ENTERTAINMENT

Concerts are coming back, and Nashville is leading the charge

Matthew Leimkuehler Dave Paulson
Nashville Tennessean
The crowd passes around a giant inflatable ball as Moon Taxi performs at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn. June 10, 2018.

In the past year, it's safe to say, the concert industry learned to expect the unexpected.

Though the business has weathered a variety of storms in the past, all bets were off when a global pandemic brought in-person gatherings to halt, seemingly overnight.

One year later, as a return to normalcy looms on the horizon, one thing isn't a surprise. Nashville — and country music, in particular — is leading the way.

The floodgates began to open earlier this month when Eric Church, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett, Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton and others out of Nashville  confirmed tour dates for late summer and fall 2021. 

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"Everybody's working so hard to get the right plan together," Rhett told The Tennessean, adding: "Hopefully our team with other teams can figure that out and we can get back out there this year." 

A return to touring signals confidence in artists, promoters and venue owners to host mass gatherings as soon as July. Likewise, Nashville leaders announced earlier this week that Brad Paisley will headline a downtown 4th of July concert — a night described by officials as the city's "first major post-pandemic event."

Fans dance as Juice Wrld performs on the Which Stage at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Saturday, June 15, 2019.

'It's going to be challenging'

What's put Music City in the driver's seat for the return of major concerts and tours? The reasons why have been baked into the country music market for decades. 

As rules for in-person gatherings continue to vary state-by-state, it remains difficult for pop artists to plan, for example, a six-week tour across the U.S. with the occasional day off.

In the country world, however, it's long been common practice for tours to be a long series of weekend runs. Artists will plot out 2-4 day stints and return home for the week. That's the largely the case with Church, Brown and Rhett's schedules. 

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Even with that advantage, new challenges await. Complications come with safely traveling in large groups and navigating cities with varying COVID-19 protocols. COVID-19 cases could surge, putting large events in a city or state in jeopardy; a crew member or artist could test positive for COVID-19, throwing a wrench in coast-to-coast traveling. 

In an interview earlier this week, Church told The Tennessean that "it's going to be challenging, it's going to be expensive," but he's confident arena concerts return in the coming months. 

"There's gonna be arenas that recommend masks, there's gonna be arenas that require masks," Church said. "Every time we move, we're dealing with somebody else. We're dealing with another building, another mayor, another governor. That's the challenge on our end that we're gonna take care of." 

He added, "What you hope is enough people get the vaccine and cases get low enough to where the relative risk is low. At that point in time, you've got people back in their environment." 

And early ticket sales show confidence that audiences want to return to shows. Brown — one of the first U.S. tours to go on sale since COVID-19 — sold out multiple arenas, including Los Angeles in October, said Adam Weiser, vice president of global touring at AEG. 

"It was a great gage of where we are right now as a music community," said Weiser. "More and more announcements [are] coming because everyone see that there is strength in fans wanting to get out." 

Eric Church performs at Nissan Stadium Saturday, May 25, 2019.

Return to clubs 

Meanwhile, music fans in Nashville this spring could get a front row seat to some of the best talent returning to a stage before they hit the road later this year. 

Venues such as Basement East, City Winery, Ryman Auditorium and others operate at a city-mandated limited capacity, often hosting shows with major talent in an intimate setting.

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For example, Grammy-winning Christian artist Lauren Daigle plays the Ryman next week to a maximum 33% capacity, or about 780 showgoers. Sister venue The Grand Ole Opry House hosts live broadcasts three times a week to 33% capacity, or roughly 1,440 attendees,  as well. 

The Basement East opened doors to indoor events last month, welcoming Marcus King Band, Elizabeth Cook, Courtney Marie Andrews and more. The venue operates at 132 seated concert-goers. 

"We have high-profile locals who've been our friends for years and started at the OG Basement [a sister venue at 1604 8th Ave S.] and can now do really, really good numbers, often times selling out the Basement East," said Mike Grimes, Basement East co-owner. "When you have a limited capacity show, it's really easy for those shows to sell out. We'll do two performances a night with some of these acts." 

To avoid COVID-19 spreading, showgoers purchase tickets in four-person groups — or "pods" — and commit to sitting with pod-mates for the performance. Audience members must receive a temperature check before entering the room. 

As with larger venues, clubs could begin to host touring acts in the coming months. Nashville rockers Bully, for example, have a sold-out show at Mercy Lounge in August, and ticketholders will note three words that have been rarely seen since March 2020: "Standing room only."

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"We're gearing up day-by-day, week-by-week," said Basement East co-owner Dave Brown. "Maybe by fall we'll be back to seven nights a week. Maybe [by] July, five nights a week would be ideal. But as soon as we can get there, we're ready." 

And fans hungry for live music could travel to The Caverns in rural Grundy County, about 90 miles south of Nashville. Venue owners built an above-ground amphitheater to host groups in two, four and six-person pods. 

The spring lineup includes Grace Potter, Drew Holcomb, Margo Price, Punch Brothers and more. 

"What we've been able to do is provide an authentic music experience as close to what it used to be as possible during these times," venue owner Todd Mayo told The Tennessean earlier this month. "It's a gorgeous piece of property looking overlooking the mountains and the valley. It looks like a mini gorge." 

See you in September, festivals

Speaking of expansive property, this September, all eyes will be on the 650 acres of Great Stage Park — the grounds of the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. 

With Coachella postponed for another year, and Lollapalooza still in limbo, Bonnaroo looks to be the U.S.'s first flagship festival to return in the wake of the pandemic. This week, tickets for the festival sold out, three weeks after going on sale. 

Later that month, Nashville's AmericanaFest plans to bring "thousands of artists, fans, and industry professionals" together in Music City. Over the same weekend, the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival in Franklin remains optimistic about its return, though a lineup — typically announced in March — remains to be seen.