March 17, 2020

Boston’s Week-That-Would’ve-Been – 3/13-3/21

*Mannequin Pussy at The Sinclair – October 2017*

Surveying the weekly live music void in the pandemic age.

Obviously, there’s a lot of scary stuff to consider amid the Covid-19 pandemic that’s currently crippling the U.S. and most everywhere else around the world. The scale with which we’re hitting a gigantic pause button on our daily lives is unprecedented, and there’s no end to the social and financial implications of that. In my little corner of the world though, I’m thinking mainly about how this hits musicians who earn the lion’s share of their living through touring – a process which is literally illegal at the moment. I’m naturally bummed on a personal level about the month-plus of cancelled shows stretching out ahead of us right now, but doubly concerned for the performers who rely on those shows (and the merch sales that go with them) to survive – not to mention the bar staff, security, box office workers, sound engineers and others affected by these shutdowns.

In the spirit of hopefully sending a bit of cash in the direction of impacted artists, I’m going to start posting weekly roundups of some of the shows around town I would’ve been attending/covering, accompanied by some photos from the archive and links to Bandcamps and online stores where a paid download or a mail-order shirt might help.

Additionally, I’ll share and re-share (as long as they’re up) the GoFundMe campaigns to support the staff at ONCE and Great Scott / O’Brien’s Pub – venues featured quite often here which are near and dear to me.

So then, starting this past weekend, you would’ve been able to see:

Wire @ The Sinclair – 3/13