Rebecca Lowry performs during the Social Resonance Vol. 1 stream March 27.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Technically and artistically, what Ian Aiello and his team pulled off last Friday night at The Sydney will stand as the benchmark by which live streamed performances will be judged, and I don’t mean just local ones.

Multiple cameras, pristine audio and two fine performances in an empty bar in Benson, except for the crew that made it all work, last week’s Social Resonance Vol. 1 represents what can be done with the technology that will be spoon-feeding us live musical performances at least for the next two or three months while COVID does its thing.

You, of course, can see for yourself via this link, which will take you to the performance’s recording hosted in YouTube. Ian said about 250 watched live at any one time and a total of around 450 people viewed the live stream. Since its broadcast, the recording has had just under 1,200 views. Not bad.

Rebecca Lowry with an electric guitar (the last time I saw her perform she held a ukulele) belted out a number of songs a la Bonnie Raitt, while Mike Schlesinger, wearing a John Denver T-shirt, preferred to use an old acoustic guitar for his set of low-slung heart-breakers. Schlesinger is a Nebraska treasure who deserves to be discovered by this great, big COVID-infected world.

The stream defined the phrase “intimate performance.” With multiple cameras and perfect sound, there was utterly nowhere for these two to hide as every breath, every note was stream-ified. Guts. Confidence.

Despite its “Vol. 1” title, Ian said this was a one-shot — there will be no Vol. 2, which is a shame considering Vol. 1’s success. It truly was appointment viewing and gave us all somewhere to meet on a Friday night, even if it was just in front of our computers.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Social Resonance is live streaming tonight at 9:30 from The Sydney.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Think about all the rock shows we had to choose from just a year ago from this week. Phoebe and Conor’s Better Oblivion Community Center was playing a sold out show at The Slowdown; Wild Powwers was playing at O’Leaver’s, Black Moth Super Rainbow was at The Waiting Room as was The Nadas, ADULT. was at Slowdown Jr., and a slew of local bands including Gerald Lee Jr., Minne Lussa, The Natural States and Death Cow were playing clubs all over town.

This weekend all we got is a bunch of live streams and our record collections to keep us going. Look, this COVID thing isn’t going to last forever, right?

Well, one thing to look forward to is happening tonight in your living room. Social Resonance is a live streaming project coming at you tonight at 9:30 from a closed-up Sydney in Benson. Produced by Ian Aeillo with the help of some local technical wiz kid, the show will include performances from singer / songwriters Rebecca Lowry and Mike Schlesinger and probably a few other surprises.

It’s streaming via YouTube from this link: https://youtu.be/xPa5hWnBKkQ If you click on the link in the YouTube app you can send it to your SmartTV, which Ian implores you do for maximum viewing pleasure. If you don’t have a SmartTV (or a TV) just watch it below:

I plan on sitting back with an ice cold Rolling Rock and some of my favorite take-out and enjoying the whole show in my living room. I’d love it if performers and venues were able to do more of these kind of scheduled streamed rock shows, at least until things get back to normal…

Have a great weekend.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.