Drive-in shows are becoming more and more popular as the pandemic presses on. People are starving for a taste of the not-so-sanitary days when venues were packed shoulder to shoulder with strangers. This year, to marry the worlds of covid and concerts, artists are performing for fields and parking lots of evenly spaced cars. Concert-goers see this as a way to safely enjoy live music while also adhering to social distancing rules.
I’ve found myself wondering about these performances on wheels rolling from city to city. Are they worth it? Or, are they so wonderfully peaceful that, after attending, I’d grow to detest the sweat and lack of oxygen notoriously present at a traditional show?
This is the best we can do right now, especially with colder months on the horizon. We certainly can’t go back to packing arenas and closing the doors, leaving one lonely ceiling fan to circulate the air. So yeah, drive-in makes sense. I do have to stop and take a moment to think of all the arguments over a designated driver that have heated up over 2020’s mobile shows. I don’t even want to know what you’d have to do for your Uber driver to get them to park their car in a field for three hours while you party in the backseat. Totally not going to happen. But hey, artists miss interacting with fans outside of social media, and listeners have tired of headphones cranked to full volume.
I was curious about what these shows really looked like though, so I scrolled through these 2020 concert sources (click the words!) to see who I should Twitter stalk for a peek. Subtronics has been pretty busy this year, hosting several socially distanced performances to make the best of a weird, lonely year. The DJ received resounding praise for his Halloween set, with fans posting videos and threads online, showing the rest of us that the drive-in really still captures that wild concert essence that we know and love. The lights are just as bright, and with honking, the crowd may even be louder. These shows, along with President-elect Joe Biden’s four-wheeled rallies, are making car horns out to be a sound of camaraderie and applause.
Check out this video thread posted on Twitter!
