For many, live music has been a large part of their lives, and with COVID-19 that part has disappeared. Only in recent months has it returned across the country, and Moscow, Idaho is no different. Bands have started to slowly tour again, and many businesses and venues have begun to start hosting music again, such as One World Café, Humble Burger, Hunga Dunga Brewing Company, Johns Alley, and several more. The continuity of this has been put into extreme doubt over the most recent COVID-19 surge, however. The Argonaut reached out to several of these venues to ask about how the last year has affected them and their plans moving forward.
Sara Beth, co-owner of One World Café, a warmly colored café that in the past frequently had live music, open mic, and salsa nights, spoke to the Argonaut.
When asked about how COVID-19 has affected their venue, she responded “It has disabled, it’s dismantled it, we have had one show since COVID hit, it was the summer when things were going okay. We still have limited capacity seating, and unfortunately, we started booking shows but we had to cancel them because of the CDC recommendations for indoors. So, before COVID happened we were having shows almost every night, five nights a week. That just went to a screeching halt.”
When asked about her feelings in general about COVID-19 and live music, “I feel so much for the artists. I think everyone aches for live music, and to see that art form go on such a hiatus is heartbreaking, but I think it’s important for us to do what we can to keep our community safe.”
The Argonaut sought out the manager of John’s Alley, Shelby Saylors, and the co-owner “Vertical” Dave Sturing. John’s Alley in Shelby’s words is, a “Five-star dive bar. It’s a place for everybody. I don’t think we try to be anything other than what we are, which is just a place for people to gather and have a really good time. Get a little grungy and listen to good music.”
The dimly lit venue usually hosts weekly music shows from local and touring bands and weekly karaoke nights. Dave Sturing stated when how the last year’s music scene has been for him, “[It’s been] non-existent. Yeah, touring bands just didn’t tour, venues closed. We just got going again for shows in July.”
To the question of how he sees music at John’s Alley right now in Moscow due to the fact it is one of the few places playing music right now, “Its much more regionalized I think right now. Fortunately, Moscow has a pretty good local band scene, which is nice because with now this delta variant being what it’s turning out to be touring bands are still not too confident in touring.”
When asked if he thinks this trend of mainly local bands will continue, “With regional bands maybe from Portland, Seattle, Spokane. I got some Missoula bands but that’s coming up in October.”
When asked how big of a part of Moscow he thought live music was he responded, “I think that it is a very important aspect to keep supporting, it has dropped off in the last decade or so. I was doing some cleaning a couple years ago, and ran into an old attendance ledger from like 2002, and seeing that common attendance on a concert on a Wednesday night was anywhere from 120 to 180 people. The last few years 180 on a Friday or Saturday show is sparse.”
Whenasked if he had any closing comments he said, “You know even Tom Petty played for a cover charge every once in a while. So, yeah, supporting live music I think is an important thing, and paying a young small touring band that lives in a van, five to ten bucks is more important than people think.”
The manager, Shelby Saylors shared a similar note hoping, “Just for people to turn up and support music. That’s a crucial part, you know, bands aren’t going to come here, and venues aren’t going to bring bands here if there’s not a crowd here to connect with the artist and, you know, pay that cover to help cover the cost of the band being here. A lot of these musicians, they’re dedicating so much of their life to be on the road and buying equipment and instruments and paying for hotel rooms and, you know the bars putting up some of that cost too just to bring them here and so if we don’t have the crowd here to help with that income and really show their support for live music, then we’re not going to have it anymore.”
If music will continue to grow back into life in Moscow, Idaho or if it will continue to wait for clearer times is yet be determined.
Cory Summers can be reach at [email protected]