Well, folks, this is a post I never thought I'd be making on here, but in light of recent news, I have to address the COVID-19 coronavirus on The Sault Metal Scene today. I had tried to not address it or the potential damage it could do to our coverage, lest I be accused of spreading rumours or fear-mongering, but as of last night, the pandemic is directly affecting the local concert calendar. Between last night and this afternoon, three big local hard rock concerts with touring headliners have been called off, namely tonight's
Black Label Society concert at The Dreammaker's Theatre at
the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, tonight's
Jean-Paul de Roover & The Bandaid Solution concert at
LopLops Lounge in Sault Ontario, and next week's
Matthew Good concert at
The Sault Community Theatre Centre. The latter two shows were called off by the headliners themselves over the coronavirus itself and the related fears over it's spread, as noted on their social media accounts linked above.
Jean-Paul's tour was wrapping up here before he returned home to Thunder Bay, and he does promise to come back in the future. If you did happen to buy advance tickets, contact LopLops for refund information. If there are plans to try and have the local openers play on, they have not been announced as of this writing, but
The Apocalypse Afterparty would likely have been out of tonight's show anyway due to the very recent birth of Paul & Amanda's third child. There's some good news, congratulations to them! Matthew's entire Moving Walls tour has been postponed, new dates to be announced, and while refunds are available at point of purchase, you can hold on to your tickets towards the rescheduled date, so keep tabs on that for further details. To Black Label Society's credit, they were still planning to play tonight's Kewadin show as recently as 12:00 PM today, via a now-deleted Facebook post, but they have since confirmed that the rest of their North American Crusade tour is postponed, starting tonight.
Like with Matthew Good, B.L.S. ticket-holders can hold onto their ticket towards the rescheduled show, but if you want a refund, they are available at point of purchase too. Now, I am not expecting that these will be it for local concert cancellations, but this is such a fluid, unpredictable situation, it's hard to say what will be announced and when. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed an executive order to temporarily ban or postpone any public gatherings of 250 or more people (
details here), while Ontario's chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams is recommending the same (
source), though Premier Doug Ford has not visibly made that official as of this writing, while smaller gatherings should receive consultation from their local public health unit before proceeding. For due diligence, I checked the Facebook accounts for every hard rock or punk musician playing in the Sault area or E.U.P. this month to see if anyone has cancelled, postponed, or moved them.
As of this writing, I have
not seen any firm public statements about other March concerts being called off, but my gut feeling is that all-local concerts at nightclubs would be less susceptible to be cancelled unless the pandemic truly does hit the Soo in a major way. In those cases, no bands are travelling from elsewhere, and I don't think most concert venues in our coverage draw 250+ people on the regular, especially not in the winter, so as long as everyone uses common sense, maybe those can continue. That said, the next scheduled out-of-town hard rock shows locally will be on April 10th, courtesy of
Scarkazm in St. Ignace and
Sandman in Sault Ontario. A lot of touring acts are slated to roll through later in April as well, most notably
Candlebox in Sault Michigan and
First Jason in Sault Ontario, but it is way too soon to make judgements on those concerts, which are mostly over a month away. If you are at all worried about upcoming concerts, follow the bands or venues on social media for the latest updates on their statuses, good or bad.
Obviously, there's a lot of rumours, fears, and pessimism about COVID-19 right now, depending on who you ask. It is true that there are no
officially reported cases of the virus in Sault Ontario, but reports of possible exposure and self-isolation are very prevalent right now, including in Brimley, Michigan. If this all blows over and not many people get sick, we should be glad that we took the right precautions, not be shocked that no one died, that's not the point. I'm not a doctor, and I have no medical background (nurses in my family aside), but I think that a lot of the precuationary measures against the coronavirus are common sense. Wash your hands, try not to touch your face, use anti-bacterial sanitizer, don't hoard toilet paper, and if you think you have any symptoms, let a medical professional know. Maybe I can survive being infected, but I sure don't want to give it to my family and friends, especially those with pre-existing conditions.
Concerts are not the be-all, end-all of life. Maybe the all-local ones will take place, maybe some will be called off, it's too soon to say, but there are more important things to worry about right now. Stay safe out there, stay warm, and use common sense. COVID-19 will not affect The Sault Metal Scene's day-to-day operations aside from reporting on show cancellations and re-schedulings, so look for more on the site in the coming days!
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