The pandemic caused hardships in a lot of areas, including the local music scene

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – It's been more than two years since COVID-19 began sweeping through the world, bringing with it an initial clamp-down on public gatherings.

It took a while for most people to begin feeling comfortable at indoor events again, and for Evansville-area businesses that offer live music, it's been a struggle to stay afloat.

Could this finally be the summer that everything finally feels normal again in the local music scene?

“I think most people who love live original music or love live music, when they haven't seen it for the last two years before that, everyone was just dying to get back,” said Amy Word, who owns the Lamasco Bar and Grill, which features about four live performers a week.

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Things felt like they could be making a turn-around in late 2021, Word said. Then came the surge from omicron variant and staffing issues brought on by the labor shortage.

“Every week, one or two of the bands that we had ended up having to cancel on us,” Word said. “Then, we’d kind of be back on set. Then (COVID) would run through and we’d be short-staffed here.”

The past two years have been instructional, Lamasco's Word said. She's found that a "willingness to experiement ... bringing in different clientele and ... making sure we broaden our horizons a little bit on what our patrons are coming here to see" has helped. That's meant including dance, metal and hip-hop acts.

Live music can be a costly concept for small venues. Jessica Nuffer, a bartender and part owner at Bokeh Lounge, said her facility lost a lot of revenue during the pandemic.

“Having live entertainment is expensive,” she said. “You need to have extra staff. You have to have sound (equipment). You have to have lighting (and there's also) the cost of a band.”

The venue makes that money back by drawing in a good crowd to buy drinks and food and, some nights, pay a cover charge. But that's not an easy sell when the pandemic is limiting crowd sizes.

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Like Lamasco, Bokeh Lounge found a way to vary its approach, hosting bands on their patio, or giving them more room inside to have space between customers. They started streaming performances on Facebook.

They created "Rock the Lot," free concerts where the community can sit outside and enjoy dinner and music.

“People have suffered a lot. So we want to give back to the community for supporting us through COVID,” Nuffer said.

It's been a long two years for performers, too.

Andrea Wirth, part of an acoustic duo called The Honey Vines, feels like the pandemic brought the music community closer to its fans.

"I feel like the people that we've played for have always been very real, but I feel like they're even more tuned in now," she said.

The Honey Vines average about three or four shows a week.

"It's been a lot better than what I think we (originally thought) ... , " Wirth said. "I don't know if we knew what to anticipate, really."

"Was this going to work?" was a question – and fear – that came up for Wirth and her bandmate Melanie Bozsa (and other performers) as venues re-opened. When they aren't performing at local venues or festivals, they teach music at their studio.

During the lockdown and when shows were getting cancelled, Wirth and Bosza offered virtual music lessons for a few months before feeling safe to allow people to come back for in-person instruction. The duo now teaches at the Evansville Music Academy.

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Over in Newburgh, Jennings Street Publishing House is different from the other venues because they opened during the pandemic.

Jennings, which is owned by Lauren Burch and her husband, opened during September 2020. Luckily, with it still being warm, guests were able to sit outside on the deck until winter.

“We started doing music in 2020 with artists who were comfortable playing,” she said. “But things really picked up more so in the spring and summer, people can be outside and honestly, it hasn't really slowed down a lot since then."

Katie Krause has been a patron at Jennings since the day it opened.

"Me and my husband went in there and fell in love with the place. And now we kind of make it one of our spots each weekend," she said. "The nights when there is live music, it really brings people out to enjoy local artists and local businesses."

Rayonna Burton-Jernigan covers diversity and culture-related topics and can be contacted at rbj@courierpress.com or (812) 454-1765. 

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Music in Evansville is emerging from COVID-19 pandemic setbacks