March 16: the day the music died (bars/restaurants in the USA)

solo-act

solo-act

Fractal Fanatic
March 16: a day that will live in infamy for everyday working musicians.

As someone who's gigged for a living for 25 years, it blows my mind that all public bar & restaurant gigs in the USA are vanishing practically overnight, including mine.

Feel free to post your state, city or county if it has closed public bars & restaurants.
Current known total: 44 states in 48 hours.
If they follow latest guidelines, all large cities will be down in 72 hours or less. Maybe every city.
Here's the running list started March 16

Alaska: Anchorage
Arizona: Phoenix and Tuscon
California: statewide, LA, Sacramento
- Bay area shelter-in-place, 6 counties
Colorado: Statewide, to April 17, May 11 in Denver
- 12,000 establishments, 240,000 jobs.
Connecticut: statewide to April 30
Delaware: statewide
Florida: Ft. Lauderdale, Broward County
Hawaii: partial
Idaho: most are closing
Illinois: statewide
Indiana: statewide to March 30
Iowa: statewide to March 30
Kentucky: statewide
Louisiana: statewide to April 13
Maine: multiple cities closing
Maryland: statewide
Massachusetts: statewide to April 5
Michigan: statewide
Minnesota: statewide, 10 days
Missouri: Kansas City
Mississippi: Casinos closed statewide, B&R likely to follow
Montana: Missoula County
Nebraska: statewide, 50 people or less
Nevada: statewide
New Hampshire: statewide
New York: statewide
New Jersey: statewide "until further notice" - unemployment system crashed
New Mexico: Albuquerque
North Carolina: statewide
Ohio: statewide
Oklahoma: Norman, Tulsa
Oregon: statewide at to April 14
Pennsylvania: statewide
Rhode Island: statewide to March 30
South Carolina: statewide
Tennessee: some local mayors closing: Nashville, Knoxville
Texas: Dallas, Harris county, Austin, Forth Worth, Houston
Utah: Salt Lake City
Vermont: statewide
Virginia: statewide, but not closed, no more than 10 customers
Washington: statewide
West Virginia: Burlington, now statewide
Wisconsin: statewide
Wyoming: Jackson
 
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chris said:
livestreaming is the way. twitch, youtube, mixer, anything.

people will appreciate anything. an iphone will work.
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I might live-stream, but with link to song list so people can do requests, and links to digital tips.

People need live music at times like this.
It's the right thing to do, and in a couple weeks I'll need the tips!
 
One of my team is in San Francisco and she told me about how it is there. Super tight lockdown.
I'm in a fairly isolated town in Southern Oregonand the pizza place I was planning in throwing a party for my cousin is closing, so party is cancelled. They will.do delivery, so we might have a tiny one woth family only

As for gigs, nothing booked til May, but not so sure things will be back by then. Gonna focus on recording and keep a low profile.
 
@chris is right on the money. Post and livestream anything you can to stay relevant to your fans during all this.

Stay smart. Stay safe. Look out for the best interest of you and your family but try to remember the people who are hurting because of these preventative measures.

Maybe order some take out from some of your favorite restaurants. Search for some of your favorite local bands and share their music and videos.

This shall pass. And when it does get back out there and support the restaurants and live entertainment industry.
 
bishop5150 said:
@chris is right on the money. Post and livestream anything you can to stay relevant to your fans during all this.

Stay smart. Stay safe. Look out for the best interest of you and your family but try to remember the people who are hurting because of these preventative measures.

Maybe order some take out from some of your favorite restaurants. Search for some of your favorite local bands and share their music and videos.

This shall pass. And when it does get back out there and support the restaurants and live entertainment industry.
Click to expand...

Im hoping when things do start to return to normal that people have some perspective and rally around their local businesses and prop them back up.
 
Seattle: all bars and restaurants are closed until the end of the month. Live music at my house, though! And we do have a tiki bar in the basement, so at least we can make tropical cocktails. Not quite the same as touring to warm places, but we will make the best of it,
 
solo-act said:
March 16: a day that will live in infamy for everyday working musicians.

As someone who's gigged for a living for 25 years, it blows my mind that all public bar & restaurant gigs in the USA will disappear in 48 hours or sooner, including mine.

Feel free to post your state, city or county if it has closed public bars & restaurants.
If they follow latest guidelines, all large cities will be down in 72 hours or less. Maybe EVERY city.
Here's what I found by afternoon March 16...one day.
Click to expand...

Add Michigan to the list.
 
I'm trying to find the positive here and am looking at it as - 2 months off (maybe longer, who knows) is not a bad thing.
In this downtime I will:
- Learn new material (band rehearsal via Jamkazam - it's not great, it's not awful)
- Work on new lighting effects that I have been thinking about for the past year
- Time to work on originals that have been on the back burner for longer than I would like
- Clean/reorganize my studio
- Finish some guitar builds (at least 3 unfinished projects that I haven't touched in 6+ months
- Learn how to play guitar
- Clean/rewire my PA systems
- Go through the piles of gear in my basement and determine what I truly don't need anymore, and get it cleaned up to sell

I'd like to think that a couple months break will refresh my desire to get out and play. I've been gigging consistently for as long as I can remember (20+ years), so a little bit of a break is good.

I don't make a living from this, so I'm more fortunate than some. I do feel for my bandmates and friends that do rely on this money. It's not going to be an easy 2-3 months.
 
BBN said:
I'd like to think that a couple months break will refresh my desire to get out and play. I've been gigging consistently for as long as I can remember (20+ years), so a little bit of a break is good.

I don't make a living from this, so I'm more fortunate than some. I do feel for my bandmates and friends that do rely on this money. It's not going to be an easy 2-3 months.
Click to expand...

I cut back on playing this year (prior to all this) because the last 4 years have been 120-130 shows - which sounds great, but is a lot for someone that has a day gig, and wife that he'd like to hang out with. What I've found by not playing as much is that my interest in it has been renewed and is more fun (for me)....even the gigs that aren't great as far as crowds go are still fun. Plus, now when I play electric I have this new III that I get to mess around with. I need to ToneMatch my acoustic so I can take it to the acoustic gigs too!
 
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