On the same day (April 18) the “One World: Together at Home” all-star television and streaming special from Global Citizen airs and streams to raise hope and health awareness in the fight against COVID-19 with the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish, Lizzo and many more starting at 2 p.m., Philadelphia musicians, labels and venues won’t sit idly by.
While Girard Avenue’s The Fire and its owner, Karen Lauria Saillant, host “StayAtHomeFest,” an international concert on YouTube, for the good of its touring musicians and staff, Philly indie label CEO Shawn Dorsey and his Know Hope Records crew launch “LockdownPalooza” on the label’s Instagram page.
The Fire’s stream fest will have an international feel to go with its venue’s usual flavorings (Hope The Flowers from Thailand, General Rest in Peace from Morocco, Eufemia from Mexico among the performing bands) with Italy’s Piqued Jacks, and Philly’s own Dirty Soap representing bands who had to cancel gigs at The Fire due to the pandemic.
“This is truly a global crisis and we hope this concert will bring people together to support musicians during a challenging time,” said Fire owner Karen Lauria Saillant. “I wanted to find a way to support my staff as well as the artists whose shows had been canceled at The Fire due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We started with bands from Japan and Italy, then grew to include a total of 9 international artists. We are lucky to live in a time where digital tools like YouTube offer us the ability to connect through a virtual concert experience.”
Know Hope Records owner Shawn Dorsey focused on his label’s “LockdownPalooza” and its DIY vibe, a hallmark of the Philadelphia scene for him, as well as being a totem of his company. With that, the “LockDown” will feature streaming acoustic live sets and Q&A’s with Know Hope label acts such as twentythreenineteen, String Machine, Frames, Triangle Shirt Factory, Post Season, Suntitle, Lakes and The Still, Small Voice.
“As much as we’d like to be able to give people full band performances it just isn’t really safe or feasible right now unless a band lives all together in a house, which isn’t usually the case,” noted Dorsey. “We’re going to do some Q&A with each artist in between songs. We wanted to try and give fans some insights into the artists, their lives, etc and give them a chance to engage with the artist. When it comes down to it we’re all living in this strange time, we’re all in the same boat, and we thought that giving fans the chance to engage with artists and get a little insight into their lives, both as artists and in the current situation, would be a cool thing and a little bit different.”
The Know Hope COVID-19 stream-fest came from several artists and label peeps while safe at home before it was made manifest as LockdownPalooza.
“Recently we had a bunch of our bands and friends all contribute to a playlist that we called “songs to quarantine to” and I’ve been listening to that a lot,” said Dorsey who was generous enough to send the list for dosage MAGAZINE reader listening pleasure.
“It has over 10 hours of music on it and it is all over the place in terms of genres, so it has been a good way to pass the time.”
Shawn was quick to credit Connor Rothstein, Know Hope’s Creative Director, and label manager Ryan Wapner with coming up with images and the overall concept for the event. “A lot of labels and/or bands have been putting on these livestream events lately and given that we had many of our bands that had to cancel tours and shows Ryan thought it would be a good thing for us to do,” he said. “We started working on this about two weeks ago, so it didn’t take too long to pull together. The biggest part was just making sure that we had the logistics put together of how it would function and then just getting everyone on the same page. I didn’t have to bug anyone to do this, everyone was stoked as soon as we asked them.
And will Know Hope continue to go the live stream route for its artists as so many musicians and labels might do going forward?
“That’s a good question. I’m not really sure, I haven’t really thought that far ahead because I’m not sure how long this is going to last. As great as it is to have the ability to livestream like this I think I am, like everyone else, anxious to get back to going to shows in person. Hopefully, we’ll get there sooner rather than later. I think that livestreaming in the future is something that we’ll definitely look at for sure, and I think that all labels, bands, artists, etc. should look at this and learn some different things about how to engage with fans better, and that most certainly applies to Know Hope too.”
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