bob wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:43 am
Dannys the best at being optimistic but... haha. Everyone loves that dude including me but that part is def kinda funny at this point.
i dont think 2021 is going to happen for big shows either. if a vaccine is available by the end of the year its going to take quite awhile for most people to get it. What if its not that good ? then what ? im honestly not overly worried about it and i think this will move on in a good but it prob will take some time. Smaller shows might happen next year but i cant imagine it will be bands touring everywhere, more local stuff maybe.
Hope you concert dudes like Junior are doing alright through this. i dont want to get too personal but yknow.
Firstly, thanks for thinking of us.
Without going into too much detail, and trying not to be overly melodramatic, I'd say most touring professionals aren't doing alright. Most of us have dedicated our entire adult lives to this vocation, and learning fairly specific skills, and the "find something new" thing that is being floated out there comes off as fairly weak. In my case, this is all I've done for 32 years. 50 isn't an age to start a new career.
Some people see road crew as people who should just "get a real job", anyway. It's not 100% wrong, but it's far from 100% right.
There are some who did this as "just another job", and/or were bouncing around through various job types, and they'll go find some other thing to do.
Many of us are able to draw unemployment, but that only lasts as long as what you'd payed in, and with the recent loss of the $600 CARES addition it won't amount to a lot on a weekly basis. Some states are in the low $200s.
I've got the possibility of doing some TV work. That industry has started up again in the past month or so, but still in a limited capacity due to all the COVID safety measures. The pace and scale at which things had to happen on sets simply can't be done the way it was. It all has to be done slower and more deliberately, and with less staff to avoid unnecessary contact.
I did one day of work filling in on a TV show ("Celebrity Show-Off") last week, and it's the only work day I've had since the most recent Tool show (Portland, on March 11). It's also the first TV work I've done since December 2018 (one day on "Station 19"), so I'll have to re-build relationships with gaffers and best boys. Much like touring, in the TV world if you're out of sight then you are also out of mind. 20 months is a long time to be invisible.
I know everyone is feeling the sting of what 2020 has handed us. It sucks for almost everyone to varying degrees.
Our entire industry essentially stopped in the middle of March and has no indication of a re-start date. None.
It's difficult to maintain any kind of optimism under these conditions.
I know there are those who are trying new things, such as the drive-in concerts and whatnot, but I don't see a sustainable business model there. How long will people be satisfied with listening to the band through their car radio (although some probably sound better that way) before the gimmick wears off? Also, there's absolutely no way to curtail bootlegging in that scenario, which would be a big issue for some bands.
Production values will have to be greatly reduced in order to reduce overhead costs. This won't matter to some bands and some fans, for sure, but this also brings some side effects. Much less crew will be needed, so you've still got a large portion of the touring workforce who will just be SOL. The Tool tour employed around 70 traveling personnel, which includes the bus and truck drivers. Cut that at least in half for something like these drive-in shows.
Less local stagehands will be needed, so that part of the industry will also continue to take a big hit. The companies who supply all the equipment that the bands don't own (sound, lights, video, lasers, etc.) have had equipment sitting idle in their warehouses for months now, not making the money that was budgeted to pay for it. Most expected to make most of their income in these summer months.
Some of those companies won't make it through this. That also has the side effect of reducing competition amongst those vendors.
It's all a snowball that keeps getting bigger, and it's not good.
That said, I hope we can all make it through this and get back to bringing bands to arenas around the world once again. There are some safe demonstrations being planned throughout the world to try to bring attention to our often overlooked, unique situation. There's already been one in South America and another in the UK, that I know of.
A current project is being organized here:
http://www.roadiecare.com