Just a couple of scribbles on how the Covid-19 is affecting the local concert scene. Bear I mind that when I write this, I'm writing specifically about how the virus is impacting on the concert scene because this blog is intended to be focused on music. I'm not trying to gloss over the human lives that have been lost, or the economic/societal impacts that the virus will have on our society and on other countries throughout the world. But I don't know if I'm qualified to write about those things anyway, and even if I were, I think I'm still too stunned by it all to pull anything coherent together.
As I mentioned in my Coronavirus Blues posts a few weeks back, I cancelled out on a couple of musicals and a library concert back in early March. And here on Long Island, for sure, the theaters and the libaries will be closed for the immediate future.
I didn't really have tickets pre-purchased for many shows in the months to come. Of those, the only one hat has definitely been postponed to a future date yet to be named was the Grouplove show at the Paramount. Assuming that they do go ahead and reschedule this for some time later in the year, it will probably screw me up, as a good part of the reason I decided to buy these tickets was to check out the opening act, an Irish singer who calls herself Jealous of the Birds. (And usually, if a concert like this gets rescheduled, it's with a different opening act. But who knows, I might wind up eating the tickets even if they do reschedule it. Right now, I'm not in any kind of a rush to put myself into a large crowd situation until I see this thing is really and reliably gone.
I also have a ticket to see Alice Cooper with Lita Ford and Tesla at Jones Beach in late June. So far, Jones Beach hasn't cancelled any of its summer concert series, although by this time next month, if there hasn't been a marked improvement in the New York situation, they'll surely have to start thinking about it. But if they do, the joke is on them, since I had a huge fight with Ticketmaster when I discovered that what I thought were print-your-own tickets were, at best, will-call (and they acted like they were doing me a huge favor to even make them will-call). So if they cancel the show, I should get the refund that they refused to give me earlier. If that happens, you know I'll be gloating about it on this page.
The only other show I personally have a ticket for in the months to come is The Go-Go's at the Westbury Music Fair in July, and it will be another month or more before we know if anything has to change with that one. Maybe.
Because here's the thing I really wanted to write about today. A couple of days ago, I got an email from The Patchogue Theatre, informing me they were cancelling or postponing all of their upcoming shows through September 1. September 1!
Now I'm not saying the Patchogue Theatre people know anything more than any of these other venues who still have shows planned for May or June. I doubt that they do. And maybe they're being just a little extra cautious because compared with most Long Island performance venues, their audience probably skews a little older.
But here's the thing. I'm sure the Patchogue Theatre needs the revenue as much as any of the other venues on Long Island, but they still postponed all of their shows for the entire summer. It kind of restructured my whole world view that a venue like this was willing to write off the entire next four months. It's not that I never pictured that such a thing as the virus lasting that long might be possible. But to envision such a possibility is one thing -- to see a venue of this size bet their whole summer on it is another.
As much as I love The Patchogue Theater, I obviously hope they're jumping the gun on this one. But maybe they're not. We could be in this for a longer time than we've been guessing, people. Let's hope not, but we could.
Anyway, stay safe out there, stay home, and maybe catch up on some albums and some video concerts. And whatever you do, for God's sake, wash your hands!
