I Miss Live Music

and Movie Theaters too.

About a year ago today is when music venues across Chicago, Illinois shut down due to COVID19. The Governor came over the loudspeakers across the city and proclaimed that businesses large and small were ordered to close, without a care about the ramifications, or what that would mean to the mental well-being of the residents of Chicago. Since then, the void of buzzing guitars and crashing cymbals has been attempted to be filled by a variety of mediums: Instagram Live, Minecraft, even Zoom calls. These are not good, and they don’t meet the high energy bar that live music in person has.

So I’m kind of peculiar, and I like to track all the shows I go to–below you’ll find a chart of the total number of shows I had gone to in a single year, starting in 2009. Some memorable moments there, including Band of Horses in 2013, Phish…every year. But you can see a notable drop off, I think I went to four shows in 2020–Flosstradamus, Deadmau5, Opeth, and Umphrey’s Mcgee twice at a drive in! (Okay, that was pretty sweet). Other than that, there was no Lollapalooza with the buds, no Pitchfork with a brew, no street festivals or cold winter shows at Schubas. It was a difficult year for everyone, but this was where I found my joy.

So what does 2021 hold? Well, it seems as though concerts may make a return at some point. Given the fact that Chicago now boasts 50% capacity bars that are open until 1AM, it seems that a limited attendance concert would not be out of the question. Picture it: you walk in to a segmented dance hall, your row? B6. You stand there with a 16oz Schlitz in your hand, can barely see the stage, yet a profound sense of normalcy overcomes you as the band–Twin Peaks, comes on stage. “How’s everybody doin’?”

That will be epic.

Although I do see music venues coming back, there will be something lost about them–a sense of gathering, a group consensus whether or not the band is good. People may be afraid of each other for a long time, and this will be detrimental to the overall live music experience. Mosh pits? Stage diving? Forget about it. Night clubs where you grind on the dark figure next to you, only to find out that it’s actually a coat rack? Okay that would be pretty funny, but probably isn’t happening anytime soon.

You know what is happening, though? Movies. Movies are exploding, and Warner Bros decision to release all of its 2021 releases on HBO Max was a gigantic blow for movie theatres everywhere. The fact that I will be able to watch Godzilla vs. King Kong at home on my phone is so depressing. A film like that deserves to be seen on the largest, loudest screen you can find, with bass so deep it rattles your bones. Clearly this move was a cash grab, so I can’t blame Warner Bros or HBO Max, however it did singe my heart just a little bit.

So as I write this, the Academy Awards happen next month, and according to Letterboxd, I saw 32 films released in 2020. That being said, it was a tough year for films, including Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Some notable highlights from 2020: ‘Possessor’, ‘Horse Girl’, ‘The Way Back’, ‘Sputnik’, ‘The Rental’, and ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ will likely all be ignored by the Oscars vying for more contemporary, artsy films that no one has seen yet because they aren’t available except in California. What was the last movie you saw in theatres?

This is all to say that I am hopeful for the return to movie theatres, a return to concert venues, and a return to my old life. This summer “will be wild”, as they say. And if it’s not, then I’ll probably just write another blog about it.