Live music shutdown hard on workers

The Phoenix Theater’s sound technician is one of many backstagers out of work in the pandemic.|

Petaluma’s once thriving live music scene has taken a big hit during the pandemic shutdown, and music industry professionals are scrambling to recoup their losses. That includes those who work behind the scenes and backstage. With no hope for live shows in the near future, the curtain remains down on their careers.

Ian Dubois has been the Phoenix Theater’s principal sound guy for 20 years. He’s seen the local music scene change and grow over his tenure behind the scenes and he’s grown with it.

Dubois started fresh out of high school, while attending Santa Rosa JC and playing in a group called The Conspiracy. He played guitar in the band, sang and did some song writing. He also owned a pickup truck and so he was the one lugging around all the band’s gear and doing setup.

While playing a show in Fort Collins, Colorado, someone asked him if he was the sound guy. “Sure,” Dubois said. “When we got back to town, I was an official sound guy.”

Dubois said that in those early days, the bands coming through Petaluma were much more varied and national. Shows were being promoted by SSU, Bill Graham Presents and the Maritime Hall/2B1 productions to name a few.

“All this in addition to the local music scene equated to a slow night being around 300 patrons,” he said. “I affectionately refer to it as the Trenches of Rock and Roll.”

They were low budget, down and dirty tours that would swarm around the big Bay Area cities.

“I learned so much during this time period,” he said.

It prepared him for the career to come in ways that he didn't even understand. Dubois said that over the past couple of decades, the industry has changed in predictable ways.

“Venues have closed, reopened, been repurposed, that kind of thing,” Dubois said. “Bill Graham Presents became Live Nation, which then spawned AEG/Goldenvoice and Another Planet Entertainment.”

He’s worked with bands like Dead Again, Primus, The Three Tenors and the Dave Matthews Band. Dubois said the common thread through all of these changes has been the audience.

“The pandemic has taken that away,” he said. “With no audience, there are no live events of any kind. The pandemic has essentially erased that career off of the face of the earth.”

Dubois figures live music will be the last industry to return to business.

“Only a proven vaccine will give people the peace of mind to congregate like that,” he said. “Stage Four opening as they say.”

He’s considering doing gigs where he could have flexible hours. “It's the only way I can do the dance around our new life schedule,” he said. He and his wife have two small children who are home full time now.

Dubois’ wife is a nurse at a local hospital and teaches nursing as well. She’s working more hours than normal and he is staying at home with the children. He’s doing online schooling with his first grader while also taking care of their preschooler. He said this is a big role reversal from when he was still working.

“She is going crazy working more hours and I am going crazy being stuck in the house,” Dubois said. “The mental reset for us both is quite challenging, but we haven't broken yet.”

Dubois realizes he is in the same boat as a lot of service workers, experiencing the same struggle to make ends meet and to keep paying the rent. He thinks it’s important to be aware of just how many folks in different industries are hurting. He points out that it’s not only the restaurant workers, the hair stylists and the gym trainers that are sitting and waiting to get back to work.

It’s easy to forget that live performances involve a long host of behind the scenes workers. He pointed out that the venues also have to pay rent, utilities and maintenance, all without a source of income for the foreseeable future.

“It’s all of the stage hands, lighting guys, sound guys, make-up and costume artists,” he said.

Dubois pointed out that the live event industry is really quite small. “We do tours across the country and work with the same people year in and year out in different cities around the world, so we get to know each other,” he said.

He worries about the long term impact the pandemic will have on the industry.

“We risk dissolving this community and these friendships. For me, that loss is greater than anything financial,” Dubois said. “Talking to people across the country we just say, ‘Hopefully I'll see you down the road someday!’ That hope is definitely worth hanging on to.”

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