So, About that ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’…

By late spring of this year, with distribution of largely effective vaccines and a sharp downturn in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, the live entertainment industry – a major source of income for the MI world – had good reason to hope for a vibrant rebound in the coming months. Tours that had been postponed in 2020 were rescheduled, local clubs that had been shuttered or at limited capacity began booking bands again, and an eager public started coming out in droves.

I don’t need to tell you that the positivity we were all feeling just a few short months ago has, for many, been diminished by the rapidly spreading Delta variant, a return to restrictions and safety protocols, and a number of high-profile (and low-profile) artists falling ill.

In just the past week, KISS frontman Paul Stanley tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing the band to cancel and reschedule dates on its long-postponed “End of the Road” farewell tour. Just a week prior, Slipknot and Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor also became very ill with COVID-19, leading to cancellations of upcoming appearances.

On smaller stages – where the impact of such a disappointing turn of events are arguably felt far more severely – recent trends have led many to a return to “pandemic times” rules.

Whatever the scale of the performance, many are are aggressively moving towards vaccine mandates for concertgoers, crew, performers, and staff. The Foo Fighters were one of the first major acts this summer to return to playing to full-capacity, large shows – with a proof of vaccination requirement. Upcoming tours by Harry Styles, Phish, Dead & Company, Maroon 5, The Killers, and many others will require fans to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. In my own neck of the woods, many clubs are making vaccination mandatory for patrons and performers, while those that have not yet made that leap are requiring that all who enter the premises wear a mask.

However, politicization of vaccines, mask-mandates, and the pandemic, itself, has added a multi-layered wrinkle to an already challenging and charged situation. Nationwide, there are a variety of often wildly conflicting state and local laws regarding what venues can and cannot require of their clientele.

Those differences in policy make booking national or even regional tours – even statewide, or citywide jaunts – difficult, to say the least.

Paul Lohr, president of New Frontier Touring, told the AP in late August: “Because of the variances state by state, it can all of a sudden leave a tour looking like Swiss cheese… it just torpedoes the whole thing.”

Again, all the confusion and anger isn’t reserved for the big venues. A close friend of mine who works the door at a club in Cambridge, Massachusetts was pushed and screamed at when she alerted a show-goer that the club requests folks wear masks once they enter. My own band’s first show in over 20 months (longest such stretch for me since I was 18) was cancelled over disagreements amongst some of the bands on the bill regarding the lack of proof-of-vaccination policies at the club.

I absolutely do not want to use this space to “be political.” That said, until and unless we can agree upon some universally accepted lanes and rules, we run a very real risk of the live entertainment industry in the fall and winter of 2021 being all too similar to fall and winter 2020.

I get that all of this is a serious, nuanced, and complex problem about which nearly everyone has very strongly held beliefs and opinions. For my part, I’m pretty flexible. I’ll happily follow whatever agreed-upon rules evetually are in place I’m mostly concerned with being able to safely attend and play shows, go to clubs, attend the theater, eat indoors – all that good stuff. And I’m extremely concerned that the businesses and workers that depend on live entertainment to survive are able to make it through all this nonsense. Shouldn’t we all be?