Sask. musicians excited to get back to live shows

After more than a year away from performing in front of people because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeffery Straker said he had a physical reaction in his first shows back on stage this month.

“I literally sort of vibrated on the piano bench, you know. It was this exhilarating feeling of being back to where I belong. Watching the audiences receive the live music too, it was just a complete joy. It’s been wonderful,” said Straker.

This past weekend, the Regina musician did five shows in Yorkton, and the weekend before that, he performed the first two shows in a series of 45 to 50 backyard shows he has planned.

“I’m making up for lost time here,” he said laughing.

He started booking the backyard shows in February because he said he may not have known what the restrictions would look like by the summer. But he figured people would at least be able to have 30 to 40 people in a backyard.

“Most of them are booked and hosted by fans of mine who really wanted to, I guess (a) help me out in giving me opportunities to perform but also (b) get some live music going for people in their circles,” explained Straker.

He said the smaller shows are a more intimate setting and a nice way to experience music but it’s also a good way to ease back into it — for both him and the audience.

“Even though we’re outside, a lot of people are choosing to wear a mask at these shows — which is totally fine, of course — but I can sort of see that different people are sort of easing back into it differently and these small outdoor shows to me feel like a great way to slowly get everyone comfortable with this again,” Straker said.

Straker spent some of the pandemic doing online shows. At first, he said he would have up to 1,200 people logging in to watch but eventually he thought people got fatigued by always being on their computers. And it wasn’t quite the same for him performing, either.

“When you’re doing an online show, you don’t get that energy exchange and, on many levels, that just doesn’t work for me,” he said. “You want to feel that the audience is there.”

And that’s something Straker is getting now with these live shows.

“I was like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s that feeling’ — you know, that feeling that this audience is coming along for a bit of journey with you for this hour and a half,” he said. “That’s a nice feeling to get back to.”

With gathering sizes expanding as the province reopens, larger concerts and indoor concerts will soon be allowed. Straker said he’s already had a few calls for venues to talk about fall and winter dates. But he doesn’t think huge groups of people will be packing into theatres right away — it could take a bit for some to be comfortable.

“Everyone sort of has to do this at their own pace,” said Straker.

Overall, Straker and a lot of the other musicians he has talked to are really looking forward to getting back to live music, and not just because he said performing arts were “obliterated” by the pandemic and largely forgotten in aid programs by government.

“Music is a bit of medicine for people and I think this is going to be a nice way to help people ease back into some normalcy,” he said.