Vegas Band “Radical West” Performs Online Amidst Live Show Cancellations
As the tides of the music industry constantly change due to the pandemic, artists have been finding new ways to reach their audience. Live-streaming and virtual performances have become increasingly popular among big-name artists and local musicians alike. Radical West, a local rock band in Las Vegas, Nevada, is continuously finding ways to turn some of the challenges of the pandemic into opportunities.
Strange Terrain for Musicians
Through the uncertainties of the initial lockdown to the soft-reopenings with social distancing guidelines, musicians have had to navigate strange terrain while searching for ways to stay connected with their fans. While there is no single formula for musicians to follow during these challenging times, Radical West seem to have found a method that works for them as they’re currently producing a live recording session for two of their new songs.
Radical West sound-checking before their live-recording in Las Vegas, Nevada. April 10, 2021. (Photo: Bo Brusco).
“We knew that we weren’t going to be able to play any shows in the foreseeable future,” says Radical West’s frontman Cameron Dettman, “and we just decided to focus on the writing process instead.”
According to Dettman, all five band members met right around the beginning of the lockdowns in February 2020. As no live shows were taking place then, the band had plenty of time to write and hash out the kind of sounds they wanted.
Dettman explains how not having to worry about live shows ended up working out to the band’s advantage, saying that it was “actually very beneficial for us ‘cause we have been working on [writing] since then. Now it’s been over a year since we’ve been working on these songs, and so they’ve really been fleshed out as much as they could be, and now we’re about to do a live recording session and record the last two songs on the album, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Bringing Live Shows to Screens
Radical West produced their live-recording session at Wackerman Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rob Katz, the sound engineer and producer at Wackerman, spoke about the practicality of live-streaming and live-recordings during the pandemic.
Rob Katz at the helm of Wackerman Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada. April 10, 2021. (Photo: Bo Brusco).
“Obviously, no ones playing right now, so live-streaming is really the only way for anyone to get heard,” says Katz referring to the music industry’s new terrain as a result of COVID-19. Katz’s biggest focus is bringing the best quality sound to Radical West’s virtual audience so that the band can “bring that live experience to wherever.”
“In terms of what we’re doing here,” he says, “getting the best audio quality possible is really helping give the listener that experience back that they haven’t been able to get by going and seeing somebody.”
Live-Stream: Pros and Cons
Dettman, a solo performer by trade, speaks to the pros and cons of live-streaming versus performing in front of a live audience. A particular pro to live-streaming that Dettman mentions is the ability to reach listeners across the globe. He says, “The pros I would say is just the accessibility to essentially a worldwide audience — you know, right then. Like I was getting people from like Asia and Australia that I met over the years, tuning in, you know, watching me. I’d have to play at different times of night to cater to their time zones or different times of the day and such, but so that was actually really cool and I made some fans doing it consistently.”
While the ability to play to a worldwide audience is a very appealing aspect of live-streaming, Dettman says that a significant drawback is the lack of personal connection. “It doesn’t feel as personal,” he says, “'because you’re just kind of reading things that people are saying, and at the end of the day you still feel like you’re alone in a room, and I didn’t care for that so much.”
Dettman says that even though live-streaming has served him well during the pandemic, “there’s no replacement for actually playing a show in front of people.”
How the Pandemic Changed the Music Industry
The onset of the pandemic fundamentally changed the average American’s day-to-day and had a particularly devastating effect on the music industry. Both local shows and big-name concerts were canceled due to COVID-19. So many events were canceled that billboard.com even compiled a list of the most anticipated shows of 2020 that were called off due to the virus. Additionally, Pollstar.com reported that the music industry lost an estimated $8.9 billion worth of ticket sales due to all the cancellations that year.
Some local shows are beginning to resurface in Las Vegas, Nevada, as more and more restrictions are being lifted. According to the state of Nevada’s website, public gatherings and events can operate at 50% capacity as of March 15, 2021. The city of Las Vegas made a more specific announcement regarding the increased capacity limit, saying that “Public gatherings and events can increase to 250 individuals or 50 percent of fire code capacity, whichever is less, under strict social distancing requirements.”
On the one hand, the increased capacity is a hopeful sign that live shows will be in full swing by summer 2021; however, as the city of Las Vegas noted, social distancing requirements won’t likely be lifted by then. As per the updated Roadmap to Recovery for Nevada, “Commonly recommended or required mitigation measures are still the best way to protect people until widespread vaccination becomes available.”
These measures include limiting capacities, practicing 6ft social distancing, wearing face masks, increasing ventilation, and frequently disinfecting “high-touch surfaces.” Such practices are arguably not conducive to the punk-rock/grungy atmosphere commonly associated with local venues such as the Bunkhouse Saloon or TheDive Bar.
As live music was non-existent for the greater part of 2020, live streaming quickly became a popular alternative for musicians — an alternative that has maintained its popularity throughout the first quarter of 2021. On January 26th of this year, billboard.com compiled an almost endless list of live-stream performances by mainstream musicians scheduled for the rest of the year. Some of the more notable names on the agenda include Maroon 5, Justin Beiber, and Fleet Foxes just to name a few.
But live-streaming is not a route exclusively reserved for chart-topping artists; local artists, like Radical West, have been performing across social media platforms too. Radical West’s recent live-recording session is a type of performance akin to traditional live-streaming wherein the music is first recorded live and then later uploaded to a social media platform. The tentative release date for Radical West’s virtual show is June 2021.
