Smoking Molly, Carlos Reyes and La Pole Artesanal want to help keep the city’s music scene afloat with tonight’s livestream.
The past three months have been dominated by duel health and economic fears. The lockdown restrictions have left many people unable to work temporarily, while others have lost their jobs completely.
Unsurprisingly, hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs – which still may not be able to open for some time to come – have been hard hit. While home deliveries make up for some restaurant trade and we’ve heard of a couple of tiendas starting to serve beers on the street, it’s not easy for venues like Smoking Molly, a blues, rock and jazz bar/restaurant in the Macarena to domicilio that live music vibe.
It’s not only the bars and clubs themselves that suffer, it’s also those who supply them. How many of the city’s fledgling craft breweries will still be here when we reopen? And how many artists, musicians and chefs have now joined the ranks of the unemployed?
That’s why it was great to hear from Smoking Molly boss Santiago Zuluaga about a virtual Johnny Cash tribute tonight at 8pm. It won’t be led by a boy named Sue, but by a man named Carlos Reyes. Reyes is a bogotano musician who often graces the Smoking Molly stage and we can expect a great mix of arrangements.
“Our business and our industry have taken a really hard blow, especially the artists,” Zuluaga said. “So we’ve been having conversations about how we can keep the scene going and the wheels going.”
He thinks it’s really important to keep the creative momentum. “Right now we’re having a bad time, but we’re partnering up with the venues, the music entrepreneurs and the artists to produce these types of things.”
Tonight’s broadcast is a collaboration between craft beer makers La Pole Artesanal, Carlos Reyes and Smoking Molly.
Reyes speaks of the necessity using broadcasts like this to keep the community together. “Although it is necessary to migrate to the digital world through these broadcasts, we must not forget that the live scene is something that we built together during many years and constitutes the essence of this community.”
So if you’re up for a bit of Folsom lockdown blues, log in tonight at 8pm and hear Johnny Cash all over again.