Over the past year I made it out to approximately twenty shows which is much better than the two shows I made it to in 2020. And something tells me that will be it for awhile. The Omicron variant of COVID is hitting hard and will be getting much worse as it spreads across the planet so I will more than likely be lying low for the foreseeable future.
Most of my show going over the past year was limited to shows that I was working unless I had tickets leftover from a rescheduled show from 2020. That is why the majority of the pictures that I took over the course of the year involved Submachine or bands that they played with. I would have my bag packed and ready to go when there were other bands playing around town but then I would check the news and the latest case counts for the Pittsburgh area and then I'd end up staying home.
With a parent who has no immune system because they're in cancer treatment, I can't even risk the common cold let alone COVID. There were so many shows in September and October that I was itching to go to but had to bail for the greater good.
From observing the crowds at the shows that I did go to, I started to feel more and more skeeved out as time went on. I would be one of the few people wearing a mask and social distancing was getting to be almost impossible, especially in smaller clubs. My skin would crawl when people would start spitting beer on each other or into the air. First of all, spitting is just fucking gross and then add a highly contagious airborne virus on top of the grossness? Fuck you and anyone that looks like you for even thinking that was a good idea.
I still don't know how I didn't get a breakthrough case from going to two shows at the Rock Room. That place is so disgusting I leave my shoes in the garage when I get home so I don't track Rock Room into my house and unless someone opens the door there is no ventilation in that place at all.
I have had this thought frequently over the years but weren't Punks supposed to be smarter? Weren't we supposed to be more empathetic and aware of our surroundings? I thought the outcasts and the misfits were supposed to look out for each other. So much for that community thing that so many bands preach about. Here I am with lofty ideals and everyone else is into it for the aggression and cutting loose on a Friday night. It's turning out that the majority of Punks are just as dumb and selfish as the T*ump supporting, cop-loving, racist assholes that I spend way too much time trying to avoid.
Shows are starting to get cancelled again because of Omicron but I don't see another full shutdown happening. The machine of Capitalism must be fed at all costs so there will be no relief from the system this time around. Leaving the house will become an “at your own risk” activity and there aren't many bands in the world that I would take that risk for.
And as if losing all of 2020 wasn't bad enough, when shows did start up again it felt like I couldn't go a week without seeing a GoFundMe for a band that had their van/trailer stolen or broken into. After a year of lost income because of the pandemic, musicians were having their gear and merch ripped off? What the fuck is wrong with people? This is all so tiresome.
Live music will no longer be sustainable if this goes on much longer. Between audiences not doing the bare minimum to help keep everyone in a venue safe by simply wearing a mask and bands having to replace all of their equipment, live music will eventually be seen as not worth the hassle on the part of the musicians. At some point, the audience will prove that they are no longer worthy of a band's art and can go drink beer elsewhere.
It seems that going to see a band play is no longer about having an experience where the band shares their art with an audience and has turned into a basic form of entertainment. Suddenly, audiences feel entitled to see live music and think they can behave however they want. If people want to act like assholes, maybe they should hang up their shitty punk vests and go to a Kenny Chesney concert. From what I've heard, the stadium parking lot is a booze fueled thunder dome at those things.
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