Recap: Virtual Shows – A New Normal

Our favorite thing in the world had been halted due to COVID-19, EDM shows. The Floozies canceled the rest of their tour, Buku and Coachella are postponed until fall, Electric Forest is canceled and will return in 2021, venues are closed, bars aren’t open until May and we’re confined to our houses for who knows how long. The only thing we have to look forward to now is a string of artists doing sets from their living rooms. 

Thanks to Facebook and Instagram Live, Twitch and YouTube Live, artists are still able to throw down for their fans through the world wide web. Artists such as Big Gigantic, Slander, Vibe Street, The Widdler, Mortl, Ternion Sound, SoDown, Beak Nasty, Megan Hamilton, Subdocta and so many more have all blessed our feeds with live stream sets almost on the daily. When this all went down, one group, CouchFam, organized a 48 hour live stream festival that viewers were able to tune into from their couch, called Couchfest — naturally. Trap Nation and Chill Nation will throw a live stream festival, Room Service, April 24-25 featuring artists such as Big Wild, Clozee, Kill Paris, GRiZ, What So Not, Rezz and so many more. 

 

Bhump Day is still going strong every Wednesday, broadcasting remotely. The collective features Minneapolis DJs and artists one week, and Colorado creatives the next via Twitch and Facebook Live. During the sets, there’s always one camera on the DJ, one on the live painters and one that rotates. Last summer, they held the events in basements, backyards, cafe’s and a couple venues. Check them out on Facebook and Instagram. 

Another cool thing Artists are doing is releasing recordings of past festival sets, Red Rocks shows and regular tour sets. Lost Lands rebroadcast Couch Lands 2019 on Twitch and insomniac has done multiple re-streams of EDC sets. Virtual festivals aren’t as good as the real thing, but hey, we’ll take it. 

Twitch has been the saving grace of the EDM community. While Instagram and Facebook live are decent mediums to watch artists go live, the sound and video quality are just sub-par to Twitch. As a streaming app, it was made for this kind of thing. One of the first streams I watched and was so excited for was GRiZ. 

It was 8 p.m. on a Friday. Two weeks had passed since the coronavirus took over the nation’s headlines and caused everything to shut down. My roommates and I were getting restless. The walls of our four-bedroom home in North Minneapolis were slowly closing in on us. We needed a release. We needed a show. 

As I mentioned in a previous article, GRiZ went live on Instagram from his home spontaneously one day. He played some old tunes, some new tunes and some tunes that aren’t complete yet and just kinda messed around. It was such a joy to see him in his element, just vibing and goofing off. In times like this, we just need a release, something to look forward to.

My household decided to throw a little party. It was just us and a couple significant others (this was before the stay at home order in Minneapolis), but we made it into a show night. We found a couple other live streams taking place that night, got a couple bottles of liquor, set out snacks and settled on the couch for an at home concert experience. I even put makeup on. 

We kicked off our night with Vibe Street, and he was an actual vibe. He couldn’t stop moving. With a joint in hand, Vibe Street played upbeat, funky music. His set up was welcoming, there were tapestries hanging on the walls and Christmas lights lined the ceiling. 

Next on our watch list was Slander, a duo based out of L.A., But they weren’t DJing. They had a recording of an old show of theirs playing and they were live streaming them watching and jamming to it. It was a little disappointing. But again, better than nothin’. 

 

 

 

Then the man himself, the funk-master, the saxiest human alive, came on the screen — GRiZ. He began with super chill, house tunes. Plants surrounded his set up and a yellow globe was lit up in the corner. Grant was sporting sunglasses and a white long sleeve shirt. It was a spicy little set and was so fun to dance to. He’s got this radiance to him, like every time he plays, he appears to be having a freaking blast. It’s just like when he performs on stage, he lights up the room. 

One thing I found hilarious was all the comments people left. I wrote a few of them down:

“Bro, what stage am I at”

“I like pizza” 

“*twerks”

“Wash your hands!”

“Joe Exotic loves house music”

“Griz calm down, I just lactated”

“Griz on my face”

This is our new normal, at least for a little while. Thank you to all the artists who are still out there creating music and keeping us sane during this weird time in our lives. And as always, thank you to the essential workers. Hopefully, these live streams are giving you a little escape from reality. Stay safe, wash your hands.