Tag: concerts

Categories
event

Live Music Returns in 2022 With AJR’s “OK ORCHESTRA” Tour

When COVID-19 took over the world, concerts were one of the first things to get shut down. Avid concertgoers have been anxiously awaiting the return of live music and with the summer of 2021 approaching quickly, many have been wondering when it will be safe to return. No tours are set to take place this summer, but music festivals have been popping up across the country offering socially-distanced live music opportunities. In addition to this, artists have started to announce tours for 2022. One of the first to do this was AJR, a band made-up of 3 brothers from New York.

The “OK ORCHESTRA” tour is scheduled to begin on April 28, 2022 in Dallas, Texas, followed by 27 other shows across the country with more dates expected to be announced soon, including international shows. This tour follows the release of the band’s fourth studio album “OK ORCHESTRA”, which was released on March 26, 2021, and after the band’s “Everything Everywhere Tour” was cancelled. The tour was set to begin in the summer of 2020 and featured AJR, Quinn XCII, Hobo Johnson, and Ashe.

In order to bring back live music in some way, AJR scheduled “One Spectacular Night,” a livestream concert event that was broadcasted on December 26, 2020. This show was a huge success in the world of virtual shows, following shows by Machine Gun Kelly, Niall Horan, and Jon Bellion.

The band got their start by street performing in New York City Parks. Their first single “I’m Ready” (2013) allowed the band to gain traction and build a fan base, which led to the release of their first album “Living Room.” (2015) Since then, the band has released tracks like “Weak,” “Sober Up,” “100 Bad Days,” and “Bang!” which are all still on regular radio rotation.

“Way Less Sad” from “OK ORCHESTRA” is the band’s latest single.
A survey of 70 AJR fans was conducted over Twitter, a popular networking app in the fandom after tickets to the OK ORCHESTRA Tour were released.

While live music may take a while to come back in full, fans still seem to be excited for when it does. Positive responses from fan bases have allowed other artists like Machine Gun Kelly, Bad Bunny, and The Weeknd to also announce tours for the upcoming months with full confidence that attendance will be maxed out at whatever guidelines the venues decide to set for each date depending on COVID-19 guidelines.

Categories
Interview

Concerts and COVID: An Audio Story

COVID-19 has changed the world dramatically over the past year. Events that would have once been an everyday occurrence have virtually vanished from existence and have left people scrambling for a sense of normality. Take Garrett Rossow, a 21 year old college student from Port Huron, Michigan, who’s career and leisure time both center around live music. As a student studying public relations in hopes to work in the music industry, an employee at a popular event venue, and an avid concertgoer, Rossow’s life has taken a full 180 since March of 2020.

After not being at a show for over a year, Rossow has been struggling to find new things to do in his free time. “I would always save my money for traveling to go to the same shows over and over again or just to see my favorite artists wherever I could.” he says.

“It really gave me a sense of home, it brought me together with so many people who I never would have met if it weren’t for traveling.”

It’s a really interesting times for artists too. Changing how you present yourself and your work to your fans during the pandemic has really been a struggle. Artists like Quinn XCII and AJR have scheduled drive-in style live shows where fans sit in their cars to watch performances, and artists like Niall Horan and Machine Gun Kelly have created virtual ticketed events where fans can livestream concerts from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

“I’m friends with a couple of smaller artists and it’s scary that they can’t go out and promote their work the way they want to.” Rossow says. “It’s a huge financial impact.”

Artists are expecting to go back on tour by fall of 2021 with restrictions in place. Ticketmaster, a concert ticket mega-company that partners with artists on their tours, has spoken about COVID-19 safety measures being put into place for the returning concert season, such as staggered entrance, merchandise delivery to your seat to prevent long lines, and required vaccine documentation.

“If the average restaurant can only have 25% capacity,” Rossow says. “It’ll be really interesting to see when things come out.”

While COVID-19 may have put a stop to in-person events, it hasn’t put a stop to the enthusiasm and passion of music fans around the world, and during the first show back, whenever that may be, emotions and spirits will both be extremely high.
  • My interviewee was Garrett Rossow and I conducted this interview on February 24, 2021 over FaceTime.
  • My natural sound was a crowd cheering. I thought that it would be a good clip to include since the story focuses on concerts.
  • I gathered my clips from freesound.org (a sound-byte database I’ve used for previous classes that is free to use) before I conducted my interview.
  • I used Audacity to edit the audio and the Voice Memos app to record.
  • I found my interviewee through mutual friends.
  • Recording over FaceTime is hard and doesn’t give extremely clear audio, but options on campus are very limited and it’s hard to find other ways to get good interviews during the pandemic. I got a lot of really good material, though, and I think that it turned out decently. I am getting better at editing on Audacity, too.