Finally someone has spoken up for all of us kicked to the curb musicians. A recent letter signed by artists, including Rita Ora, Coldplay, Annie Lennox, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, has warned that “the UK could lose its prime spot on the world’s musical stage unless the government committed to supporting businesses and set out a timetable for reopening live music venues.” The performers said venues are at risk of mass insolvencies and that hundreds of thousands of jobs could be lost. While I’m sure they aren’t exactly thinking about us “local” musicians, this is a positive step forward in an industry that seems to have been forgotten among the covid hysteria.

It’s not the largest industry by any means, but the music industry still generates about 20 billion globally. That’s quite a few bucks! Just in the U.S. alone, the music industry employs almost two million people. None of this counts all the ancillary jobs at venues which also depend on music for their paycheck, nor the lost tax revenue to cities from concerts and events. However as a whole, it seems like the entire industry has been forgotten. As a local player, it’s down right depressing–if you play any wind instrument here in Denver, you’re disallowed to perform anywhere. WTF???

The bottom line is that this madness needs to stop, as does the social distancing and mask pseudo-science that goes along with it. While the ignorant politicians and unaware sheep seem to think live streaming from home will be a fine solution, I can tell you point blank: it isn’t. I’ve never seen more faux competition from weekend warriors and other countless hacks that are crowding up an already lame platform for music delivery. LIVE MUSIC IS SUPPOSED TO BE HEARD LIVE. Let’s try to keep it that way, and keep the ridiculous physical distancing ideas away from our venues!

The truth is, most working musicians have nothing good to say about physically distanced gigs, nor do the venues themselves. How is either supposed to make money when capacity is reduced by 50-75%? While there is some brainstorming going on, solutions like the dystopian world of immunity passports aren’t a great idea either. How many people will be excluded from future shows if that is the bar for entry? It’s crazy to think about all the free love happening during Woodstock, and now here we are 50 years later afraid to get within 6 feet of each other, even when we’re healthy! No, it’s not a new solution that needs to be found. Instead, we as a collective of music aficianados need to make our voices heard if we ever want to cultivate any music worth listening to in the future. We are generally young and healthy–let us make our own health decisions for a change. Let us go back to populating live music venues, as it was originally designed.

We’d see venues going right back up to full capacity. Sure, some people might get sick. However, as the covid fatality rate is next to zero for anyone under 65, there would be no more risk of adverse effects than there normally would for the flu, or any other bad cold one might take home from the club. The positive effects gained from establishing herd immunity this way would be beneficial not just for the music fans, but anyone else that they may come into contact with in the future. Of course, if you are in the target death range of the evil covid, then by all means, stay home! But then again, if you are healthy you have very little chance of catching covid in the first place, let alone having any complications from it. Pro-tip: immune systems matter. Make sure yours functions properly by eating right, exercising and reducing unnecessary stress (hard to do these days, I know.)

The other side of this argument continues to be unthinkable. Locking people down; making healthy people wear masks and abide by an arbitrary AI social distancing model is ludicrous. Closing down bars and gyms, but not grocery or hardware stores is not based on any science whatsoever. Allowing business to open up, but at reduced capacity is not really doing anything for businesses that depend on that very same capacity to be profitable. The current lock down will be responsible for at least 40-50% of bars and venues closing in Denver alone. That’s half of our gigs that will just vanish into thin air. Simply put: lock downs are not a good long term strategy in any way shape or form.

How are businesses supposed to operate if they are forced to shut down every time there is a major sniffles event? Who would invest in a market like that? How would insurance work if employees and customers could sue a business for contracting covid? Why would anyone want to own a business at this point? You see, in the words of the immortal Steve Buscemi (from Armageddon), “It’s all wrong.” None of this has been well thought out economically; none of this has any care for the working man (or working musician for that matter); none of this will be successful if we are continually vacillating the economy from “game on” to “game off.” We need to go back to normal–not a new normal.

IMO, it’s hard to imagine a world without good music to listen to. Music is so beneficial for so many people; yet so many people have forgotten about us musicians. At a recent party, no one that I spoke to had any clue that all of my gigs had been cancelled, or that I was unable to perform anywhere for the past 5 months. It’s like the twilight zone. “Oh,” they would say. “That sucks.” Yeah, it really does.

Please stay awake during this time and fight for those things that you love. Collectively, we cannot let music fall into the waste bin. There’s too much history, culture and good vibes to just let it die on the vine. Do what you can as a player, promoter, executive, producer, teacher or just listener to keep music alive in this difficult time. All of us that depend on the music industry could use a little help these days. Be safe and God Bless!