviously not too far geographically since we were both spotted together most recently February 15, 2020: The Play Trains reunion show at Crossroads (Garwood, NJ).
However, I have decided that I want to stop thinking about things from a perspective of first and last, but instead first and what’s next. Is it the auto disco, The Micrashell (according to Robby, I can just wear the green blazer over the suit), drive-in shows, streaming concerts?
The auto disco just doesn't do it for me, I would rather take a road trip and sing and dance in the car all the way to New Orleans instead of parked in one place. The Micrashell is wild, an extremely futuristic idea and you will always be Halloween ready, but I can only see myself donning it for a Daft Punk show.
Drive-in concerts intrigue me, but similar to the fact that most amphitheaters were built outside of cities, so were drive-ins and not that I have never traveled for a show, but what happens if you don't call "Shotgun"? Being relegated to the backseat for a show at the Riverside Drive In Theater in Vandergrift, PA makes me think that my friends will treat me like Morgan from 'Good Will Hunting' and that I just ordered a 'double burger'.
As for streaming concerts, I went old-school and watched the Rush in Rio live DVD in the Hickey’s basement with some fanatic fans, I also took the time to connect my laptop to my TV to watch Phish from my own living room as they closed out their 2014 tour at the Verizon Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, GA, but not surprisingly, neither experience captured the feeling of actually being there.
I realize that artists are going to continue to release new music and that they are going to want to present their songs. In fact, I just read the New York Times '25 Songs that Matter' and I am definitively intrigued by Richard Dawson (the British singer songwriter, not the kissing bandit TV game show host) as well as the band Red Hearse and the idea of seeing these artists perform live. So what do I think is next?
Well after watching SpaceX launch, I believe we are over-thinking all of this. In my humble opinion, the same venues re-open, but at smaller capacities. Concerts adopt the definition of social distancing and take-on the feel as if you are seeing the Avett Brothers at Club Cafe in 2006. And when that happens you can once again say, "Remember when we saw G. Love & Special Sauce with 50 other people on the night before Thanksgiving."
Thanks for reading.
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