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Michael Monroe, Sami Yaffa & Costello, live rock during coronavirus times
Photographies taken the 2020-05-23
Michael Monroe, performing at Facebook Live during coronavirus confinement.
Michael Monroe, performing at Facebook Live during coronavirus confinement.
Michael Monroe, performing at Facebook Live during coronavirus confinement.
Michael Monroe, performing at Facebook Live during coronavirus confinement.
Michael Monroe, performing at Facebook Live during coronavirus confinement.
Michael Monroe, performing at Facebook Live during coronavirus confinement.
On the afternoon of Saturday, May 23 - Barcelona time - one of the best concerts through Facebook Live has been seen during the confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic. The trio formed by Michael Monroe, Sami Yaffa and Costello have offered two and a half hours of rock’n’roll in an electro-acoustic format - without drums - from the 45 Special club in Oulu (Finland).
The quality of the image (several professional cameras) and audio has left the vast majority of live shows that have been seen on Facebook or Instagram in recent weeks look really bad. Despite being a free broadcast, there is a Paypal account to contribute what you would like and the concert can be seen in its entirety on Facebook as many times as you want.
The experience has been a surprise for its quality and repertoire, its own songs and covers, which has been dedicated to the recently disappeared Little Richard. Monroe has explained several anecdotes of many rock stars but especially of him and has interpreted ‘Long Tall Sally’ from the genius of Macon.
The trio, united by the impossibility of reuniting with their respective bands scattered around the world in a time without the possibility of traveling abroad by the Covid-19, have also interpreted versions of Moon Martin ('Bad News'), Stiv Bators, Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls, Tom Petty ('I was in love with a girl'), The Grass Roots ('Let's Live For Today'), Graham Parker ('Success') and The Ramones 'Blitzkrieg Bop' that has been the only concert encore.
From Michael Monroe and his ex-band Hanoi Rocks have sounded 'Do What You Wanna Do', 'Make It Go Away', 'Don't You Ever Leave Me Baby', 'Smoke Screen', 'You Crucified Me', 'All We Need ',' Can't Go Home' or 'Under The Northern Lights' among others.
Despite the dominance of mid-tempo, the concert has not been made at all dull. The charismatic Monroe and the multiplicity of anecdotes and situations narrated by himwith music stars give to write a book or two. However, sitting on a restless ass like Monroe made him feel uncomfortable and he has gotten up numerous times to play guitar, dance or jump - there was no sax playing this time.
Although very grateful to the two people who served as the public, the owner of the club and the waiter, the emptiness of the room was evident and the thousands of people connected, more than 4,000 simultaneously, could not fill that space with their hearts icons or messages "Greetings from...".
The future of live music
And what is the experience of the "attendant"? Well, it has its pros and cons, both of great importance. The possibility of seeing the concert "in the front row" with perfect image and sound quality is something to keep in mind, especially for the short ones, but the lack of physical experience such as the watts bouncing against the rib cage, the jumps with beer spilling everywhere, the talks with the group's followers, the nervousness of the start of the concert, the “fight to the death” for the drumsticks and the guitar picks… The lack of everything that turns a rock concert into a ritual ancestral in modern times causes the emotional footprint left by the virtual show to be far below the original.
Hardly will we tell our colleagues in a few years that we saw Michael Monroe on Facebook Live in the same way that we can explain how he recklessly climbed the scaffolding to the roof of the gigantic Rock Fest Barcelona stage. It is not the same and it does not seem that this is going to be the future of live music no matter how hard some try, technology does have limits and probably concerts in drive-ins have more future as an enduring experience in memory than those broadcast by social networks.
Yes, it is true, it is the best you can get today with a pandemic, and above all for free! But it also make highrise nostalgia, after having lived months without concerts, and sometimes during this concert you imagine what you would be doing if you were seeing Monroe and company in your preferred venue, who would you meet, if you would have a beer inside or would do the preview in a frankfurt ... In any case, the rock club 45 Special should be thanked for this initiative, every Saturday at 7:00 p.m. (Barcelona time), to help mitigate confinement and social distance. On May 30 it will be the turn of the indie band Blind Channel.
To sum up, an experience that makes live music even more valuable, something we always took for granted that it would be there for our enjoyment and when it suddenly disappears it leaves us with an interior emptiness so immense that not an entire ocean of Facebooks Lives can fill up.