Rules of the Game

Masks, they work, but only if they're made well and worn correctly. You can't just throw any piece of fabric over your mouth and maybe not your nose and be automatically protected from viral aerosol particles gunning for you like mosquitos on a hot and humid August evening. Likewise, rules about masks, which are great but only if people pay attention to them.

GARY CLARK JR. christened Austin's new MOODY AMPHITHEATER with a two-hour performance Friday in the middle of a stage 5 (of 5) Covid crisis in Texas and here's a clear account from the Austin American-Statesman of an amphitheater full of security staff and music fans who basically didn't care about the rules in place to deal with that stage 5 crisis, like wearing masks. Clark and his band were "terrific." The fans and the venue, not so much. There's an update, at the bottom of the American-Statesman's concert/Covid review, in which the conservancy that operates the amphitheater responds by throwing up its hands and saying "we've taken all the necessary steps we can." Seriously, that was the on-the-record response. Check back in 10 days for Austin health and hospitalization news.

On the other hand, laws *against* sensible mandates don't always work either if every fabric isn't in place. Two weeks earlier, JASON ISBELL performed to a vaccinated-only crowd at Austin's ACL LIVE, in defiance of a new Texas law that prohibits businesses from requiring that customers show proof of Covid-19 vaccination. It's one of several Texas venues that have openly challenged the law, at some risk to themselves—they could lose crucial Covid relief funds. But they believe they're justified not only ethically, but legally. REBECCA REYNOLDS of the MUSIC VENUE ALLIANCE OF AUSTIN told the American-Statesman that ACL Live believes it's on solid ground because it doesn't actually have a vaccine policy. It was, rather, following the vaccine instructions in Isbell's artist contract. And artists still have their freedom, for now anyway. Maybe check back in 10 days on that, too.

Anyway, that's the state of confusion in the live music capital of the world, which is as good a microcosm as any for the challenge facing everyone in the live music business trying to navigate their way through this predictably unpredictable crisis. A crisis that in the past month alone has claimed the lives of influential hip-hop and R&B songwriter/producer CHUCKY THOMPSON, KASSAV' frontman JACOB DESVARIEUX and (see today's "Rest in Peace" section below) pioneering doom metal singer ERIC WAGNER of the band TROUBLE. Here's our MusicSET of everyone of note in music who we've lost since the beginning of the pandemic. A terrifying reminder.

Pollstar's RYAN BORBA and the LA Times' AUGUST BROWN report on the live industry's continuing effort to tighten and consolidate Covid rules and protocols, which has challenges and loopholes of its own. LIVE NATION's and AEG's sweeping vaccination requirements, for example, are laudable but not quite as thorough as advertised. AEG's policy applies to "clubs, theaters and festivals such as COACHELLA... while not applying to arenas and stadiums under the ASM Global banner," according to Pollstar. And both companies note that their rules apply "where legally permitted." There's a hunger in some corners for federal regulations—"it would be a terrific help," Florida venue operator NUMA SAISSELIN tells the Times—but not in all corners. In Pollstar, promoter DAVE POE of PATCHWORK PRESENTS, which books venues in several states, says, "I don’t think every artist across the country is going to require the same things. That’s part of the beauty of our business."

What's the bigger danger right now: scaring away fans who don't want to be told how to protect themselves from a virus, or scaring away fans who want to make sure they're in an environment where everyone is protected? Or, perhaps, scaring away artists who have not only themselves to worry about but the bands, crews and teams in their charge—and who may get the last word by just going ahead and canceling shows and tours, as BTS, GARTH BROOKS, STEVIE NICKS, FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE, NINE INCH NAILS, NEIL YOUNG and the PIXIES have all done in recent days. There is, no doubt, more to come.

Etc Etc Etc

Everyone should have at least one person in the business who looks at them the way Bay Area rapper LARRY JUNE and the late A&R exec QUINN COLEMAN looked at each other during June's brief time signed to Warner. "I was the first artist he signed," June tells Cabbages' GARY SUAREZ. "We was actually learning a lot together, so when he would find out certain things, he'd tell me. When I found out things. I'd tell him. We worked together collectively." Sounds so easy, doesn't it?... Best wishes to INSANE CLOWN POSSE's VIOLENT J, who says the duo is going to slow down, but not stop, as he faces heart health issues... On paper, the case of JOHN LYDON vs. his former SEX PISTOLS bandmates over the right to license to music to DANNY BOYLE's upcoming TV series about the band seemed like a potentially complicated case about how groups collectively protect their, um, public image. In court, it proved a rather simple case about a long-ago band agreement that spelled out exactly how the Pistols wanted to handle licensing decisions... LEGO album covers by ADNAN LOTIA; some of these are amazing.

Rest in Peace

Metal singer ERIC WAGNER, best known for the two decades he spent fronting the pioneering doom metal band TROUBLE; he also sang with the Skull, Probot and Lid... BRIAN TRAVERS, saxophone player, lyricist and founding member of UB40... LISA LEE, an Academy of Country Music executive who previously worked as a news correspondent and producer for CMT... "SWEET CONNIE" HAMZY, the Little Rock, Ark., rock groupie immortalized in Grand Funk's "We're An American Band." Her paramours included a long list of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.