Randy Rogers Band and the Long Tail of the Pandemic
Funny little reminders of The Before Times
It’s next to impossible to understand what life was like before March 2020. But occasionally, something drops into your life, forcing you to remember and take a moment to mourn what you once knew.
Today, that was a calendar reminder for a rescheduled Randy Rogers Band concert from Fall 2020.
From my earliest days of country music fandom and Pandora exploration, Randy Rogers Band was on regular rotation. The band has put together solid country music for decades, and I’d count myself among their fans. I can sing along to several of their hits— which I’ve done after dismissing the calendar reminder.
The band was scheduled to play The Independent, my favorite music club in San Francisco. This is a perfect place to see a band that is much bigger in other parts of the country. My lovely wife and I saw The Lone Bellow and Margo Price during “The Before Times” in this space.
The venue was close to our apartment, allowing us to take public transit to enjoy a quick, easy night of live music. And I paid for the Randy Rogers Band tickets with this in mind — a carefree purchase without consideration of a global pandemic that would kill millions and alter every aspect of life.
I took live music and its role in my mental health for granted before we shut down.
But not anymore, and when this glitchy calendar reminder hit my phone this morning, I smiled. With the support of my family, I’ve shifted my passive fandom and concert-going into an integral aspect of my life. I carefully consider the range of local shows and touring acts, who will open and where they are located—and plan accordingly.
I no longer just grab a ticket for a show.
While this likely would have happened anyway because of responsibilities and being a bit slower to recover from an 11 p.m. headliner on a weeknight, it’s also entirely possible that I would have let this part of my life slip away.
Without the loss of live music, I might not have understood its value.
Since the pandemic restrictions ended, I’ve seen hundreds of shows a year, and I’m grateful for the opportunity. But I still have not seen the Rand Rogers Band live.