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We're all hoping this much joy returns to our stages. Liv Warfield photo by Diane Russell

03/12/2020

Hang In there Portland music family / Opinion

By TOM D'ANTONI // Some thoughts on the shuttering of nearly every major music major venue due to COVID-19

Over the past two days, we’ve seen the unprecedented shuttering of nearly every major music venue in Portland.

For many of us, that fact is just sinking in. For the venue owners without deep pockets and for the musicians who play there, it is a major emergency. You could raise a minor chuckle by congratulating the musicians for having day jobs.

We know that some will be lucky enough to have landlords or utilities who will postpone suing for non-payment of rent, etc. And some won’t be lucky at all. There are those who will suffer.

Some of us will practice social distancing, the exact opposite of how we have lived our lives playing music for audiences, or writing. In some of those cases, it feels like you’re waiting alone to die.

OMN is in danger, too.…well that’s not what this is about. It’s been a labor of tough love for a long time, anyway.

While we wait for the proper authorities in Washington to acquire brains (something in which I have no confidence) we’ll just have to do the best we can, help those we can, and get help from those who are generous.

Peanut butter sandwiches aren’t so bad.

But if you can help out a small venue on the edge of collapse because of this, or check in with your musician friends to see if they need anything, think how happy you’ll be when all of this is over.

Guaranteed, it’ll be reflected in their music.

I hope OMN survives. I hope nobody has to sell their instrument. I hope nobody dies.

Let’s all pull together, take care of each other and come back wailing when this ends.

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