Los Angeles Music Scene: Are Bands Pushing Off Their Tours Until 2022?

While doing some Internet surfing, I came across this short article from Loudwire (Apr 28). It discusses the fact that The Pretty Reckless has decided to push off their tour until 2022 due to COVID-19. The article starts off with the band's statement:

"After much thought and very careful consideration to the ongoing Covid epidemic, we have made the difficult decision to postpone all touring until 2022," the band said. "We absolutely cannot wait to come back and see you around the world in 2022… stay tuned for announcements coming this week!"

The Pretty Reckless join other in-demand rock groups — Rage Against the Machine, My Chemical Romance, Rammstein — who have erred on the safe side and bumped previously rescheduled 2020 concerts up another year. Yet, some live events are already coming back this summer, though many are outdoor festivals.

Is this going to end up being a trend? If enough bands start postponing their tours until 2022, do other bands start to look reckless for wanting to tour in 2021 and feel pressure not to do so? I could see an argument for not touring. If there is a flair-up in a region of the country or world where a band was planning on going and they end up having to cancel that leg of the tour, maybe the band actually ends up losing money instead of making money. Delaying a tour could just be a risk management decision. Perhaps one might say that bands that start touring now just have more risk tolerance than those who delay.

California is looking to open venues to full capacity starting around June 15th (restrictions on super-sized events such as conventions and music festivals). One concern I've heard among the local music scene influencers is that touring bands would start taking up nights at local venues such as The Echo and Bootleg Theater that would usually go to local bands / singers. I could see the appeal of this argument for our local venues as they haven't been earning money for over a year and who knows if the Save Our Stages grant money will even be adequate to cover all their past due bills such as rents, loans, utilities, taxes. One needs to keep an eye out to see if more bands start pushing off their tour dates. I could see this being both good and bad for the local music scene in 2021. It could be good, because more nights would open up for local bands / singers versus touring bands. It could be bad, because some of the venues might go under as they just won't be able to generate the necessary income that high ticket prices / sold out shows driven by touring bands could generate that would help payback all their past due bills. Now come 2022, venues might start dedicating more nights to touring bands.