As artists take to livestreams and videos, we’re documenting the new performance archive emerging before our eyes in The Stream Warriors series.
Last week, Triangle mainstay Django Reinha—er, make that DJANGO HASKINS—rose to the coronavirus-cancellation challenge with two new songs, one on his own and one with The Old Ceremony, written just for the isolated occasion.
Check out Haskins’s solo tune “Bossa to the End of the World” on Instagram and The Old Ceremony’s “Holed Up,” recorded four-way-split-screen-style, on YouTube. (Venmo: django-haskins)
Last weekend, prolific Durham folk-rockers CHARLES LATHAM AND THE BORROWED BAND played a lengthy live set at Shadowbox Studio that you can still watch on Facebook. With the Cat’s Cradle’s Chris Church helping on sound and sharp multi-angle video production, it’s worth keeping around (wait for the Kenny Rogers tribute a little more than an hour in).
Get Patreon benefits to hear the band’s new record early or Venmo tips to @SirCharlesLatham.
When you’re going mad in quarantine, there’s no better time to watch someone play an upright bass with Styrofoam, tree bark, and clothespins. Durham experimental-improv stalwart DAVID MENESTRES of Polyorchard has you covered with a characteristically adventurous solo set from last Sunday, posted to the Decentralized Sonic Quarantine Network YouTube channel.
On the more traditional end of the musical spectrum, the North Carolina Opera has let loose the finale of the famed love-letter scene from its 2016 concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN. Support the independent local opera here.
But let’s not forget that it’s more than musicians who are left high and dry by the coronavirus wipe-out. Few creatures rely more on events to sell their wares than small-press poets do.
When JESSICA Q. STARK, whose debut collection Savage Pageant was favorably reviewed by the INDY, found all her release events canceled, she took to Twitter for a spontaneous live reading instead.
Order the book from its Raleigh-based publisher, Birds LLC, and Venmo the author @jezzbah.
Contact arts and culture editor Brian Howe at bhowe@indyweek.com.
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