Video Saved the Radio Star
original image credit- https://www.instagram.com/p/CDePN5SBLH8/
The Great Stay Home of 2020 has brought many industries around the globe to a screeching halt. One of the hardest hit is the music industry. Because of streaming and other types of digital distribution (and because Lars was right) bring in little to money to our favorite artists, bands have to make the bulk of their profits from live shows and merch. Which is a problem, because as long as rational people are trying to stay six feet away from anyone else no one is going to be going to gigs any time soon. Sure, maybe mega-bands can put on one concert with little fan pens spread out over an open field, but this isn’t realistic for most bands, especially smaller bands still making their bones in clubs around the country.
And we can’t forget that bands are only the tip of the live show iceberg. Lemmy won’t let us forget the road crew. All of those who make their money making sure the music can be heard, seen, felt, and moved to the next town on the t-shirt.
What does all of this look like in mid-to-late-2020? Humans are infinitely adaptable and there have been many attempts at safe live concerts (and also what Smashmouth did, which no one should have done).
I was able to talk with local Portland three-piece Tall Dark Whimsy about how they are handling the pandemic and playing live, and streaming concert promoter PDX Couch Tour. I reach out to both Tall Dark Whimsy and PDX Couch tour after watching a very successful streamed gig by the band and hosted by the promoter. The below is an exchange between myself and singer/guitar player Emily Aldridge except for one question I directed at bass player Alexis.
Doug Robertson- Please tell me about your band. Who are you, where are you, what genre(s) do you fall under, all that good stuff.
Emily Aldridge- Tall Dark Whimsy is an American Hard Rock band from Portland, OR. Myself, along with drummer Shannon and bassist Alexis pack a punch with our high-energy beats and soaring melodies. Check us out to enjoy deeply soulful ballads with heavy metal and grunge undertones as they keep your heart pumping.
DR- How did the chance to do a livestream concert come together for you? Did you reach out to PDX Couch Tour or did they come to you? Was the venue through them or did you have to set that all up? Is there a Pay To Play aspect because of the unusual amount of set-up I assume has to happen?
EA- PDX Couch Tour takes an upfront percentage cut and then the rest goes to the band. Thankfully we didn’t have to pay to play. We hold ourselves to that standard especially. It’s important to value art so we do everything in our power to stick by that, only playing shows where we know we’re gonna make some amount of cash.
I reached out directly to PDX CT to book the date and they work directly with the venue- Star Theater here in Portland.
DR- How did rehearsals go? Without sounding like I'm judging, because I'm not at all, it's hard to be near other people safely right now. How did Tall Dark Whimsy juggle the need to play with the need to be safe? Was everyone comfortable with practicing together? This seems like a struggle a lot of bands are having right now. Now even playing out, but just being in one hot, loud room banging out songs.
EA- We have all stayed safe within our own day-to-day lives. Practicing social distancing, isolating as much as possible sanitizing and disinfecting. We were able to stand a safe distance apart and a large room as we rehearsed. We didn’t really begin rehearsing until about a month out from the show date for this. We also involved our guest guitarists but they had the option to wear masks during rehearsal. I met our back up singer in a local park so that we could sing outside and not spray our vocal germs at one another!
As far as rehearsal goes, one funny thing that happened when it came time to play the live stream show is that the sound engineer, Lizzy had to keep asking us to turn up! We’d clearly been practicing daintily (trying not to be too loud) in our rehearsal time. So the live stream in essence felt like a rehearsal for a bunch of cameras.
DR- Does PDX Couch Tour take care of the audio and video everything for the band when you're playing live? They make sure you sound good and everything is mic'd up and clear and mixed well? Because the last stream sounded fantastic.
image credit- https://www.instagram.com/p/CCobHy3B4dz/
EA- Yes! We were so pleased and thoroughly impressed at the quality that PDX CT provided. They are extremely professional, and they streamline the entire process so that musicians not only feel safe from the virus (they leave time to disinfect between acts and take temperatures at the door), but we also felt supported at the technical level. Lizzy Tanzer is a highly skilled and experienced sound engineer so she simply understands how to work with musicians of all levels. Brian Straus/ PDX CT creator has so much production experience so he’s able to help the stage act understand what the viewers will experience.
DR- How was it playing to a basically empty room? I mean, I've been in a local band so I've played to empty rooms before *waves to the one other band on the bill pretending to be in the audience* You had screens up with chats from Zoom, Twitch, and Facebook running, right? Was that hard? Because reading an audience's faces and cheers is one thing, literally reading what they're saying, especially while trying to remember lyrics and parts, is different I'd imagine.
EA- Ha! Oh yes, we know what’s it’s like to “play to the bands”. The livestream performance experience is a truly unique one. I wasn’t expecting to be so focused on the quality of the sound but that was a lot of my intent as I KNEW this performance would live on forever somewhere on the Internet. It’s actually exhilarating to be able to see your audience faces and view comments floating by on the big screens. The screens are big enough that we could read the comments while playing. I had to keep my ADHD in check and look away every once in a while but the comments are FUEL for a great show, especially when there are literally no applause when you finish a song. That’s the bizarre part of live-streaming that requires a certain level of imagination.
Sometimes you don’t know who will be attending the show. This happens on a regular show night (sans pandemic!) People say they’re coming, they ask for the links, they’re curious but we never really know who’s committed to coming until the last minute. So it was an awesome surprise to see peoples’ cameras pop up! Especially Henry the kitty cat!
DR to Alexis- I noticed during the show you were the only one of the three in the band to wear a mask on stage. I understand why Emily couldn’t, she needs to sing, and Shannon your drummer has an athletic job to do back there on the kit, plus she’s socially distanced by virtue of her instrument. Was the mask an aesthetic choice, a health choice, a statement?
Alexis- A health choice! I don’t mind wearing a mask because I know it’s keeping everyone else safe.
DR- Does it add a level of stress to play while depending on so much technology? Now you're not only worried about breaking a string or the pedal chain demon getting in your signal somehow, but what if the wifi goes out or the audio freaks? Or is it more just trust the PDX Couch Tour people and get on with the show?
EA- The crew from PDX CT is so reliable that you definitely feel like you can place all of your trust in their hands and just play your music. That was the beauty of our experience. We felt like we could connect with each other and we were proud of what we were making in the moment.
DR- How did the band feel about it? Did it feel like a gig or a really ornate practice?
EA- We loved every minute of it! It felt like a real show in one sense, loading all of our heavy equipment into a hot venue. Then ruthlessly analyzing our performance after the show ended! It had been a dream of ours to play the Star Theater‘s stage, so I think we were slightly wrapped up in that manifestation. This was also the first time we had a back up vocalist so that was special. And then to add to the magic, our bass player‘s brother got to play. That was a huge highlight for her! Family in the house. Ultimately it felt like a really ornate practice, but I don’t think we physically knew the difference. I was just zizzing for days after it just like we had just played a real show.
DR- Is this the future of music? Even when we're able to play for live crowds will we be livestreaming shows too for a different ticket price?
EA- I think this is definitely the future of music for the time being. We’re all hopeful that this pandemic isn’t gonna last forever. What I’m truly hoping for is that...as we continue to livestream, we gain more audience members whether that’s new fans or current fans that haven’t had a chance to see us play live. I’m also hoping that after the pandemic is over, just like many other musicians have remarked, is that fans of music will truly value the live experience by coming out to even more shows!
DR- Promote your stuff! Where can we see Tall Dark Whimsy again? Where are you on the internets? How can we support your band during this trying time?
EA- You can watch us on Saturday, September 12 as we support the Clinton Street Theater along side many other local acts. Will be helping fundraise to keep the theater open. This was a pre-recorded event but the show will roll out like a livestream telethon!
Will be back on the PDX CT stage on September 30th so stay tuned for that. We’re super excited to be back!
You can follow all of our events and music by following us on Bandcamp, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Get some Tall Dark Whimsy merch here.
After talking to Emily I wanted to know what the idea is from the perspective of the people setting all this up, so I reached out to PDX Couch Tour, and here is what founder Brian Strauss had to say about this new business model.
Brian Strauss- If you’d have asked me 20 years ago to describe what I wanted to do with my life, if I could do anything, it would look pretty close to what I’m doing right now. It only took a global pandemic to bring about the necessity for such a thing.
I started off reaching out to my friends who’s shows had been canceled, most of which I probably would have gone to see. In the beginning I couldn’t beg hard enough to get people to leave their houses to come play, and there are still many musicians in that group, but as word spread and time went on the bands started reaching out to us. I had delegated the booking to other people until recently. So, I do that too now. I desperately need to find additional sources of funding and create some new additional revenue streams.
I’ve included something I wrote up a couple weeks ago after we moved out of 24 Fremont and prior to moving into the Star Theater. I use it to send to anyone I want to explain what we are all about too. I’m pretty much a one-man-band, I could probably hire 6 people who specialize in the jobs they’re hired to do, and still have plenty on my plate to keep me busy. Only problem is I can’t ask them to work for less than minimum wage, which is probably what I am paying myself if I calculated it out.
If you would like to donate to PDX Couch Tour to help them keep the amps on and the cameras rolling, you can do so here.
Thank you to Emily, Alexis, and Brian for their time and for continuing to bring the music. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but music is one of the things keeping me sane and happy right now in this tumultuous time. Watch part of the Tall Dark Whimsy stream here to get an idea of just how good the sound and video quality was. If you’d like to check out Tall Dark Whimsy, and you should, they’re playing Saturday, September 12th and you can find that information right here.
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Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird. Find books by Doug here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you.
