The live music is mourning. According to the Concert Halls Platform (PDSC), the strict conditions for holding live shows from the different phases of the de-escalation push the disappearance of many of these essential places for the cultural fabric of cities like Madrid. Faced with the lack of solutions and dialogue offered by the different administrations, businessmen, promoters, record labels and artists are looking for new formats and ways of income that make a key circuit for the music industry and its workers sustainable.

It is time to reinvent itself, and there are rooms like Moby Dick, which, nearing its 30th birthday, sees its existence threatened due to the pandemic and its consequences. They will be the first to reopen in the capital and in Spain after the quarantine , with a novel proposal: face-to-face concerts (with the capacity limited to 30 people in Phase 1) that are also broadcast via paid streaming through the Digitalfep platform .

"We have mixed feelings, a little shy about being the first but also a lot of excitement," says Hugo García, communication coordinator for the Moby Dick Group. “There are rooms that have been streaming , even for pay, but none had a live audience. We are very excited to see how people are going to behave , how they are going to maintain safe distances ... ».

In this regard, everything is prepared to comply with the requirements set by the Ministry of Health: a room for 300 people will have only 30 spectators and marks on the floor to define social distance , there will be no bar open to the public and you can only go one by one to the service, which is disinfected after each use.

This Friday the British-Spanish band Indigo Drone will open fire and on Saturday it will be the turn of Los Punsetes , forced to cancel their entire festival and concert schedule, including a tour of Mexico in April. Ariadna Paniagua, vocalist of the latter group, admits that they were "considering various alternatives" to play live again after almost three months of hiatus, until they came up with this idea "and we signed up. We thought 'it will be very rare', but it is a way of having something and giving back to the public how much they have supported us. ”

No tickets, in minutes

The face-to-face tickets sold out in a matter of minutes, but the advantage of this new mixed system that also includes streaming is that the virtual capacity is infinite . For this Saturday there are two types of tickets for sale, those that allow you to enjoy the concert and a VIP ticket that includes a virtual Meet & Greet with the members of the group.

The singer who voices hymns of Spanish punk-pop of the last decade as Opinion of shit or Suspicious person , is clear that the success of this new format «depends on how long this lasts on social distancing. There will come a time when people are dying to go to concerts and want to be there. But it is a good alternative to the current situation, and in many cases it will also serve so that people who cannot attend a concert due to geographical reasons can see it broadcast live.

Drawing on the sarcasm that characterizes his group , he also sees other advantages: "You don't have to put up with the typical two-meter-old guy who stands in front of you and you don't see anything and you also avoid the bitch of being late and having to see him from behind" .

The possibility of organizing live concerts and streaming them also offers incentives to venues like Moby Dick. "That you can have a virtual impact of what happens in your room is very interesting for the future," says Hugo García. " It will never be the same , that is clear, but it is also not the same to see a movie in your house than to go to the cinema, and people have become used to paying for Netflix, Filmin or Amazon Prime."

In addition, after a long time fighting alongside other Madrid venues associated with La Noche en Vivo, Moby Dick has managed to enter the Madrid City Council's census of cultural heritage . “Since we have succeeded, we feel a moral obligation to reciprocate and launch this project, although we know that right now it does not offer us any profitability. But Madrid cannot afford not to have live music », he concludes.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Madrid
  • music
  • Concerts
  • Descaled

ObrasMadrid puts at 8,800 the jobs that will be created by municipal works in 2020 despite the coronavirus

Covid-19Meeting with the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida: "Pedro Sánchez must know that this crisis is not solved locked up in the Moncloa bunker"

Health crisisMadrid will not open municipal swimming pools in June and plans to do so in July if the health issue "advances"