Yahoo Finance Big, live concerts are back: 5 take-aways from recent Central Kentucky music events
Devine Carama seemed to know how his audience felt about gathering – correction: about being able to gather – for his performance with members of the Lexington Philharmonic last weekend on the Loudoun House lawn.
“If you’re blessed to be alive and outside,” the Lexington hip-hop artist and activist said, “make some noise.”
Jerry Douglas was even more succinct in his sentiments. A week earlier, under a massive tent at the Cardome Renaissance Center in Georgetown, the multi-Grammy-winning dobro artist wasted no time in describing a largely restored concert atmosphere: “Hey, look. Real people!”
Being among the audiences for these two stylistically disparate performances - the first coming during the final days of COVID-19 restrictions (including Kentucky’s mask mandate), the second after they were lifted – awoke and enforced much of what many couldn’t help but crave during the 15 months when the pandemic changed the world.
In short, the concerts reminded us of the very necessary thrill of experiencing the creation of music in a live setting, a process heightened immeasurably when an audience is involved to witness it.
Was it a return to normalcy for a beloved performing arts form? Somewhat. To be fair, a few local music venues – most notably, The Burl – began to carry on with live music last fall, albeit with numerous restrictions (limited audience capacities, mask mandates and social distancing requirements) that forced a rethink on how concert events could be staged safely.
But the Carama and Douglas shows were unhindered by the mandates restrictions and still offered safety, signaling the boldest moves yet in returning the presentation of live music back, in some sense, to a pre-pandemic world.
As concert events, especially outdoor ones, continue to return and rebound as the summer progresses, here are five takeaways from the Carama and Douglas performances and how they relate to the year that has been as well as to the one at hand.
Audiences are ready
Audiences at both performances represented a largely older demographic than ones attending some of the recent Burl shows. That meant these concerts represented, for many of those in attendance, their first extended intake of live music since March 2020 (and maybe longer). The joy they displayed was obvious and open.
I asked two patrons at the Douglas performance about attending a concert again. One was an avid fan, appreciative of hearing Douglas perform regardless of the setting. The other was largely unfamiliar with his music, stating she “just wanted to be around something creative again.”
Vaccination a big plus
The Douglas concert was presented during the final days of COVID-19 restrictions were still in effect, although they had been eased considerably by this point. The result: there were no mask or distancing requirements.
But the performance, along with over a dozen other shows that make up a June concert series at Cardome, had a built-in sense of safety: Admission was free, providing you could show proof of COVID vaccination or agreed to get one on site.
So instead of uniformed security guards on the Cardome grounds, you had uniformed medical workers from Wild Health.
Inventive programming works
This was especially evident at Carama’s performance. Its setting outside of the Loudoun House meant it was essentially being staged in Castlewood Park, an area unaccustomed to events of this nature.
Carama targeted the Northside demographic for the show, citing the sparsity of live music events in that area. What the concert got was something more: a sizeable slice of the Lexington Philharmonic’s audience whose previous exposure to hip-hop music was, in all likelihood, minimal. Even Mayor Linda Gorton was in attendance.
In terms of race, gender and age, this was a remarkably diverse audience that seemed, for about 90 minutes, in tune with the same message and beats.
Come ready for weather
Yes, summer doesn’t technically begin until next week. But it is a largely accepted fact that the season kicks off on Memorial Day weekend. So these shows were in keeping with the kinds of live outdoor events that so often distinguish the summer months but were extinguished last year at this time due to COVID.
As such, the Carama performance, which was staged last Saturday, played to audiences armed with coolers, blankets and chairs, as well enough eats to set up full dinner spreads.
There is a downside to such outdoor programming in the summer, of course. Douglas’ show was cut a song or two short thanks to a pop-up cloudburst while an extended afternoon thunderstorm briefly threatened Carama’s performance. So keep an umbrella handy.
But as the setting sun shot through the trees at the latter show, illuminating the stage and the Loudoun House with wild horizontal lighting, the glories of summer and live music were clearly one again.
Arts will bounce back
Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the pandemic, as it related a year ago to the performing arts, wasn’t the severity of live music’s disappearance but the uncertainty surrounding how long such a bleak performance landscape would last.
Last summer, the phrase that kept circulating in regard to live music venues was, to say the least, unsettling: “We’re the first to close and we’ll be the last to re-open.”
We’re still months away from getting all available venues back in operation and all touring acts back on the road. But the Douglas and Carama concerts were important steps forward.
While they have already helped usher in renewed summer spirit, both have signaled that live music is finally exiting the shadows and heading back to the stage.
