How New York City Venues Are Getting Creative in the Age of COVID

Feb 9

Feb 9 How New York City Venues Are Getting Creative in the Age of COVID

I bet you remember the last live show you went to in detail, whether or not you had a sense that you might not be seeing another one for a while. Mine was in a Bushwick DIY space in the early-March pre-doom, coming out to see a friend’s band and a few other random groups play a packed, tiny room (can you even imagine?!). I remember craning my neck around a pillar to see the bands, chatting with some friends of friends who I’d seen around before but never really had the chance to talk to previously, and getting accused of stealing a beer because I showed up late and didn’t understand the bar protocol. It was a fun night. It was an unremarkable night. It was the last live show I saw, and it was almost a year ago.

While some elements of pre-COVID life have returned (often to disappear again just as quickly), live music hasn’t been one of them, and with cases still on the rise despite the vaccine rollout and the city blanketed in snow and slush, a comeback does not seem imminent. The lack of music hurts all of us, from venues that are now struggling to survive to bands with no place to perform to really everyone who makes up the community of music lovers in New York City.

Thankfully, venues across NYC are tapping into their owners’ and staff’s creativity to produce entertaining at-home experiences with local groups that, though they will never truly substitute for seeing bands live, are fun, innovative, and as varied and full of personality as the venues themselves are.

Bushwick mainstay Our Wicked Lady started producing shows from their downstairs stage last October: “We had always had an idea in the back burner for some kind of Our Wicked Lady YouTube presence and just never had time. So in a weird way, this gave us the time to do it – and also, we had to,” said OWL co-owner Zach Glass. OWL TV, the venue’s YouTube channel, hosts sets from local favorites like Haybaby, Atlas Engine, and Jelly Kelly as well as a talk show called Tall Boys. “I think one of the reasons why we have the support we have is because we’re always staying involved with the community,” said fellow OWL co-owner Keith Hamilton.

OWL TV’s initial model was to have a band playing to an empty room downstairs and the show livestreamed in real-time to the OWL upstairs outdoor area, but when regulations changed and that was no longer possible, the OWL team started recording bands on days the bar was closed and broadcasting them later in the week – often with the band back and in attendance to watch too. (Note: Since I spoke with Zach and Keith, OWL has fallen on harder-than-expected times, has temporarily closed their doors and suspended future OWL TV shows, and needs a boost kind of immediately in order to survive. If you’ve ever benefited from having this awesome spot there in any way – and if you’re reading this, you probably have – for the love of god, grab some merch or send them some cash).

Ridgewood’s The Footlight is hosting awesome local bands to play shows too, but they’re using a model that’s a bit different than OWL’s. Rather than streaming shows on YouTube, The Footlight is curating and producing sets with both songs and interviews from local groups which can be rented to watch at home on Vimeo On Demand and will soon be available by season via Patreon subscription. Season One of FLTV, which was recorded at Starr Bar due to flood damage at Footlight’s Seneca Avenue space, features artists like LAPÊCHE, 95 Bulls, and The Rizzos, and Season Two, which will record at The Windjammer, is forthcoming and may feature comedy as well as music.

All Vimeo revenue is split between the venue and the artists, and proceeds from purchases of the FLTV Sessions: “Just The Hits” compilations on Bandcamp will benefit organizations like Black Voters Matter and Emily’s List. Footlight owner Laura Regan views FLTV as a continuation of the role The Footlight had in the community before the pandemic hit: “I want to continue to provide a service to the emerging arts community by offering this platform,” she said. “While this is so different, it also feels very much in the same vein as what we were always striving to be.”

These shows are great for the venues and for the fans, but the best treat here might be reserved for the bands themselves. Atlas Engine frontman Nick LaFalce and the rest of the band played an OWL TV show in October: “It was finally an opportunity to play with the full band, which we hadn’t done in months. We hadn’t even practiced together in months. It allowed us to basically get the band back together.” The venues do their utmost to keep the bands and their staffs safe, usually limiting the number of people in the room with the band to a sound person and a videographer or two. But those two or three people are still a live audience! “There was still some energy,” LaFalce said. “We’ve played to less people than were in the room before.”

Someday, we’ll all be in the same room seeing bands rock inches from our faces again. That day can’t come soon enough, but when it does, there’s no reason for the different types of entertainment that these streams and rentals provide to go anywhere. “When we’re back open for real there’s no reason we can’t invest in a more fixed film setup and always be live streaming our shows,” said Keith.

Of course, one of the main reasons (if certainly not the only reason) that venues are giving us these shows and experiences is because they really need to get some revenue during “these uncertain times.” Our venues are our community, and whatever New York would be without them is a New York I’m not particularly interested in. “If the venues don’t figure it out, if we can’t manage to stay open, I don’t know what’s going to happen; there’s going to be a void that can’t be filled,” said Laura. “What you’re doing is supporting a small band, a small venue while we’re trying to get through to the other side of this.”

Follow Our Wicked Lady on Instagram and like them on Facebook. Check out OWL TV via YouTube. And of course, please help keep them open!

Check out The Footlight’s FLTV here, and stay tuned to their Facebook and Instagram for more info on their Patreon.

OWL and Footlight aren’t the only Brooklyn venues pivoting this way, and we’d also encourage you to check out Elsewhere’s interactive Twitch TV account here and Baby’s All Right’s BABY TV here.