{"id":20543,"date":"2021-02-26T05:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T10:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20543"},"modified":"2021-02-18T11:05:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:05:25","slug":"todd-rundgrens-clearly-human-tour-the-ever-popular-geofenced-artist-effect-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/todd-rundgrens-clearly-human-tour-the-ever-popular-geofenced-artist-effect-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Rundgren\u2019s \u201cClearly Human\u201d Tour: The Ever Popular Geofenced Artist Effect (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> \u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing 25 shows specifically targeted to 25 markets,\u201d Rundgren says. \u201cAnd everything that we do will be in the pursuit of preserving the experience both for the audience and for the band.\u201d The focus is squarely on making each show a unique event, in a manner as close as possible to the \u201creal\u201d thing. That means making use of geofencing technology, creation of a \u201cvirtual perimeter\u201d that can restrict \u201cattendance\u201d at a particular show to audience members who live there. (Since the initial tour announcement \u2013 \u201cdue to overwhelming demand,\u201d says Rundgren\u2019s tour publicist \u2013 the geofencing restriction has been relaxed.)<\/p>\n

And the character of each show is being constructed to reinforce that home-town feel as well. It appears that most every detail has been given serious thought. \u201cFrom the time that the audience sees the stage \u2013 just like if you went to the venue and they open the doors a half an hour before the show \u2013 there\u2019ll be the sound of murmuring people looking for their seats and stuff like that,\u201d he says. \u201cFor every city that we\u2019re in, I\u2019ve made some effort, where such exists, to get a picture of the actual proscenium stage that we might\u2019ve played in that city, and that\u2019ll be on the video wall that\u2019s behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

photo by Richard Kerris<\/p><\/div>\n

Real-time video images of ticketholders who\u2019ve purchased a special package will be displayed on video screens in the front three rows of the venue \u201cso that we can see them, recognize them and interact with them,\u201d Rundgren says. \u201cAnd for every show, we localize it to the town that we\u2019re playing. We dress the entire backstage with posters and local sports memorabilia.\u201d They go so far as to set the stage clocks to the local time of the audience. \u201cWe\u2019re in that time zone for as long as we\u2019re in the building,\u201d Rundgren says. And the food for the band and crew will be delivered from the target city. \u201cAnd if we can\u2019t get it delivered, at least we get the recipe\u201d and that\u2019s catered, Rundgren says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fooling ourselves as much as we\u2019re fooling the audience,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cWe\u2019re self-hypnotizing that we\u2019re in that town. From the time we get in the van until the time that we get back to the hotel, in our minds, we\u2019re in Buffalo or Indianapolis or San Diego. Or wherever it is that we\u2019re virtually playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the virtual nature of the \u201ctour,\u201d Rundgren could have staged the whole enterprise from the comfort of his home in Kauai, Hawaii. But from his perspective, Chicago makes a great deal more sense. \u201cIt had to be a major hub of some kind,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we figured the central time zone is probably the best in terms of our making adjustments for local time zones.\u201d That way, each of the geofenced shows can be scheduled to start at 8 p.m. in its local market, and the crew and musicians in Chicago won\u2019t find themselves working weird hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words,\u201d Rundgren explains, \u201cif we\u2019re playing an 8 o\u2019clock show on the east coast, we\u2019re playing a 7 o\u2019clock show in Chicago. Which is not so bad; you often find yourself doing that on a Sunday night if you\u2019re on tour.\u201d And a show for a west coast market would find the band taking the stage at 10 p.m. \u201cThat\u2019s not awful, either,\u201d says the 72-year-old musician, \u201cbecause there are places where they push the shows off really late.\u201d So a Chicago venue works as a good compromise.<\/p>\n

But Rundgren\u2019s virtual tour won\u2019t broadcast (or narrowcast) from a concert hall. Instead, he\u2019s chosen \u201ca general purpose event space that\u2019s very well tricked out. There\u2019s an industrial kitchen in it, so we can do all of our own catering. We don\u2019t have to crack the bubble.\u201d For the duration of the tour, musicians and crew will be set up in a residence hotel, with shuttles taking them between the venue and their temporary home. An on-site COVID compliance professional will be on hand, and everyone will undergo regular testing.<\/p>\n

Rundgren even has a backup plan in the event that one of the members of his 10-person band is taken ill. \u201cWe have backup musicians ready to step in, in case someone becomes so sick they can\u2019t perform,\u201d he says. And if a musician were to be asymptomatic but infectious, there\u2019s a plan for that as well. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a little sterile room for them to play in,\u201d he says. \u201cWe’ll have a camera on them; maybe we\u2019ll put up a video panel on the stage where they\u2019re supposed to be so you can see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He appreciates the fact that he\u2019s embracing the unknown. Though he\u2019s upbeat about the venture, he\u2019s realistic, and has considered some of the more disturbing possibilities. \u201cWe might have somebody try and crash the bubble,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we may have someone try and get in and make a statement or try to purposely infect people. Who knows? It\u2019s a pretty wild and woolly world out there.\u201d But he believes that his team is staffed with hard-working, conscientious people. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got enough experience in the various aspects of what we\u2019re doing that we won\u2019t be caught flat-footed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Still, Rundgren knows that there\u2019s risk inherent in an endeavor such as his \u201cClearly Human\u201d tour. \u201cThe biggest peril,\u201d he says with a chuckle, \u201cis delivering something that, in the end, is manifestly unsatisfying so that nobody wants to do it again.\u201d Considering the man\u2019s innovative, creative track record, it doesn\u2019t seem likely that will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One \u2026 \u201cWe\u2019re doing 25 shows specifically targeted to 25 markets,\u201d Rundgren says. \u201cAnd everything that we do will be in the pursuit of preserving the experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44,62],"tags":[2228],"class_list":["post-20543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-live-shows","category-rawk","tag-todd-rundgren","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20550,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20543\/revisions\/20550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}