Pyramid Cabaret circles date for return of live concerts

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This article was published 04/06/2020 (2254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pyramid Cabaret will open its doors and its stage to live music on June 13, almost three months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the downtown concert venue to go silent.

Local indie-rock group Deep Dark Cave will headline the show (proceeds will go to the Black Lives Matter movement) at the club on Fort Street. Shows are also scheduled for June 19, 26 and July 24.

“We see no reason not to do it,” says David McKeigan, the Pyramid’s manager. “I’m going by what the government tells us. They’re allowing us to reopen with the proper conditions.”

The main condition is the same one Manitoba’s restaurants and bars must follow — the Pyramid must allow only half it’s usual capacity. That means seats and tables will be set up for 160 people and will be two metres apart.

McKeigan checked out the closed Pyramid at the end of May, after learning that restaurants and bars would soon be open to 50 per cent capacity.

“We set it up to see how it would look,” he says.

McKeigan recognizes there will be those in Winnipeg who enjoy live music but remain worried about contracting the coronavirus and whether concerts will be part of “the new normal.”

“There is a lot of uncertainty,” he says. “Some bands have questioned if people will come out. If (audiences) come, great. If they don’t, no problem. The new normal also means people will want to go out and see a band.

“If I were in Toronto I wouldn’t open. They still have hundreds of cases. What are we down to, nine? I’m hoping we get to zero.”

Jeremy Koz, who fronts Deep Dark Cave, performs with eight groups at clubs across the city, from the hair-rock tribute Big Top Radio to the traditional jazz of the Ron Paley Band. A gig, even eight days hence, couldn’t come soon enough.

“It’s been hard to get motivated,” Koz says. “I applaud those who’ve done online broadcasts but I need to be in front of an audience.

“I haven’t personally sang in three months, besides a karaoke night at my house.”

Koz and McKeigan contacted each other in May, and began their preparations. For McKeigan, that meant upping the Pyramid’s cleanliness regime to meet provincial health department’s COVID-19 guidelines. For Koz, that meant getting a band back together.

“We have to follow the government guidelines. That’s No. 1,” he says. “Can we space ourselves out onstage? We have to make sure venues are spacing out their tables. And some of our players aren’t comfortable yet (with performing in public). But people who are on board are aching to be onstage.”

McKeigan expects local artists will get most of the gigs at Winnipeg clubs in the near future. The border between Canada and the U.S. remains closed to all but essential traffic, preventing American groups from touring here.

Differing provincial pandemic guidelines — Manitoba regulations require out-of-province visitors to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival — will make a cross-Canada tour in 2020 next to impossible, he says.

This year was always going to be a struggle for the Pyramid because city construction crews are working on Fort Street this summer, replacing water mains and building new sidewalks.

“Construction is another obstacle, and that has nothing to do with the virus,” he says. “It’ll be great when it’s done.”

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall