As the concert industry slowly tries to figure out how to reopen, there seem to be various do's and dont's that all these promoters and guides agree on. Based on two different reports, things promoters don't see coming back quickly are crowd surfing, moshing, and perhaps most detrimental to artists' bottom line – meet and greets.
Meet and greet revenue can make the difference between a money-losing show and a money-making show for certain artists, so that will deal a huge blow to artists of a certain level, which is to say nothing of potentially undersold venues to keep with social distancing guidelines. But guitarist Nita Strauss is determined to find a solution where everybody can leave happy and safe.
Speaking to The MetalSucks Podcast, Nita thinks the traditional 'shake a hand, get a hug' type of meet and greet won't work, but perhaps an extended Q&A and a photo might still work.
“I think there’s a way to do it while still being responsible when touring starts up, if we’re still needing to be socially distant and responsible. It might be kind of tough to take a picture and put an arm around each other but in my meet and greets on my solo tours, it’s really like a big group hang, like a Q&A. So I’ll be sort of in the middle of a semi-circle or if there’s a lot of people, I’ll be on stage and people will be on the floor, where the concerts happens, where they’d be standing, and we just hang out. By a show of hands, I take questions for the whole hour, then we do a quick photograph and autograph for everybody, so I think that kind of format is so valuable for fans. They just want to get that experience of hanging out and chatting about music and asking whatever they want to know about without being rushed.
“I think the main gripe for me, about most meet and greets is you’re just kind of brought through and you don’t really get to interact and ask a question or be in that person’s presence for very long. It’s just like, ‘ok here’s your thing, here’s your autograph, take a picture, get out.’ So to have that like, 45 minutes in the beginning of hanging out and if someone wants to say, ‘Hey, what was your first guitar?’ Or ‘what’s your favorite shape of pasta?’ Or whatever they’ve always wanted to ask, they can ask it there.
“What a lot of people don’t realize, and I can definitely say for myself and I know for hundreds and hundreds of other tours out there, it might not seem like much, and people are always saying, ‘you know, bands should just meet fans for free.’ And I agree with that too, and I do go out to merch and meet people for free every single show, even when I do meet and greets before the show. I still go out to merch for free and hang and talk and sign autographs and take pictures. But you don’t get that Q&A, one-on-one experience, that’s a rush.”
She added that meet-and-greet money can go a long way in ensuring her band has a proper place to sleep and food to eat that night, saying bands are already in the red when they start tour. Touring in a bus is expensive (at least $1,000 a night) or even in a van, you need to then work out hotel fees so the band members have somewhere to sleep and shower at night.
If you were to attend a show in the socially distanced era, would you consider doing a meet and greet?
Listen to the whole interview here.
