![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/river_whyless_2023.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAsheville serves as the base of operation for numerous touring music artists; when they\u2019re not on the road, quite a few solo artists and band members call Western North Carolina home. But in March 2020, day-to-day life changed nearly overnight for nearly all of them. Sidelined by across-the-board cancellations \u2013 shuttered venues and canceled tours \u2013 they found themselves at home for an extended period.<\/p>\n
By late 2022, concert venues across the globe were once again opening their doors, and many touring musicians once again took to the road. What they\u2019ve found, and how they approach the entire subject of touring, is in many ways just as it was before the pandemic. But not everything is the same, and some of the changes might end up being long-lasting or even permanent. Mountain Xpress<\/i> spoke with three Asheville-based groups to get a sense of what touring means to them in 2023 and beyond.<\/p>\n
Band in a bubble<\/b>
\n\u201cIn some ways, touring now is not different at all\u201d from before, says Alex McWalters of River Whyless. The Asheville-based folk-rock quartet featuring drummer McWalters along with Halli Anderson (violin), Ryan O\u2019Keefe (guitar) and Daniel Shearin (bass) has been together more than a decade, and much of that time has been spent on the road. Starting with 2012\u2019s A Stone, a Leaf, an Unfound Door<\/i>, the group has toured widely in support of its four albums. Recorded and released during the pandemic, 2022\u2019s Monoflora<\/i> is the latest from River Whyless.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
McWalters explains how touring is largely unchanged. \u201cIn a practical sense, so much of a tour is spent in your \u2018bubble,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThe van, and one motel room usually that we share. Being close together in that way is treacherous now, but it is what it is.\u201d He says that the realities of touring for a band like his are pretty straightforward. \u201cYou’re crammed into a van together, and you’re vying for space and air and privacy.\u201d But at the same time, things are different somehow. \u201cNow, there\u2019s a little bit more anxiety surrounding all those things,\u201d he says. \u201cAll that closeness might be more than just bonding time: It might be infection time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond transportation and lodging, though, McWalters observes that things really are different on tour. \u201cIt\u2019s all become a lot more unstable and unpredictable,\u201d he says, \u2018in a business that was already<\/i> unstable and unpredictable.\u201d <\/p>\n
Before the pandemic, McWalters says that River Whyless could make fairly accurate predictions about concert attendance in a given city based on how well-attended the night before had been. That\u2019s no longer the case. \u201cOne night\u2019s really good,\u201d he says, and the next night, it\u2019s like, \u2018What happened?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
McWalters has his own ideas as to why concert attendance is more erratic than it once was. \u201cI think the pandemic has had an effect on live music in two ways,\u201d he says. \u201cOne, there\u2019s still fear of the virus: \u2018I\u2019m not comfortable with the risk; I don\u2019t want to be in a room with a bunch of people.\u2019\u201d That mindset keeps some people away, but it\u2019s reasonable to predict that as time goes on, that mix of fear and caution will become less of a factor.<\/p>\n
The other possible reason McWalters suggests \u2013 a possible cultural shift \u2013 may pose more of a threat to the long-term viability of concert touring. He detects the early hints of \u201ca shift in the ways in which we ingest our entertainment or art. I think the pandemic created habits, for better or for worse. People got used to staying home, staying within [their] little bubble.\u201d He\u2019s hopeful that over time, society will \u201cre-initiate the whole machine of getting out in the world again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when they do go out, people seem a bit less spontaneous, more deliberate, McWalters says. Anecdotally, he has noticed that while advance ticket sales for concerts are even more robust than before the pandemic, day-of-show sales are often more modest than before. <\/p>\n
As River Whyless gears up for a run of summer tour dates, the group is resigned to the unpredictability inherent in touring. McWalters recalls the group’s most recent run of dates of last fall. \u201cIt was three days before the end of the tour. We had been as careful as we could be,\u201d he says. \u201cNobody had gotten sick for two whole tours.\u201d The group was in a restaurant in New Mexico, and \u2013 after noting that he didn\u2019t believe in jinxes \u2013 Shearin remarked on their good luck up to that point. \u201cLiterally the next day,\u201d McWalters laughs, \u201che had [Covid-19] symptoms!\u201d McWalters says. \u201cIt was hilarious and ironic.\u201d <\/p>\n
To be continued\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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