An Easy but a Tough Call; Canceling a Show

It’s a really quick answer when you ask yourself to choose between canceling a show to be safe or to just do the show anyway. Well, at least for me it was a quick answer. I chose to cancel my show 24 hours in advance with the knowledge that a household member tested positive for COVID-19.

The early summer of 2021 was a very liberating and sort of scary time for me and my family. Cases dropped significantly and a lot of people were getting vaccinated. The mask mandate was dropped and life seemed to bounce back to normalcy.

As soon as I got my second shot I blasted local venues I played at in Bend, Oregon with a music booking inquiry. It felt great to get the gigs back on my schedule or at least try to work to get them on there.

My family took a road trip vacation to Montana where we visited the incredibly beautiful National Parks of both Glacier and Yellowstone. Our family traveled and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and stayed at a few AirBnB’s. I brought my acoustic guitar and had fun playing at night before we went to sleep.

Our AirBnB host came out to see us off when we were departing from Yellowstone. “You sounded great last night,” she said, commenting about my songs that I played. “That was me clapping.”

I laughed and said “Oh good! I thought I heard someone clapping… I’m glad it wasn’t just my ego.”

Shortly after we returned to Oregon my wife and I went on a short trip back to Montana to enjoy our first concert since the lockdown. We attended the Wilco show at the Ketttlehouse Amphitheater where they were splitting a tour with Sleater Kinney.

It was absolutely fantastic. My wife and I loved Missoula, Montana and I joked about wanting to move there. I think what struck me about the entire experience was being maskless and enjoying the walks around town. Then going to the concert with masks but wearing them only when in the crowd or on the bus.

We spotted Wilco’s tour manager, Eric Frankhouser, at a bar/restaurant called Top Hat. My wife and I recognized him immediately since we follow the band and attend a lot of their shows. Eric quickly walked back to his table where he had some of the road crew sitting. They all were wearing masks, some of them had 2-masks on and the table was way out on its own. I could only imagine how tough it was for them to stay healthy while touring and the strict environment they had to endure to keep the show on the road.

We attended the show and made it up to the front of the rail, right across from singer Jeff Tweedy. There were a few people wearing masks and I only put mine on to traverse to the beer and bathrooms. I got a lot of funny looks from the Montana natives and I really didn’t care. I had a great line-up of local shows I was going to be playing on my own in the next couple weeks and, like the road crew, I needed to be mindful and careful.

After we made it back I enjoyed playing a nice stretch of shows starting with Crux Fermentation Project, then over to a new tap house called Crosscut Warming Hut No. 5, then over to Bevel Brewing. It was absolutely fantastic to have a constant stream of shows.

Unfortunately my last show of the summer had to be canceled. I found out that a member of my household tested positive for the rona. It wasn’t that surprising though, after witnessing the implosion of the news of people getting it all over the place on my local friend’s social feeds. Shows were being canceled, venues were closing their doors. It made perfect sense that it had to be an equation my family would have to face sooner or later.

Whelp… it did, and though I feel perfectly healthy (knock on wood), I decided to cancel my show at Waypoint that was going to take place during the NorthWest Farmer’s Market. I was really looking forward to it but I feel good about not doing the show with my proximity of the case.

As political as some people make this whole thing out to be I feel it’s simply a new reality we all need to accept. It’s also a sense of decency and not wanting to be the problem.

Hopefully there will be a next time for me at Waypoint. Actually, no doubt there will be, because I feel confident that I made the right decision to hold off until I knew I could safely perform and sing into the mic with people around me.