The Return of Live

By Dawson Moulder

Courtesy of Jeremy Cohen

The one year mark of nation wide lockdowns came and went this past March which signified a year without our favorite festivals. As someone who attends concerts and music festivals on a bi-weekly basis, I know this period of time has definitely left me feening for more. Recently, many major music festivals have announced star studded lineups. Life Is Beautiful, Outside Lands, and Bonnaroo are just a few that have already announced their festivals will be held this fall. Concert goers can anticipate to see artists like Billie Eilish, Green Day, Tame Impala, Tyler, The Creator, Foo Fighters, etc. at these events that we expect to be held in person. These announcements got us thinking, what sort of magnitude do these announcements hold? How do people in the industry feel about this announcement in the middle of mass vaccination efforts? Well, we had a chance to speak with some folks who this directly impacts to see what this fall will look and feel like.

I spoke with Lexii Frazier, guitar player for Pink Sweat$, iann dior, Kehlani, etc., about how the effects of live shows going on hiatus has effected her profession the past year. Alongside this she was able to provide some insight as to what performers are feeling in this time of transition.

You were set to play your first Coachella back in April of 2020. What was it like hearing the news that it was being called off?

Lexii: “I was in rehearsal with Pink Sweat$ when we saw an article about it, and then the next day we came into rehearsal and got word that the show was canceled and got pushed to fall, and then it didn’t even happen…That’s when I knew it was getting serious. Looking back though I believe that the time it created has been beneficial because I believe everything happens for a reason.”

I’ve seen you do several live stream shows with Pink Sweat$, iann dior, and others over the past year which looked to be a lot of fun! With that being said, what’s the thing you’ve missed most about playing in front of a live audience?

Lexii: “The energy and excitement that goes with performing live. There’s something about doing it in front of people who are excited to be there…You remember shows because of the people who are there and there’s a sort of togetherness that comes from a concert and meeting new people.”

After a whole year without festivals and hearing lineups being announced for the fall, how do you think the return to live music in this setting will be like?

Lexii: “Obviously there’s gonna be a handful of people who are upset but I’m very excited to perform and I know the fans are super excited, so the energy from the crowd is going to be awesome. It may look a little different but I expect the energy to be the same or better.”

Courtesy of Gerardo Federico

After speaking with Lexii, I felt like I had a better understanding of what artists must have been missing this whole time. It was eye opening to know the artists who we wake up early to buy tickets for had the same sort of excitement to see their fans. It’s a beautiful display of mutual love live shows bring, and I for one can’t wait to be in that environment again.

Building off of this excitement, I also had a chance to speak with Julian Gracian about the effects of the pandemic of the festival industry and what to look forward to in the upcoming months. Julian is the Director of Concerts at the University of California, Riverside, who over the course of the past year has transitioned from putting on large music events for their students to now creating unique virtual events that featured artists like Peach Tree Rascals, Louis the Child, and No Vacation.

When the pandemic hit and in person shows were no longer possible how did your role as a Director of Concerts change for UCR events?

Julian: “Everything changed to be honest. With a lot of our budget now being opened up to going towards artists, we realized that not only could we have a bigger lineups, but bigger artists had lower quoted prices because they were being quoted for virtual appearances rather than in person… We also realized location was no longer a barrier because in the past we had to reach out to people in the SoCal area.”

You mentioned earlier it opened the budget up. Do you mean that the sort of money you would spend on the event itself was now going directly to buying talent?

Julian: “Yeah, normally we have a separate budget for artists but a lot of the other stuff was not even needed like security and all that good stuff. So, we had more leeway to do what we wanted with it.”

Building off that, what was the most difficult part of navigating the new way of bringing entertainment to fans? Moving from an in person setting to an online setting, was there a learning curve involved?

Julian: “Yeah totally dude, it was very difficult. Not to say that it isn’t possible, but you have to think about it, students get zoom fatigue. It’s not easy to grasp students attention so we are already dealing with lower numbers and lower attention rate. We had to completely come up with logistics and rules for actually putting on an online show, because this had never been done before (at UCR)… We literally had to learn from trial and error.”

With the announcements of live shows returning, do you think that there’s hope for live shows to return back to campuses as well? If so, how do you expect things to look coming off the heels of the pandemic?

Julian: “It’s a little scary honestly. I wouldn’t want to get my hopes ups because schools are way different when it comes to actually planning in person events. At the very minimum you could hope for maybe hybrid events with a livestream capability paired with a maximum capacity set pretty low. But I think it will be a long time before we actually see in person shows again.”

Courtesy of Andrew White

After speaking with Julian and hearing about the triumphs and hardships faced while planning online shows the past several months, I was able to understand the perspective of those behind the scenes. As fans and artists, we feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel. Production teams are left to sort out the logistics of bringing the same sort entertainment back into our lives. As time has passed since my interview with Julian, some live shows have been popping up around the world and even in the U.S. with varying levels of success. Hopefully this is an indicator that in the coming months the shows will go on.