WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Claymont-based local music fan Annie Johnson was watching her home-cleaning clients cancel one by one when she saw a Bellefonte Americana band starting a live stream on Facebook on March 23.
After days of self-quarantine due to coronavirus along with most Delawareans, a musical slice of routine was suddenly back in her life as she tapped her toes to Betty & the Bullet as the trio performed an hour-long concert from singer Michael Davis’ living room.
Johnson, who is a dancing familiar face to plenty of upstate bands and music fans, says she is clinging to any normalcy she can find in such an abnormal time.
“Besides taking walks and working in the garden, music is what’s been keeping me sane,” she says. “I’ll build a campfire, sit out back, crack a beer or have a cup of hot tea, turn it on, sit out there and take it in.”
Betty & the Bullet, which also features bassist Bethany Bullington and multi-instrumentalist Mark Unruh, has joined a growing trend of musical acts turning to technology to keep the tips coming after seeing all of their concerts and weekly gigs vanish in an instant.
SOME GENEROUS TIPS
Whether it’s coffee house singers or a high-energy cover bands, acts of all stripes are going online. With no end date on this crisis, phones and computers are now our nightclubs.
For Davis, who has been performing in the area for more than 40 years, it’s the longest stretch without a show in a very long time, excluding a rare vacation.
He had never before played to a camera for an online audience, but he was antsy to play. He was also curious to see if fans would pay tips using mobile payment services Venmo or PayPal.
The show was held in his living room, a familiar venue thanks to it being the site of many late night pickin’ parties.
And it worked perfectly. A couple of hundred fans tuned in and the musicians were tipped for their work. For Davis, whose day job as a carpenter also dried up, every dollar matters, just like it does for so many others, including his bandmates.
“We did pretty well. We didn’t bring in thousands of bucks, but it was a well-paying gig,” says Davis, who expects to do at least one show a week, joking that it’s for his own sanity since he’s already losing track of what day it is.
“It was a blast. We really had a great time.”
A few viewers tipped extremely generously, perhaps spurred by knowing the impact that the shutdown has on independent workers like Davis. No matter the reason, it was certainly touching.
“We got a couple of big chunks,” he says. “And we’ll be playing private shows for those people when the world opens up again.”
Davis’ rockabilly act The Bullets, which has a long-running Thursday night residency at Wilmington’s Oddity Bar, will perform a livestream concert from that same living room of his Sunday at 7 p.m. at facebook.com/michael.davis.9256.
BUSKING FROM HOME FOR BARISTAS
Wilmington native Zach Humenik knows what it feels like to miss performing, especially with his band Travel Songs.
After about five years of monthly shows at Greenville’s Brew HaHa!, he’s now housebound in Philadelphia due to coronavirus concerns and spent part of his weekend performing a live concert online. All the proceeds went to a fund set up by Brew HaHa! founder Alisa Morkides for out-of-work Brew HaHa! employees at venmo.com/BrewCrew2020.
“You’ll be right here forever, we’ll go through this thing together/And on heaven’s golden shore we’ll lay our heads,” Humenik sang, covering My Morning Jacket’s “Golden” while sitting on a stool near a window filled with light.
The show, which mostly featured original songs, came from a feeling of wanting to help, he says. Since he had already planned on having a gig that day, he turned on a camera and changed things around a bit.
“I wanted to help the folks who have helped me out for such a long time,” Humenik says of the cafe’s staff. “So I figured whatever I could do, as small as it may be, I’d give it a shot.”
DEWEY BEACH PARTY LANDS IN YOUR LIVING ROOM
While Humenik performed on a stripped-down set surrounded by house plants, popular cover act Go Go Gadjet unfurled a full stage show online complete with a multi-camera set-up and a full light show.
The five-piece, which regularly draws large crowds in Dewey Beach and Wilmington, also has seen its gigs canceled. That’s when the full band decided to rock their Reading, Pennsylvania-area rehearsal space instead and beam it out to their fans.
Singer Jeff Tomrell doesn’t foresee more full band livestream shows due to social distancing. And after performing about 125 shows last year plus extensive rehearsals, he doesn’t mind taking a break even though the financial hardship is very real.
Unlike national acts that will tour with a new album before taking an extended break and ramping up again for a new project, cover bands usually perform year-round with multiple shows a week. In fact, sometimes they have multiple shows in a day during busy seasons like the summer.
“This is the longest break we’ve had in 15 years, so it’s kind of nice on some level to have this mental and physical break,” Tomrell says. “So to be honest with you, man, I’m really enjoying quarantining at home. I’ve been able to eat dinner with my family seven nights a week and that has never happened - ever.”
So far, Go Go Gadjet has performed two live shows online, knowing full well that their hard-partying fan base misses their late night sing-a-longs at the club. The shows are even hitting some fans who have aged out of the scene.
“It’s really rewarding to provide people with a bit of an escape and that’s true even for fans who haven’t seen us in five or eight years. They watched with their kids,” he says of the show, which had its expenses covered by online tips from fans. “They were like, ’I haven’t seen you since Dewey Beach in 2012.’ It was really nice to reconnect with those people.”
‘WINE ABOUT IT’ WITH AUNT MARY PAT
Musicians aren’t the only ones who saw gigs disappear. Wilmington-based entertainer Troy Hendrickson was about halfway through his first national tour as his Aunt Mary Pat DiSabatino character when the pandemic hit.
These days, you’ll find him at his home doing live Aunt Mary Pat videos for fans stuck in their homes. It’s a full circle moment considering that the character with her thick Delaware County accent originated through viral videos on Facebook.
Since the outbreak, Hendrickson has posted videos of him dancing, hosted a show called “Wine About It” and even performed a coronavirus-themed parody of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” It has garnered nearly 350,000 views in a week. His drag character Miss Troy also hosted a livestreamed drag brunch.
“I’ve seen a lot of comments, specifically from nurses who tell me things like the videos help them get through their day because they are working so hard,” says Hendrickson, who accepted tips via Venmo, which ranged from $1 to $300. “There’s a real sense of community.”
‘FEELING THAT SPARK OF JOY AGAIN’
The laughs will keep coming from Aunt Mary Pat and it seems the livestream concerts will as well from musicians across the state and the country.
Until music lovers like Johnson can reunite with friends for packed shows at Wilmington spots such as Nomad Bar or Rockford Tavern, she will be logging in for her nighttime jams.
And as long as musicians and bands are willing to play, she’ll be dancing as she absorbs the temporary relief from her worries - from her backyard or living room, of course.
“Music is healing and it helps you feel connected,” Johnson says. “If you’re used to seeing all your friends, hugging everybody, dancing and sharing in that experience together, seeing a show online is almost like seeing old pictures and feeling that spark of joy again.”
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