This past week, Elisa Zuckerberg (Hear it There Founder) and I recently attended two live music performances within two days. Prior to 2020, nothing about that sentence would be remarkable. However, as we are emerging from a two-year hiatus, it is refreshing to remind ourselves that the simple act of sharing an appetizer with a group of friends can comfortably be enjoyed once again. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed this everyday combination of friends, food and live music. More fittingly, drafting this blog reminded me that our double dose of live music began on St. Patrick’s Day – two years to the day that the celebrated holiday went dark.

Following our group gathering on Thursday, Elisa and I decided to take in a Saturday brunch show at Daryl’s House Club in Pawling, NY. The brunch was well-attended and enjoyable. At the end of the show we stopped by the engineering booth to thank Peter Moshay for his excellent work, and the conversation turned towards musician draw and the reluctant return of the fans. 

During the sequester, it was vital to stay connected, and we hungrily consumed live music via streaming media, as our favorite artists acquired the skills and comfort levels to present their music professionally from their homes. Playing for contributions via electronic apps became the norm, and nobody thought twice about popping a live stream up on their wide screen or engaging on their handheld electronics. 

Pre-pandemic, Moshay was already leading the trend from Daryl’s House, as the club frequently live streamed the sold out acts on the club’s FB page. Like everyone else, the venue reinvented itself during the sequester in an effort to remain in business. Fortunately for its loyal staff and clientele the doors were eventually reopened to live performances. Initially the bigger acts were not going out, and Hear It There was given an unprecedented opportunity to book many local acts, and support the venue as staff came back to work. We are now past the first quarter of 2022, and it feels like folks are more comfortable going out and the named acts are returning. Daryl’s House Club is not the only live music venue facing the challenges of remaining operational. As a matter of fact, Nadine Bourne at the Examiner+ just published a digital article about the challenges faced by The White Plains Performing Arts Center on this very topic.

I think we can all agree, there is nothing that compares to the shared experience of being in the middle of a live music event, grooving to your favorite band while the audience sings along, and the building is absolutely vibrating with love and crowd energy. March 20, 2022 welcomed the official start of spring. There’s excitement in the air as migrational birds return and the earth is returning to color. It seems fitting that we are also shedding those lonesome two years of sequester and the need to burrow inside.

In my opinion, it’s up to all of us, musicians and fans alike, to get out of our sweats and go back out there. I’m afraid if we don’t start supporting these venues, we are going to lose that option eventually.  😕

Let’s keep this conversation going.

Thank you for reading, Jacque 

Jacque Roche is a freelance writer, editor and music blogger for HearItThere.com and contributor to several local publications. Archived broadcasts of 2016-2020 radio shows can be heard streaming on Mixcloud.com.