Nearly a year ago, a reader applauded The Manhattan Beat for its coverage of live music in New York City throughout the COVID lockdown and beyond. The reader asked if anyone else was covering live music regularly during the pandemic. The answer was no, no other website at that time was celebrating all the courageous musicians and venues that were filling the downtrodden city's dead air with sweet music. Quite the opposite, the majority of music news reports kept insisting that there was no live music. How wrong they were!
A pandemic could not stop live music in New York City, and it could not stop this music journalist either. Rather than bunkering at home and lamenting on the closures and cancelations, The Manhattan Beat was unique in that it almost daily spun the positive angle about how our local musicians and venues were making live music happen. During the time that music venues were closed, The Manhattan Beat published hundreds of photographs of musicians performing for live audiences in parks, on streetcorners, inside restaurant windows, on pickup trucks, outside an art gallery and a musical instrument store, and even in a laundromat.
These are the 10 most-viewed articles of 2021 in The Manhattan Beat. Clicking on a title will lead to the original article and its collection of photographs. While much of the content is outdated, it now serves as documentation of how downtown Manhattan's live music circuit survived a most unusual year. We do not know where New York's live music scene will be going in 2022, but The Manhattan Beat will continue to chronicle all the good news.
1. Little Island to Open for Live Performances in Spring 2021
Posted on Jan 22, 2021
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| Little Island |
Little Island, a new $250 million three-acre park built on a former pier in Hudson River Park, will open in the late spring of 2021 and host live entertainment. The park, located on Pier 55 at West 14th Street just south of the new City Winery, will present a series entitled "Perform in the Park" which will feature "performers, artists, buskers, merrymakers, entertainers, troupes, bands, and players of all disciplines," from June to September 2021, according to its website.
2. Local Concert Promoter Defeats the Authorities on Their Own Ground
Posted on Aug 8, 2021
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| Chris Flash, a long-time promoter of concerts in Tompkins Square Park |
"Free speech is not free," says Chris Flash, publisher of the local anarchist newspaper, The Shadow. Flash last week won a court battle to resume staging free-admission political rallies and concerts in Tompkins Square Park. "It cost us a lot of money to get free speech."
3. City Winery NYC Will Rock Again Starting March 15
Posted on Mar 5, 2021
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| City Winery NYC reopened at 25% capacity and social distancing |
New York City's most celebrated music room and winery, City Winery NYC, will reopen on March 15 at 35% indoor capacity, obedient to current governmental restrictions. The restaurant will be open on Mondays to Thursdays from 4 to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 9 p.m. The concierges are already taking reservations.
4. Local Independent Artists Invade Parks and Sidewalks with Live Performances
Posted on Mar 21, 2021
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| Spike Polite & Sewage NYC in Union Square as bands turned public spaces into perfomance stages |
With big fanfare, New York's state and city leaders promised to kickstart an arts and cultural revival in 2021 with programs such as NY PopsUp! and Open Culture. Meanwhile, many independent artists and promoters are demonstrating greater success in creating their own free and outdoor music events in the parks and on the sidewalks of New York City. With most traditional music venues still closed, musicians are finding audiences by performing on alternate stages.
5. Jerry Brandt, Revolutionized Rock Concerts at the Ritz, Dead at 82
Posted on Jan 16, 2021
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| Jerry Brandt recreated the staging of rock concerts |
Jerry Brandt revolutionized New York City's live music industry in 1980 when he converted the dormant 19th century Webster Hall (125 E. 11th St.) into the Ritz. Although no official obituary has been published yet, he reportedly died of COVID and pneumonia-related causes in Florida on January 16, 2021.
6. City Winery NYC and Other Music Venues Announce April Re-openings
Posted on Mar 12, 2021
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| Joseph Arthur was among the first headliners when City Winery NYC reopened in April |
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on March 3 that event, arts and entertainment venues in New York State can end a year-long shutdown and reopen at 33 percent capacity beginning April 2. In addition, domestic travelers, including musicians, crews and spectators, will be free to cross state lines without quarantining, allowing many entertainment tours to start. With the relaxation of these Covid-era regulations, several now-shuttered New York City venues will re-open in April.
7. NYC Music Venue Owners Respond to Cuomo's Reopening Plan
Posted on Jan 29, 2021
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| Venue operators had to plan how to host live music under governmental restrictions |
Citing the declining COVID infection rates in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on January 29 that restaurants could resume indoor dining at 25% capacity beginning on February 14, one of the biggest days of the year in the hospitality industry. He cautioned, however, that this is pending on the local infection rate continuing its downturn.
8. The Music Venues That Are Rocking New York City
Posted on Apr 12, 2021
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| Strange Majik at Marshall Stack, one of the first bands to play live in one of the first venues to host live music during the COVID shutdown |
When will full-scale concerts return to New York City stages? Probably not until local legislators believe that large gatherings at 100 percent capacity are Covid-safe. Presently, capacity restrictions for large and mid-sized venues are very low and financially unfeasible for touring musicians and promoters. Currently, outdoor stadiums can have 20 percent capacity, indoor arenas can have 10 percent, and mid-size venues can have 33 percent to a maximum capacity of 100 people.
9. The Top 40 NYC Original Music Acts to Catch Live in 2021
Posted on Dec 26, 2020
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| Pinc Louds was among the first bands to play live in public parks during the lockdown |
Only the bravest and most committed musicians dared perform before live audiences during the pandemic of 2020. For the past nine months, while all the major stages have remained dark, many musicians performed frequently in parks, sidewalk cafes, art galleries, even in a laundromat, on a fire escape, and on the back of a pickup truck. With no definite signs that the live music landscape in New York City will change for the better in 2021, these are some of the outstanding musicians that we expect will continue to rock live with original music for as long as the pandemic lasts.
10. Veteran Rockers Perform on Many NYC Music Stages
Posted on Nov 21, 2021
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| Forty years after its debut on the local music circuit, Bush Tetras continues to rock the town even in the COVID era |
One is never too old to rock and roll, judging by the number of veteran musicians who played a variety of New York City stages in the past month. They may not want to reveal their ages, so let us just say they are all over 50 years old and are not pretending to be 40-something. They looked and sounded far better than many of the younger musicians playing the circuit.
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The Manhattan Beat covers New York City's live music developments as they happen. All photographs are by Everynight Charley Crespo, except when noted otherwise. For a list of Manhattan venues that are presenting live music regularly, swing the desktop cursor to the right and click on the pop-up tab "Where to Find Live Music." For a listing of upcoming concerts for live audiences, visit The Manhattan Beat's January 2022 calendar.
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