Quarantine Online Sets: Version 66

WFNM had a brief two set night on a recently Wednesday night. But I'm not complaining, because it was a great two sets. Joe Avio started it off with a cool jazz start. Lovely melodies set to relaxing sounds. There was a soft blue lighting to set the mood of falsetto vocals. 

Joe Avio

Closing it out was Ally Nicholas who can really carry a tune. Just loved her vocals. She played sitting on a couch. It was just a great singer-songwriter set.  

Comment of the set: "It is so hard not to smile while seeing the comments. You're all so sweet."

Lyric of the set: "I feel like dying tonight."

Comment left during the set by a xonkervasa: "The voice of 3 angels in one human."

What was admitted during the set: her microphone was duck taped to the stand, because she lost the clip.

Ally Nicholas

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 65

"Six at Six" monthly series on The Satellite's Instagram Live page is one of my favorite online music events. 

November's version started on Sunday with Human Barbie. I had a couple thoughts that popped up while watching the set. My first thought was that he really made me think about story time of the  Princess Bride. Then his knit cap had me thinking about R.E.M. The music sounded like poetry. The voice was perfectly soft and the guitar sounded like there was a soft pedal being applied. During the set, he loved stretching out those arms. 

Comment of the set: You are my beautiful Barbies and I love you. 

Human Barbie

Iress played on Monday. The music had an Irish chant quality. The guitarist and bassist played on the stage while the singer sat in front of the stage. A new song was sung with an opened notebook. At times, there was an Alanis Morissette unplugged feel to the set.

Lyrics of the set: I can see the wolves crying.

Info of the set: The 1st song they sang got 15,000 plays on Monday.

Photographer: I could hear the photographer taking some rapid photos.

Brian who curates the "Six at Six" series cried twice during the set. 

 

Iress

Reckling started off Tuesday by saying, "Hi, anyone out there?" The two guitarists sat next to each other and sang perfect duets. There was this Bob Dylan feel to their acoustic set, but sped up by about 25%. They did a hand stretch before the final song. They looked at each other before starting and cracked up for just a brief second. They ended that song at the exact same moment and looked pleased.

Recklng

The honkytonk sound started if off for Moonfuzz on Wednesday. Loved how the fingers did some rapid playing on those guitar strings. During one song, you know you were really seeing a set played outdoors, because the noise of a truck roaring pass was heard. Though there was some honkytonk, for other songs their vocals had the cries of the ancients. As soon as the set ended, the singer quickly put a mask on. Thumbs up on that move. 

Moonfuzz

Flames of Durga is a band that I've seen live only once at a Wild Riot event, but they definitely made an impression on me that day. On this particular Thursday, I could help but notice that one of the twins was dressed in 70s style while the other was dressed in punk rocker style. I noticed that their earrings matched their tops: red (70s) and black (punk). They also drank LiveWire cocktails. 

The twins brought a classic rocker style to the stage that was definitely not acoustic. In the comments, Usuallymikey said, "Gonna be a noise complaint in the old Silverlake tonight!!"

There set actually started off at 6:15 p.m. A 15 minute delay from the 6 p.m. start time. Seems like during rehearsal a guitar string broke. To end the set, they went faux wild by raising the bass high and gently slamming the guitar. 

Flames of Durga

Closing out the series was Brenda Carsey on Friday. She didn't bring her keyboard for the set. Instead, she played the guitar. No matter what, as Brian said during the set, she has an amazing voice. Nothing like Brenda Carsey sing her tunes. That is a reason why I've seen Brenda Carsey three times live.

Brenda Carsey

Los Angeles Music Scene: Short Documentary on the Long Beach music scene

A short 9 minute documentary that looks into the Long Beach music scene. There are interviews with the venue owners of Alex's Bar, 4th Street Vine and Supply & Demand. The 4th Street Vine owner talks about the financial strain for small music venues and the assumption that venues like The Echo and Echoplex will survive due to their connections with Live Nation. Alex's Bar owner mentions that they've taken on debt to survive.

 

Joshua Payne Orchestra at the LA River

I've always gone out exercising, but since the pandemic, I've switched from walking the hills around my home to walking along the Los Angeles river. The switch was driven by the fact that wearing a mask causes serious breathing problems when climbing hills and the river walk is easier on the lungs. Anyways, a couple times while walking I came across someone who was always packing up his music equipment. I finally decided to ask him what his band name was. He told me, Joshua Payne Orchestra. I looked him up on Instagram and decided that the next time he was playing along the Los Angeles River, I'd see what it was all about.

Well, off I went on a recent Sunday afternoon. His music has a grandiose style, taking inspiration from movie and opera tunes. He likes to play it loud and mighty. He played the guitar while his bandmate took to the keys. One thing I noticed was how he almost always held his Smart phone. I'm not sure the reason for that was. At one point, he put his phone atop his guitar while he played. I wondered, "How many times has the phone slipped off the top of his guitar?"

There was probably a steady attendance of around 50 people throughout his 1 hour set. I'm sure that 200 or so stopped by to take in at least part of his set.

Along the LA River

Los Angeles Music Scene: What Various Venues Are Doing to Stay Afloat

Photo of The Satellite

As all of us who are involved in the local Los Angeles music scene know that a number of venues have closed for good. But there are others still pushing onwards. I figured I'd take a look at what some of these remaining venues are doing to stay afloat.

Alex's Bar - Long Beach

From the Long Beach Post (Oct 25):

The bar, located on 2913 E. Anaheim St., announced its soft reopening Friday and its grander one Saturday over social media featuring a photo of their new 100 capacity parklet, which encompasses nearly 3,500 square feet of the venue’s parking lot.

After being closed for nearly eight months, owner Alex Hernandez was evidently in high-spirits during Saturday’s opening, saying “it feels like a thousand pound weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

Like other bars, Alex’s operations are contingent on taking up the many aspects that restaurants do.

Zebulon - Atwater Village

Via their Instagram page on Oct 13th, Zebulon wrote:

We’re ready to welcome you back to the patio!! We’ll be opening Thursday, October 15th at 6pm!

Hours this week will be Thursday-Sunday 6pm-close.

Masks are required to enter the building.

We will have a limited capacity to respect social distancing guidelines and will serve on a first come first serve basis.

The venue did have to shut down for a few days due to a false positive COVID test, but they are back up and running. The venue is also still collecting donations via their GoFundMe page.

Both Alex's Bar and Zebulon have significant outdoor space. Perhaps nearly the same size as their indoor space, which gives them advantages over other music venues. Alex's Bar is having to work with a restaurant while Zebulon has their own café. 

Hotel Café - Hollywood

There is a parking lot near Hotel Café though I'm not sure if they own that space. I'll assume that they don't. Even without that Alex's Bar/Zebulon strategy available to them, they are most definitely pursuing two other options. They have to be one of the most aggressive when it comes to a music streaming strategy. For example, they had ARO (of the Osbourne family) and Suzanne Santo on livestream. And they have other artists scheduled to perform. 

Via Variety (Oct 28) we also know they've aggressively pursued grants:

A new philanthropic organization, the Live Music Society, has awarded grants of 20 small music clubs around the United States to help them weather the ongoing shutdown, in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per venue.

. . . Among those marked to be awarded money in this first round include such renowned rooms as the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, a nightly showcase for upcoming singer-songwriters . . .

Lodge Room - Highland Park / Viper Room and Whisky a Go Go - Sunset Strip

They appear to have the occasional livestreams.

Bootleg Theater - Historic Filipinotown / Rampart Village

The did get some PPP funding and grants. LA Times (Sep 1):

They’re lucky in some respects, as the club did receive some PPP funding and nonprofit grants for its theater programming. But [Kyle Wilkerson of Sid the Cat] estimates that it will take “into six figures” for the club to survive the year and much more if COVID-19 shutdowns continue into next spring and summer.

So obviously what they got was not enough to keep them going financially pass 2020. Their GoFundMe campaign has been successful. Their Instagram page hasn't been updated since June. On the other hand, Sid The Cat has been promoting shows.

Troubadour - West Hollywood

They are doing some livestreams. Also, in-house talent buyer Amy Madrigali told Pollstar (Sep 16):

Are you working with NIVA? Yeah. I’m the southern California precinct captain for the lobby advocacy team.

Wow, precinct captain, do you get a badge or sash? I think I just get a lot of emails and make a lot of calls. I’m typically coordinating for the L.A.- and O.C.-area venues to get in touch with their representative.

So they're taking a leading role in getting Save Our Stages passed. 

The Echo / Echoplex - Echo Park

They're part of Live Nation. Live Nation expects tours to start back up in the Summer of 2021. I think that is wishful thinking. It'll be interesting to read their future quarterly earnings calls.

Moroccan Lounge / The Smell - DTLA

The Smell does the occasional food drive and helping out those in need. I haven't read any news on the Moroccan Lounge.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 64

WFNM kicked it on a recent Wednesday night with some top notch musicians. 

Opening the night was Kat Saul. Her singing was with the backdrop of tracking vocals. What was the non-music moment of the night happened right at the beginning of the set when off camera her roommate walked into the house. There was a brief pause in the set as the roommate came into view and gave the audience a hello.

Comment of the set: Shout out to my ex-Danny.

Kat Saul

Next up was King Mala with Amy Weinstein vocals. She was so engaging even if she was just sitting on an Ottoman couch. She just moved her body in a way that provided the sense of a full on performance even if she was just sitting on a couch. And she put some passion behind her singing.

Comment of the set that was directed at a friend who came online to watch the set: Jenny, I love you so much. 

King Mala

Jess Gold is a singer-songwriter with a guitar. The way he played that guitar made it look like he was just doing improvisation throughout the set. It was such beautiful music that was set up like he was just jamming through some demo music. 

A friend joined online late and so he gave a shout out to Jack, saying that Jack made all the music.

Jess Gold

Bre Kennedy came to us from Nashville. She said that driving from Los Angeles to Nashville was the best decision she ever made. "I didn't know what I was doing, I was just following my gut." She had a knit cap on gave a wonderful folk-country set that included a friend that provided the a wonderful duet. Due to the knit cap, it felt like singing around a camp fire. 

What was learned from the set: she got to open for Sheryl Crow.

Bre Kennedy

Annika Grace closed out the night. I swear that even though she had a guitarist, it felt like she was singing A cappella for her first song.

Lyrics of the set: Just a crazy stupid, bitch.

During her set, like Jess Gold, she gave a shoutout to her friend Spencer for writing a song with her.

She mentioned how she used to go to Madame Siam on Wednesday nights and how much she misses it. Yet, off to the side where we couldn't see, she had some friends watching her live to celebrate her own Madame Siam night.

Have to say she seems to have a great personality and signed off by blowing a kiss in farewell.

Annika Grace

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 63

Got to drop by Home School (School Night) on a recent Tuesday night. The headliner was Renforshort. She did her set at the El Mocambo music venue in Toronto. She is perhaps best known for her song "afterthoughts," which was on the Disney+ movie "Clouds." That song has a tender pop sound to it. Considering the song was for a Disney movie, it gives one certain assumptions about her. However, she came across like a young pop version of Garbage's Shirley Manson. She also had an "I Don't Care That I'm A Pop Star" look. 

What I noticed: She was very careful about crossing her legs when taking a seat on a stool. 

Lyrics of the set: F*ck I love my friends.

So perhaps her stage presence is the I Don't Care attitude, but as soon as she hit her last notes her face just lit up in a huge smile as she said good-bye.

Renforshort

One of the openers was was Thomas Headon. He had a real casual approach to his set. His set was played in what looked to be a living room. He sat on the arm rest of a couch. His guitarist sat on the couch. And a percussionist played next to the couch. He came to us playing from London, England. His music nailed some pop rhythms. 

Lyric of the set: My friends said I should just forget about you, but it is hard to do so when you're still wearing my cloths.

Comment of the set from the audience: Cool music but don't put dirty sneakers on the sofa! #illcleanyouup.

To end the set, he said to the audience, "Get home safe." Ha ha, he obvious forgot that everyone was likely watching from home.

Thomas Headon

Opening the night was Sycco. Though she didn't mention it, I'm assuming she was coming to us from Australia. She loved to hit her lyrics with a perfect syncopated beat. I loved how the keys and drums hit those beats. And when the keyboardist switched to his guitar, he turned it into the sounds of an organ. There was a tropical sound to her music.  

Comment of the set: I just got the madness de javu . . . and it is totally unexplainable.

Sycco

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 62

Lauren Ruth Ward dropped by Dr. Martens' Instagram Live for a 15 minute set. Wearing an American flag top, she jumped right into her blues rock set after setting up the Live performance. Her set was full on energy with arms in full motion as she danced in joy on the rug floor. 

After her first song, she came up to the camera and said with cheer, "Hi, everyone."

Lyric of the quick set: "While I feel the bleed."  Perhaps a more biological take on Divinys' "I Touch Myself." The song was done with a miniskirt flip and similar PG-13 suggestions. 

To end the set, she said, "Hope to see you soon." Yes, sometime, she shall return to the live stage.

On Dr. Martens' Instagram Live

Los Angeles Music Scene: Live Nation reports Q3 results and along the way questions Mark Geiger's $75 million

(Yes, I know, this is a photo of The Satellite.
It is my current LA Music Scene update photo)

Live Nation Entertainment reported Q3 financials on November 5th. They reported earnings per share of -$2.45 and revenues of $184 million. Revenues were down 95% on a year-over-year basis. That wasn't exactly surprising. In Los Angeles, the company runs such venues as Hollywood Palladium, The Belasco and The Wiltern. For those of us who love the local music scene, we're well aware that they also own The Echo, Echoplex, and The Regent Theater. 

When it comes to financials in this time of COVID-19 where no significant concerts are going on in the United States and Europe, I suspect that the most important part of your financial statements isn't your P&L, but your cash situation. As of the end of Q3, they reported having $2.625 billion on their balance sheet. But that $2.625 billion isn't all that it seems.

During their earnings call, they had some clarifications on that cash.

They look at what they call "free cash." Free cash makes various adjustments to their cash. For example, they adjust for "ticket-related client funds." I interpret that as the portion of ticket sales that don't belong to Live Nation -- probably advance ticket sales at this point. Anyways, after making those adjustments, their "free cash at the end of the third quarter is $951 million." They also have "over $950 million of available debt capacity." So they really have $1.9 billion in available cash.

Now how quickly are they going through their $1.9 billion in cash? "As part of this, we have further reduced all discretionary spending by another approximately $100 million and have now lowered to us for this year by over $900 million and reduce our cash usage by $1.5 billion relative to our pre-COVID plants. With these reductions, we have lowered the estimate on our operational cash burn rate to $110 million per month and our gross burn rate to $175 million per month on average for the last nine months of the year and prior to the benefit of contribution margin generated by the business. Included in our gross burn estimate is approximately $40 million in severance expense estimated through year-end which we expect to generate over $200 million in annual run rate savings."

They are looking at a gross burn rate of $175 million per month, which should get reduced by around $5 million per month for temporary severance expense so we're looking at $170 million per month. So they should be able to last around 11 months; however, it appears that they don't feel like they will burn cash for that long. 

Here's what they have to say about the re-start of concerts, "So if you have a new if you have a new tour well let's think about the fall into 2022 but let's sit tight until January before you start moving any costs in place to get ready. So that's kind of a -- that the general sense is let's -- let's reset, let's get through 2021 summer with whatever we reschedules from 2020, add new stuff into the fall to 2022 as we get a better visibility into January." 

According to Live Nation, concerts that were planned for 2020 will shift to the summer of 2021 and any new concerts will start in 2022. That seems to imply that cash infusions related to early sales will start in Q1 2021. Based on that, they're probably looking at a cash drain of let's say 4 months worth of cash (October through January) or $680 million. That would eat up most of their free cash, but wouldn't require them to dip into the $950 million debt capacity.

I should note that Deadline (Nov 5) wrote the following: At the end of the second quarter, Live Nation said it had total cash and cash equivalents of $3.3 billion, including $1.8 billion of free cash and $966 million of available debt capacity. All in, the company has over $2.7 billion in available liquidity. Its cash burn rate is about $125 million a month to keep running. So they're saying that Live Nation has nearly $2.7 billion in free cash and available debt capacity, but this was as of Q2. So their free cash and available debt capacity dropped from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion in 3 months (Q2 to Q3). So that's just under $270 million a month in Q2 cash usage, which they're now slashing to around $170 million. 

Okay, so enough with the cash flow analysis. Let's get to a more intriguing subject where one might argue that Live Nation is doing a little mocking of a potential competitor. As I reported earlier, Marc Geiger, the former global music chief of the giant talent agency WME, was able to secure $75 million to invest in a network of clubs. This is what Live Nation had to say about that:

"When it gets to the venues in general the thesis out there with Mark Geiger and some others is that these independent venues are so distressed that they're going to throw someone the keys at a very cheap price and you can maybe roll up some of these cheaply and have some scale. Well, the thesis is basically broken at the first point is any great Live club is not throwing anybody in the keys cheaply. There's a lot of capital out there. 

"So if you on the Troubadour in Los Angeles, it's a legendary business and you're having a tough year. You're not selling to Mark Geiger or anyone else, if one or two time multiple your access to capital PPE loans lots of ways you can keep your business afloat, while you get through the storm. So we don't think that there's a huge opportunity that that there's a fire sale happening at that level.

"Now number two as you know we -- we’re the -- we have a consolidation of clubs in our business. Clubs on their own are a tough business, if you scale them up on their own. They're not -- they're not a really, really fruitful business on their own. So, we like them as part of our -- our overall ecosystem. But we're -- we don't believe that clubs whether you own 10, or whether you own 20 of them on their own provides you much global synergy or US synergy to leverage off of.

"So we hope all of these clubs find their way through this pandemic like we -- we hope all Live service providers find their way through this and that the government and stimulus programs and can help them survive it. But we don’t think that that there’s probably many that are going to fire to anybody, because there’s too many great options for them."

Hmm . . . does this quote sound like they have inside information on what's going on at the Troubadour or are they just discussion the Troubadour, because it is a well-known independent venue? Wouldn't I like to know the answer to that.

Also, considering the length of the above quote, Live Nation had a planned response regarding Geiger's $75 million.

Back to cash flow to close this out. If you read my blog post regarding Marc Geiger, his opinion is that concerts start back up in 2022. Now he doesn't appear to clarify when in 2022, but let's just say he's talking January 2022. Please notice that Live Nation is talking summer of 2021 and Geiger is talking 2022. If Geiger is correct, this adds an additional six months before Live Nation starts to collect any significant cash flow. Let's say that instead of 4 months, Live Nation needs to wait 10 months. That would result in them using $1.7 billion in cash ($170 million x 10 months). Of course, they would likely have to take another scrub at their cash spending at some point, but just for this mental exercise they would nearly run through their total $1.9 billion in available cash and would need to do some combination of issuing additional debt and asset sales to survive.

    

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 61

Culture Collide had two singers on a recent Friday afternoon. Starting it off at 4 p.m. was Madi Sipes. First thing I noticed was that there was a photo of Elvis hanging from the wall. She has a soulful voice with a blues sound. 

Her lyrics of the set were, "I've never seen someone so sexy, I want you bad." A lyric about not being able to express your feelings to someone else. 

Be it on the guitar or piano, she likes to play chords and then include some complementary notes that glide along side. 

She ended her set, telling those watching, "Moments of deep breaths to your Friday."

Madi Sipes

Coming on at 6 p.m. was Nova Miller. She has blond flowing hair and a vivacious personality. Per Culture Collide, she has a sizable TikTok following. Her vocals carried her to some high notes as she promoted her new album, "The Passion." Along with her, out of view from the camera, was a friend who provided that live audience feel.

Nova Miller

Los Angeles Music Scene: Marc Geiger (formerly of William Morris Endeavor) and $75M

The Satellite

I previously reported that the Live Music Society is providing grants between $10,000 to $50,000 for venues that have capacities below 250.

Per the New York Times (Oct 28), it now looks like there is an effort underway that will focus on larger  independent venues: 

Marc Geiger, the former global music chief of the giant talent agency WME, has quietly amassed a war chest to fortify empty clubs during the pandemic and help them grow once they reopen. One of the most charismatic figures behind the scenes of the music industry — a motormouth futurist who helped create Lollapalooza and was an early proponent of how the internet could help musicians — Geiger portrays his latest venture as a kind of personal crusade.

. . . His plan for SaveLive is to invest in dozens of clubs around the country — buying at least 51 percent of the equity in those businesses — and help them expand into regional forces once concerts return at full steam, which he does not expect until 2022 or later. SaveLive has secured $75 million in available capital from an initial investment round, Geiger said, and is already negotiating with a number of venues around the country.

“The hope here is to create a network effect,” Geiger said. 

He definitely knows how to create music festivals. I wonder if he has the skill sets to manage venues across the country. As it looks like he wants to create a network of venues for tours, I suspect he isn't targeting venues like The Hotel Café (200 capacity) and Zebulon (300 capacity), maybe not even the Bootleg Theater (500 capacity - theatre). I suspect he is looking at larger and perhaps more historical venues such as The Glass House (800 capacity), 1720 (700 capacity) The Teragram Ballroom (625 capacity), and The Troubadour (500 capacity). (I am listing those venues as I don't think any of them are aligned with Live Nation or AEG. If I am wrong, then scratch those specific venues.)  

Also want to highlight the fact that the assumption he's using is that concerts won't return until 2022 or later. 

The New York Times adds the most obvious complaint. 

“Geiger’s solution on some level scares me,” said Frank Riley of High Road Touring, an indie stalwart who books artists like Wilco, My Bloody Valentine and Robert Plant. “He is going to buy distressed properties for money on the dollar and end up owning 51 percent of their business. Is that independent? I don’t know. But it does save the platforms on which things grow and where artists are sustained.”

Just glancing at their roster, High Road Touring helps Los Angeles musicians/bands such as A.O. Gerber, L.A. Witch, Milo Greene and The Paranoyds.

Now there is no doubt that Marc Geiger has a love of the music industry, but why might he be making this move now? LA Times (Jun 26) reports:

Marc Geiger, a partner and worldwide head of music for William Morris Endeavor, has left the Beverly Hills talent agency as the entertainment industry continues to grapple with the suspension of concerts due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Geiger’s exit is one of several changes in WME’s music department. Sara Newkirk Simon, co-head of the department, will be moving to a consulting role at parent company Endeavor. The department will now be led by Scott Clayton, Lucy Dickins and Kirk Sommer. The agency’s music roster includes artists like Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars.

He has some time on his hands. 

I suspect he's hoping to build this into a network that at some point will challenge Live Nation and AEG. Obviously, if my speculation about his venue targets in Los Angeles are correct, Live Nation and AEG has nothing to worry about at the moment. On the other hand, Live Nation took on $1.2 billion in debt recently. It is possible they might need to sell off certain properties and Geiger might be able to get some deals (would need more than $75 million, but could raise more from investors).

Los Angeles Music Scene: Financial Tidbits

The Satellite

Rolling Stones (Oct 30) provides some financial details on how much it costs to keep a Los Angeles music venue open for even a short period of time:

As both the pandemic and its consequent lockdown restrictions grew more severe, owners like [Jeff Wolfram of The Satellite] tried to navigate unprecedented challenges. Wait staff were furloughed and later let go. Paperwork for loan and PPP applications took up the time previously reserved for booking bands. Bills and worries mounted as owners tried to placate, negotiate, and satiate landlords and vendors.

. . . He received a $10,000 government grant to help pay for rent but it was like a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. “I heard about other places that got $90,000 but that’s literally only two-and-a-half months [for some venues],” he says. 

I wonder who got $90,000? Of course, whoever got that amount of money only covered two-and-a-half months of expenses. Music venues in Los Angeles have been shut down for nearly 8 months. So that specific venue has five-and-a-half months of expenses that still needs to be covered (less any cash on hand they might have had in the bank that would adjust that months of expenses). Potentially, passage of Save Our Stages in 2021 (assuming any additional federal stimulus won't happen until 2021) would cover 6 additional months for that venue, but if the venue got no additional outside grants, it would just head back into debt immediately.

As independent venues shut down, many owners of smaller locations fear both an increased consolidation of power in the hands of behemoths like Live Nation and lack of the traditional feeder system that nurtures fledgling bands to rise up the ranks.

I actually disagree with the above comment in terms of Live Nation. Live Nation had to issue $1.2 billion in debt in May 2020. (They have a total of nearly $5 billion in debt.) Here is my reasoning for my disagreement: First, I'm not sure that they will have any cash available to make significant venue purchases. Yes, that debt issuance gave them a lot of cash, but they've been draining that cash since May. Second, in order to get their debt under control, they might need to sell off local venues to raise cash. I suppose, there is always the possibility that a YouTube (Google) or Spotify could get into the local music scene. Google getting involved in the music venue business doesn't seem like a fit, but perhaps it would fit with Spotify.      

Back in California, Saint Rocke’s [Allen Sanford] is already looking into a new music venue in Venice with his business partner, whenever that may be. “We’re hellbent on bringing music back to Venice and think it’s important to the community and we literally have a venue that’s built and completely done,” he says. “Now we’re just waiting for the day that we can bring music into there.” 

So wait, if I'm reading this correctly, they sold Saint Rocke and just bought another location in Venice? Probably a smaller venue, I suppose. Honestly, if I am reading this correctly, it seems like a waste of money to immediately buy a new location. Seems to me that the longer California stays shut down, the more commercial space opens up for lease or purchase (and the cheaper it gets to buy or rent).

NYS Music (Oct 30) has this interesting post:

After months of being shut down and struggling to make ends meet, small business music venues will, finally, get the help they’ve been asking for. Live Music Society, a new nonprofit organization, announced their launch of relief efforts for the industry.

The Live Music Society Grants will supply philanthropic aid to music venues that have been in operation for three years or more with a sellable capacity of 250 occupants or less, with maximum one-year individual grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000.

The first phase of grants went to 20 music venues. One venue was in Los Angeles: The Hotel Cafe. Interesting, no grants were provided to venues in Austin, Nashville and Portland. These are cities I identify with local music. I suspect venues in those cities will be part of future grants. Unfortunately, it does not appear that the Bootleg Theater would qualify for this grant as the theater has a capacity of over 500. Even the Zebulon may not qualify as based on this article it has a capacity of 300. One venue that would likely qualify for a grant would be the Viper Room, which has a capacity of 250; however, the building the venue occupies was sold in 2018 with speculation that it will eventually be turned into apartments or a hotel. 

I am happy for The Hotel Café. If there is any venue that is going all out in an attempt to survive this pandemic, it is that venue. But let me do some speculation. They only got $50,000 at most. As Wolfman of The Satellite stated, that probably funds them for less than two-and-a-half months of fixed expenses.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 60

The Satellite held their October "Six at Six" presented by The 6660s monthly series. 

I already did a specific post on Mars Rodriguez, which I got to attend in person to do some photography. For the rest of the series, I watched online.

Chase Petra opened up that part of the series for me. I just recently came across this band during Echo Park Rising that was held online in September. The band played as a two piece, their drummer wasn't able to attend. The band actually started their set late due to traffic jams as they were coming in from Orange County, which was impacted by a fire. Their acoustic set just highlighted how great the vocals are. The band knows how to carry a tune. 

Humorous moment: "Hunter usually brings the skeleton of a song." Then the two members of the band pointed to the Halloween skeleton that was situated in front of them. 

Chase Petra

Mediocore was the second band up. I always forget that Cindy Clark has those screaming vocals. I first came across her in Earthsleep, her prior band. In that band, her vocals screeched to the point of what I have to assume strains her vocal chords. Why I would forget that fact, I don't know. Her new band, Mediocore has a garage, experimental rock feel that brings in some unusual chord structures. 

Humorous moments: during one song, the electricity went out for a split second, causing the stage lights to blink and the pedal board to scramble. Then at the end of the sent, the amp picked up a local radio station.

Mediocore

Cartalk had those folk rock vibes going on. The guitar was played down to bass level. There was a request to lower the guitar volume, but I got to say even then the music still blasted in great fashion.

Had to notice: Jail Weddings joined the Livestream. And so did Jessie Deluxe - I haven't seen this one person dynamo in way too long. 

Cartalk

Tony Knox of Crisis Actor was the only band from the series that I had never seen. The set reminded me of 80s Bon Jovi doing an acoustic rock set. He tapped his shoe to the beat of his music.  

What did I notice: the sun glasses.

And fact: the drummer of the band is learning how to be a trucker.

Tony Knox

Egg Drop Soup took their punk sounds into the world of the unplugged. This was the first time I've seen the band since getting a new drummer. Their minimalist punk set also highlighted some Halloween fun: scarecrow, Kurt Cobain, and a pterodactyl. Like Brian, who was hosted the event, I also thought the pterodactyl was an alligator.   

Lyric of the set: If I'm not supposed to dream like this, pinch me now.

Egg Drop Soup

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 59

Wednesday means heading over to WFNM to catch a few bands/musicians. First up was Belle Mt. It was a short 12 minute pre-recorded set, but all so worth it. He started out with some basic tuning and then jumped into a British sounding folk set. Vocals hit the right moments by punctuating his lyrics perfectly. He played part of his set sitting on a couch that edged up to the corner of the room. There was a shaded lamp and books in the corner. He played his set barefoot with a floor heater.   

Belle Mt.

More was next with two members of the band playing on the same bench. One took up the keys and guitars while the other stuck to the guitar. They had this The Beatles flair with just a touch of Bobby McFerrin. The set briefly got interrupted when a phone call came through, which froze the screen in the middle of their wonderfully crafted song. So what did they do? They just re-started the song from the start, hoping that another phone call didn't disrupt them. Another phone call didn't come through.

Comment of the night: Getting situated in the vertical is difficult to get used to, it is like you can't perform. 

More

My final musician of the night was Morgan St. Jean. What soulful vocals. She played the set under pink lights. And there was a poster in the background with red lips and smoke coming out of the mouth. 

Moments of the set: she tried reading the Instagram comments, but gave up eventually, as she told everyone that she needed glasses.

Morgan St. Jean

Los Angeles Music Scene: Current Outlook as of October

The Satellite

In terms of music venues (unless I missed some news), no "major" local music venues have closed since July. In July, to refresh memories, Saint Rocke, The Factory, The House of Machines, and The Satellite all announced they were shutting down.  

I do know that a small DYI venue, Sun Space, announced they were closing in early October. Perhaps some will complain that I'm not considering this a "major" local music venue. We all know that The Hi Hat property is up for sale. Per Belle's Bagels' Instagram, I came across this tidbit: 

Today marks the end of an era. Monday will be our last day of service out of the Hi Hat . . . We had hoped that with all the uncertainty around music venues and bars that we could have remained at the Hi Hat at least for a little while longer but unfortunately that would not have been possible without the building owner effectively tripling our rent as well as imposing a myriad of contingencies that for us were just too risky for an uncertain time. 

"Myriad of contingencies," I wonder what that implies. It perhaps meant that the new property owner would get to decide if Belle's Bagels would need to vacate. Anyways, it is a loss of income to The Hi Hat property owners, which I would assume gives them even more incentive to sell.

The big news that I recently came across regarding the fate of local music venues came from the LA Times (Oct 19):

Even just a few weeks ago, venue owners and industry advocates were optimistic that help was on the way. The Save Our Stages Act, championed in the Senate by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), would provide $10 billion in grants to local music venues to pay for expenses like rent, utilities and insurance not covered under the Paycheck Protection Program.

. . . Several L.A.-area venue operators said they’re giving it until the new year to make existential decisions about whether to even stay in business. They said they’re starting to feel like they’re in an airplane with a blown-out engine: suspended in midair, waiting for the drop.

. . . “That’s the giant anxiety pill everyone swallows before bed,” said Alex Hernandez, owner of Long Beach’s two-decade-old punk stalwart Alex’s Bar. “What if I’m just paying rent for no reason? I already took out another business loan and borrowed more money than I paid to open this place. But when does it put my wife and three kids in a dangerous place with no savings to keep a roof over our heads?”

At this point, is the Save Our Stages Act at $10 billion even adequate? My understanding is that the bill only provides six months of financial support. Venues in Los Angeles have now been closed since mid-March, or 7.5 months. Like the first paragraph of the quote states, there was optimism about the passage of the Act. But then other political considerations got in the way. Maybe something passes by the start of 2021? If so, we're talking 10 or 11 months of venues making hardly any money. Unless the Act is doubled to $20 billion, does it do any good? 

If I'm a Los Angeles music venue, any portion of the $10 billion that I receive immediately goes to either my landlord or the bank. Also, I suspect Los Angeles music venues will remain shut down until at earliest, July, and at the latest, early 2022. So even $20 billion might not be adequate. You might really need to see something hitting $30 billion or $40 billion (assuming all venues across the nation remains shut, which is probably unlikely as I've already seen photos on Instagram of live music occurring indoors in other states).

The second paragraph of the quote gives an idea of why we haven't heard any additional news about closures from other venues since July. Come early 2021, we might hear bad news coming out from venues such as the Bootleg Theater, Moroccan Lounge and Zebulon. 

The third paragraph of the quote indicates the decision making that these owners are going through. My interpretation: I love the music scene, but I also have a family to consider. That is the reality of the situation and one can't hold that against the owners of the venues no matter what decision they make in 2021.