{"id":807597,"date":"2020-05-19T10:24:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T16:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=1002279"},"modified":"2020-05-19T10:24:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T16:24:32","slug":"americas-first-pandemic-concert-shows-how-far-the-live-music-industry-has-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/americas-first-pandemic-concert-shows-how-far-the-live-music-industry-has-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s First Pandemic Concert Shows How Far the Live-Music Industry Has to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Following weeks of contention between the state of Arkansas and Fort Smith music venue TempleLive over plans to stage the country\u2019s first pandemic concert, the art deco theater opened its doors Monday night to host Travis McCready, the singer of blues-rock band Bishop Gunn. It was America\u2019s first concert since shelter-at-home policies began in most states in March and \u2014 despite threats of police intervention, the temporary revocation of the venue\u2019s liquor license, and a rescheduled show date<\/a> \u2014 the show went off without a hitch.<\/p>\n

Still, it was far from what many might consider satisfying.<\/p>\n

More than 200 fans from the local area and beyond showed up to support live music despite a series of safety measures<\/a> that reduced audience capacity by 80 percent and required concertgoers to wear face masks while inside the venue.<\/p>\n

Nancy Rainey, a local fan who has been \u201cjonesing for some live music,\u201d says she wrote a letter to Arkansas\u2019 Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday in support of TempleLive, echoing one of the organizers\u2019 main arguments with the state \u2014 a policy that allowed churches to remain open while other places people congregate were closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the churches can gather without any restrictions and the Temple is following the CDC recommendations for socially distancing and the masks, then why not?\u201d she said in the lobby prior to the performance. \u201cPeople can exercise personal responsibility and be out in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rainey and other attendees were greeted at the door by TempleLive staff, who checked the temperature of each person with an infrared thermometer. Once inside, stickers and tape placed on the floor directed fans where to queue at a six-foot distance for everything from merchandise to food and beverages. Another staffer policed the bathroom lines, allowing no more than 10 people in at a time.<\/p>\n

On the surface, the concert had all the makings of a typical rock & roll show. Stage lights set the mood. The audience clapped along, with some even dancing in their \u201cfan pod\u201d seats (tickets were sold in blocks to keep groups six feet apart). But when the bank of floodlights at the front of the stage illuminated a nearly empty 1,100-seat theater during McCready\u2019s set, the reality of the situation was clear. The first socially-distanced concert in the U.S. felt more like a dress rehearsal than a typical concert experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first step forward,\u201d Lance Beatty, president of the Beatty Capital Group that owns TempleLive, told Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Traffic was light. Pairs of bartenders at two stations \u2014 one to handle the transaction and one to fill the order \u2014 stood idle after the show began. During the intermission between opener Lauren Brown and McCready, one bartender, in gloves, leaned her forearms against the bar while she scrolled on her phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental question of this whole experiment is how to address safety and how to address the economics,\u201d Beatty said. \u201cWhat\u2019s the impact on food and beverage? What\u2019s the impact on the fan experience? That\u2019s what everyone is sitting around, pulling the levers, trying to figure out. We\u2019re charting new territory here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although they didn\u2019t disclose the extent of the loss for last night\u2019s event, Beatty and Mike Brown, vice president of TempleLive, both flatly asserted this type of show is not financially sustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis impacts the artists, the venue owners, ticket sales, all the way down the line,\u201d Beatty said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if you\u2019re Kenny Chesney. If I\u2019m a concert promoter, I can\u2019t pay the same price [for reduced capacity].<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those adjustments are going to have to be made,\u201d he continued. \u201cInstead of a guarantee, I\u2019ll give you 90 percent of the door. Or if it\u2019s a $75,000 or $100,000 guarantee, how do I feel about getting that guarantee covered if I can only sell 225 tickets? That\u2019s a $400 ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, music fans proved that they\u2019ll travel and make sacrifices to watch their favorite artists perform. A trio of fans, all wearing Bishop Gunn T-shirts, drove to Fort Smith from three different parts of the state to see McCready. They first saw him open for Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke at TempleLive in 2017, when he was in Bishop Gunn<\/a>, and have traveled as far as Houston to see the band when they opened for the Rolling Stones in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re a family,\u201d said Donna Mason, who made the 90-minute trek from Bentonville, Arkansas. \u201cWhen you go to a Bishop Gunn concert, all the people know each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 9 p.m., McCready swaggered from aside the stage to applause and shouts of \u201cYou\u2019re making history!\u201d from fans. His Great Dane, Van Gogh, who he said has been by his side constantly for the past few months, followed and roamed the stage while McCready picked the chords to \u201cRiders,\u201d a song about perseverance he recorded with his former band.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see anybody, so it looks like a full house to me,\u201d he said to scattered applause. Behind him, Van Gogh nosed a water bottle around the back of the stage, then finally got its mouth around it and dropped it at McCready\u2019s feet, where he stayed for the next song before wandering off.<\/p>\n

It was quiet between songs as McCready tuned his guitar. A toddler cried out. A man introduced to the audience as \u201cMr. Johnny\u201d glided around the stage on a hoverboard wearing shorts, a blazer, and a fedora, puffing from a vape pen.<\/p>\n

But by his fourth song, a paint-peeling solo cover of Audioslave\u2019s \u201cI Am the Highway,\u201d performed on the third anniversary<\/a> of singer Chris Cornell\u2019s death, McCready had overcome the awkward vibe with the thing that enticed stir-crazy people to leave their homes in the first place \u2014 his voice. By the end, the gig took on the intimacy and casualness of a living-room show at your buddy\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

While the concert is history, the battle between the state of Arkansas and TempleLive may not be over. Beatty still sees \u201csignificant constitutional issues\u201d such as freedom of speech and the right to assemble in how the state maneuvered to prevent the concert. He says he\u2019s weighing legal action.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the show,\u201d he said, \u201cI think it means hope to a lot of people. They want that part of their lives back. The constitutional issues, we\u2019ll figure out later.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following weeks of contention between the state of Arkansas and Fort Smith music venue TempleLive over plans to stage the country\u2019s first pandemic concert, the art deco theater opened its doors Monday night to host Travis McCready, the singer of blues-rock band Bishop Gunn. It was America\u2019s first concert since shelter-at-home policies began in most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 16:58:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}