Neil Young, Ben Gibbard to entertain the cooped-up masses with livestreamed shows
Just in case you needed another reason to be the sort of responsible person who stays inside during the cornonavirus outbreak, Neil Young and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard have got your back. Both artists have announced plans to begin livestreaming shows that can be enjoyed from the comfort of home, allowing viewers to sing along to “Heart Of Gold” or “Tiny Vessels” at lung-bursting volumes without worrying about spraying others’ sinuses (and ears) in the process.
Young, who’s probably extra pissed-off about Trump right about now, will be broadcasting performances shot by his wife, Daryl Hannah. “It will be a down-home production, a few songs, a little time together,” he writes on the Neil Young Archives website. The dates will be announced “soon” on the Archives’ news page and “social media except Facebook,” which Young says he’ll stop using “very very soon” in a move that will make him among the few people over the age of 35 to do so.
Gibbard tweeted out his announcement by explaining that, “because we’re all going through this nightmare together,” he will be “playing songs every day from my home studio” via streams on “Youtube/Facebook at 4 PM PST” that will run daily starting on March 18th. Gibbard says he’s “still working out the details but I’m hoping to take some requests and maybe even have a guest or two stop by digitally.”
These kind of streams are becoming a trend for bands looking to find ways to perform that don’t involve bringing people together at traditional venues. As Rolling Stone reports, a lot of acts, from Ron Gallo and Indigo Girls to Kalie Shorr, Béla Fleck, and Abigail Washburn, have planned streams meant to entertain people stuck at home and shore up some of the money lost from canceled shows. The BBC also lists streams from Yungblud, Keith Urban, and Chris Martin while an article from Kerrang! mentions Cro-Mags and Code Orange’s streams, and upcoming broadcasts, including one set for tonight by Dropkick Murphys.
Truly, 2020 is a strange year. Let’s just embrace that by making this year’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration a unique one where, instead of going out to listen to Dropkick Murphys at a bar, we all enjoy ourselves by simply getting way too drunk during the livestream at home and punching ourselves in the head at home for once.
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