.@LiveNation has announced its first-ever drive-in concerts series in the U.S. for July with @BradPaisley, @Nelly_Mo and @dariusrucker, months after the live music industry has been on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.https://t.co/nG0NEOgEAh
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) June 22, 2020
I believe New Hampshire’s Tupelo Music Hall may have been the first venue to start doing drive-in concerts — they seem to have thought it through pretty effectively!
From the Washington Post, “Behind the scenes of a drive-in concert: ‘I’ve never been more grateful to be honked at’”:
Mike Eli, lead singer of the Eli Young Band, strummed his guitar onstage and gazed into the crowd on a warm Texas evening in June. “How many of you out there are dreamers?” he asked.
He was answered by an explosion of car horns.
“Whatever it is that you dream about,” he said, “keep on believing.”
This was not exactly how the country band envisioned their 2020 touring experience. As they started singing their Grammy-nominated hit “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” a stirring anthem about following your dreams, they looked out on a parking lot filled with people sitting in their cars as they tuned into the show via an FM radio station, just like a drive-in movie.
Summer tour season is upon us, and Americans are starting to begrudgingly accept that, amid the coronavirus pandemic, large-scale concerts won’t resume for a long time. The music industry has been forced to get creative — and besides artists hopping on Instagram for a live stream, the most popular choice for a musical performance might be drive-in concerts.
What was once an unimaginable concept makes a lot of sense in the era of social distancing. But how does it actually work? We talked to music executives, artists and fans at one show in Texas for a snapshot of what it’s like to organize, perform and attend a concert in the year 2020…
So, is it actually fun to sit in your car and watch a concert? According to the people we asked: It is! And there are added benefits to consider, such as comfortable seating and air conditioning, as well as personal control of the volume.
Kacie Miller, a teacher who goes to lots of country music concerts, attended the Eli Young Band show. She acknowledged that the “drive-in” situation lost some of the normal concert ambiance; sometimes it was hard to see the stage, and you couldn’t really sing along with the crowd. Plus, it was only one band for an hour, as opposed to multiple openers and a headliner.
But she and a friend turned off the car, rolled down the windows and basked in hearing music that wasn’t being broadcast from the Internet. Some people opened their trunks and perched on the back ledges of their car, while others climbed on the roof for a better view. Two giant screens sat on each side of the lot, so people in the back rows could see the stage…
mrmoshpotato
Metallica Mondays have been going on for weeks!
7PM Central US time, Mondays (duh!), YouTube, bang your head to some old concerts.
Joey Maloney
Drive-in movies are also undergoing a renaissance. Abandoned drive-ins where the screen is still up (or at least repairable) are being reopened.
NotMax
From one of the articles you linked, quoting the organizer:
:(
Sab
New Hampshire is already doing drivein town halls.
Amir Khalid
There has never been drive-in anything in Malaysia, alas. When they were in vogue in the US, not enough people here had cars so drive-in cinemas weren’t a thing; these days everyone here has cars, but there are no big open-air parking lots.
I have seen all kinds of new music-related YouTube channels: Mary Chapin Carpenter playing songs from her house, ditto Norah Jones, Paul Simon, and a whole bunch of other people. Max Weinberg tells music stories and fields viewer questions on his channel. All interesting stuff.
Sab
OT I need advice on baking cakes. I quit baking cakes 50 years ago when the angel food cake I was baking fell so hard that it came out of the oven the texture of hard cheese. Instead of six inches tall it was one inch.
I want to make a three layer birthday cake. My cake pans aren’t spring-form. I know I am supposed to butter the pans and then dust them with flour before I pour the batter in. Should I put parchment paper in the bottom first?
SectionH
@Sab: Well, as the ookfishal baker in the family, I’ll just say: Baking is science*. Follow the recipe. There seem to be 3 different styles of 3 layer cakes… I guess I’d say “Pick One.” And then follow the recipe.
I personally go for Enough Butter, it won’t stick. But that’s just me.
*Ask Sam Choy.
raven
We’ve had a couple of porch concerts in our neighborhood .
Barbara
@Sab: That is what I do. A thin layer of butter to keep paper in place, then paper, then butter and flour bottom and sides.
Barbara
@SectionH: Unfortunately, this issue has as much to do with the qualities of the pan as it does with the recipe.
mad citizen
Lurker-Juicer (maybe???) Brad Paisley is headlining a shows in St Louis, Nashville and Indiana. Indiana is in the parking lot of the Ruoff Music Center (originally Deer Creek) in Noblesville Indiana. When the place was built, there was nothing around it. Now there is a bunch of shopping near it, and housing additions across the street from the parking lots will the concerts will take place. Those poor people, about to be subjected to 4 nights of car honking.