None of us was prepared for something like Covid-19. The essence of the live music business is to bring people together to enjoy music. Now we can’t bring people together anymore, the heart of the business is hit. First out, last in. No wonder that I see people around me becoming very impatient. We all want to be able to enjoy live shows again, hug each other, sing along with the band.
Impatience is a huge force, a huge power. When we are in shock from the crisis and lack motivation for action, impatience makes us active again. Impatience makes us creative again.
The disadvantage of impatience is, that it’s pretty blind. It’s a loose canon. Impatience forces us to action, but also enforces a tunnel-vision, a one-track-mind. Impatience makes us to focus on the goal, on one goal only. There is no place to think twice about the goal or about the tools we use to reach that goal. We take whatever comes in handy.
I share the impatience I see at many colleagues in the live music business. We want live shows to happen again. We feel young, strong and invulnerable, no matter of our real age. We look for a fix, now, immediately. That is how we react to problems, very solution-focused, with gaffa tape in our hand and a screwdriver in our pocket. That’s how we solve problems. Because the show must go on.
When we approach the current crisis with this one-track-mind approach, we forget about all the vulnerable people that we want to protect. The nasty thing about Covid-19 is, that you can spread the disease without knowing that you have been infected. You don’t know if you are spreading the virus already, you don’t know it from the people around you. Every meeting bears the danger of infection.
When I talk about protecting the vulnerable, I’m talking about all of us. I have heard to many stories of people I know, that are in the middle of a very long recovery. In the live music business, we are all vulnerable for loss of income when we have to recover for months, after having been ill from the corona virus.
When we want to use the power of impatience, we have to get control of that loose canon, we have to widen our perspective. So once you feel the power of impatience, remember the creative ideas you have, write them down. And than take some time for a cup of tea to evaluate them.
The cup of tea will help you to become even more creative. It will help you to combine various goals in your creative approach, like bringing live shows on again, and protecting the vulnerable.