NEW YORK — Local bassist Mo Kalogeras was asked to stay home from performing at his band’s first show in over a year following an order declaring that entertainment venues may open at 33% capacity in New York starting April 2nd.
“I was thrilled we could finally play in person again,” said Ash Karsa, vocalist and guitarist for New York punk band The Lottery Losers. “The funny thing is, initially, I actually misheard the news and thought that bands had to leave 33% of their members at home. With our band having exactly three members, I was more than happy to sacrifice our bassist — it was perfect math. I didn’t find out until later what the order actually meant, and that we crunched our numbers backward. At that point, we could have invited Mo back, but the drummer and I decided that we should still do our part to show solidarity with the venue and the fans until things return to normal.”
Lisa Reynolds, owner of Rattlesnake Randy’s in Brooklyn, sees the situation as a possible long-term solution for capacity requirements.
“The reopening is huge for us, but the capacity limit might be a headache,” said Reynolds. “We never even thought to limit the capacity of the bands. But when we booked The Lottery Losers, they offered without me even asking them. If it works out, I might ask all the bands to leave their bass players at home to make room for showgoers we can charge at the door. I doubt anyone would notice, or care if they did.”
For his part, Kalogeras gave his thoughts, even though nobody asked him or stuck around to listen.
“I’m actually kind of relieved. I was probably going to pretend I forgot about the show when it came time to go anyway,” said Kalogeras. “I know I had a year to do basically nothing but practice, but I still don’t even know the majority of our songs. To be completely honest, I just joined the band because I thought the drummer was cute. Turns out, the person I thought was the drummer was just a random woman waiting in line for the bathroom, and our actual drummer refuses to date men under 33 or over 35, so that sucks for me.”
Kalogeras, who plays guitar in another band, is debating they do the same thing to that band’s bassist “just to be safe.”