For their first live performances of 2021, the Disco Biscuits have announced a live, two-night run that will be livestreamed from Ardmore Music Hall.
Friday, February 5 and Saturday, February 6 will be the first live performances from the Philadelphia jam titans in 2021, and the first time the Disco Biscuits play the independent venue in Ardmore, PA.
Both live shows will be broadcast for free via Ardmore Music Hall’s YouTube channel & streaming partners nugs.tv. Tips for the band & venue staff are encouraged. Event merchandise and VIP ticketing are also available, which includes a signed custom foil poster, virtual soundcheck access, & both nights of audio recordings.
Ardmore Music Hall will welcome a very limited, socially-distanced & masked audience of 20 guests per night. Fans can enter the “Golden Ticket” Raffles & Silent Auctions for a chance to win tickets to each respective show. At the conclusion of each of the raffle drawings, a handful of winners will receive a pair of tickets per show, and an online silent auction for additional pairs of tickets will go live.
All guests will be required to produce negative COVID-19 test results before confirming their attendance. Additionally, the venue will uphold all safety guidelines and protocols mandated by local governance, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the CDC. More details can be found on the event page below.
It’s no surprise that the music industry has struggled to stay afloat since the start of the pandemic. Venues have shut down permanently and performers have resorted to online live streaming instead of in-person concerts. There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is giving out its first set of grants to music venues around the country.
A concert attended by a huge audience before Covid.
Music fans, artists and corporations from all over donated to NIVA’s Emergency Relief Fund. This amounted to $3 million in short term relief for independent venues and promoters in need of economic help. The recently passed COVID-19 Relief Law includes provisions from the Save Our Stages Act, to give financial assistance to the music industry. Unfortunately, there’s still time before they see any of the funds coming through. These grants are put in place to help keep the venues doors from closing.
This aid would not have been possible without the help of everyone who has supported NIVA. Thank you especially to the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund Committee co-chairs, Lisa Gedgaudas, Chris Zacher, and Carl Swanson, who dedicated endless hours to making sure this program could assist as many venues and promoters as possible. We’re immensely grateful to them, but the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund is just a temporary life raft for these small businesses.
Rev. Moose – NIVA Executive Director
NIVA came to fruition when the pandemic forced large gatherings to come to an abrupt halt. Since then they have acquired 3,000 members in all 50 states. NIVA’s goal is to preserve the environment of live music and to focus on separate and supplemental initiatives, such as the Emergency Relief Fund.
The Giving Back Fund administered The Emergency Relief Fund through a panel of third party industry experts.
“It’s hard to imagine our futures without the lively spirit and culture of independent music venues,” said Marc Pollick, president of the Giving Back Fund.
The fund is tax-deductible so that individuals, companies and foundations can contribute. They are currently still taking donations with a goal of $11 million to provide essential business relief to everyone who has applied.
With a maximum grant amount of $25,000, this is only short-term help. And we are pained that we can’t provide grants to all who applied, because our industry’s need far exceeds the donations we’ve collected so far. We’re grateful that Congress passed the latest COVID Relief law, but it will likely take months before the grants are received. We’re trying to help those most at risk of going under while they wait.
Rev. Moose – NIVA Executive Director
For now, NIVA will use these critical grants to help hold suffering businesses over until the COVID-19 law provides more permanent economic stability. This allows them to maintain their current payments in hopes that the industry does not flatline and when everything goes back to normal they can prosper ahead of this economic disaster.
NYS Music’s Best of 2020 series concludes with a look at the best Tours and Drive-In shows of a year we’d all like to forget. When the music industry shut down in mid-March, it was sudden and continues to last into 2021. Few bands got to go on a ‘real’ tour, given there were roughly 11 weeks in which to tour, and the coldest months of the year, at that. Still, a few bands went out on a Winter 2020 tour, making stops in New York State and surrounding areas. Be sure to check out the best Streams, Covers and Jams.
photo by JD Cohen
Goose announced shows in Williamsburg for late January, 2020, and immediately added a second, and smaller third show, due to demand. Their shows at The Music Hall of Williamsburg were two of the best of their tour.
One band, Twiddle, celebrated their 15th year as a band with a Roots Tour of their own, streaming the multi-week event that looked at the venues they got their start in across Vermont, wonderfully recalled by Ryan Dempsey. In addition to these shows, Twiddle performed at multiple Drive-In shows across the Northeast, including New Jersey and Essex Junction, VT.
All that after a cross-country tour running from January through early March. The band had an impressive 2020, performing shows in Colorado to start 2020 with “Somewhere on the Mountain” in Frisco, CO and connecting with platform LiveXLive for their July Roots Tour.
photo by Dave Decrescente
When it came to Drive-Ins, there were quite a few across the Northeast – Drive-in-Live in Swanzey, NH, Jericho Drive-In in Glenmont, NY, South Farms in Morris Farms, CT, Fingerlakes Drive-In in Auburn, NY, Silver Lake Drive-In in Perry, NY and Radial Park in Astoria, Queens.
Live at the Drive, featuring Buffalo’s Aqueous, was one of the first and the most successful series, with three weekends between Lockport’s Transit Drive-in and Perry Silver Lake Drive-In. Buffalo Iron Works produced the shows, with Josh Holtzman and Grace Vesneske’s new company Twenty6 Productions garnering credit for putting on shows that set a standard for socially distanced shows that were safe, well-run and comfortable for fans and staff alike.
photo by Paul Citone
Goose also hosted numerous Drive-Ins across the Northeast and even ventured safely to Ohio, North Carolina and Maryland, as well as Swanzey and South Farms. Located in Morris, CT, South Farms was centrally located to the Hudson Valley from Albany to NYC, Western Massachusetts and Connecticut itself. As such, Goose, moe., Warren Haynes, Grace Potter, Allman Betts Band, Dark Star Orchestra, Citizen Cope and even comedian Bill Burr. Due to a recent Zoning Board ruling, South Farms won’t have live music for the time being, but they made some memorable moment in the time they were able to, in a key location in the Northeast.
photo by Chad Anderson
moe. and Disco Biscuits each hit the new Drive-In circuit, streaming online and giving fans thirsty for live music the remedy they sought. Shows in Yarmouth, MA became regular stops, with both bands heading to Cape Cod in October. Lafayette Apple Festival Grounds, just south of Syracuse, brought in Dirty Heads and Disco Biscuits, the latter of which performed three nights, culminating their Drive-In shows with a Halloween show and an audience well-prepared for the cold and mud but still got down to dance.
What will come in 2021? Drive-In concerts will surely be a regular feature starting in the Spring, until the pandemic is under control, the population is inoculated with the vaccine, and venues are able to manage crowds of slowly increasing size. Will Drive-In concerts be here to stay? The collective effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 this year and into 2022 will determine the speed at which we can return to having live music back to where it was in early March of 2020.
