tl;dr – Direct Hit will play the outdoor show in Cedar Rapids on 8/27 and the masked double capacity room in Chicago on 8/28 but will not play Punk Rock Night in Indy on 9/4 or FEST in Gainesville. Get vaccinated.
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Hey dudes. Nick here. Alerting anyone who cares that I won’t be at the Fest in October, or at the show we were scheduled to play in Indianapolis in a couple weeks. DH will still be playing in Chicago on 8/28, and in Iowa on 8/27 – the former is in a larger room at 50% capacity, and the latter is outdoors.
We set up all of these shows this spring under the assumption that most of the country would be vaccinated by the end of summer. That obviously hasn’t been the case. I’ve got an unvaccinated 5-year old at home, and can’t risk getting her sick after catching breakthrough COVID in a packed indoor environment, like my vaccinated parents and many of my friends have, where there’s a chance of highly-infectious people getting through the door. The risk of that happening is especially high in Florida and in small indoor venues at the moment, where distancing and mask mandates can’t be strictly enforced.
If you and your friends and family are vaccinated, I hope you still go to both shows. Independent venues and artists dependent on live music to make a living are struggling, and deserve your support.
If you haven’t gotten vaccinated, and aren’t immunocompromised, please think hard about why that is. What objective is so important that you’d make the choice to aggravate a public health crisis instead of getting a shot? Is your outward anti-authoritarian attitude more important than the lives of children? Are you that busy that you can’t take half an hour to drive to and from Walgreens? Do you care that little about people you don’t know? Has your trust in doctors, scientists, and your community been reduced to nothing? If any of your answers are “yes,” then I can’t help but pity you and the hurt, anxiety or stress you feel. I hope you work through those issues and stop endangering the world at large. Please get the counseling you need to feel better.
Chicago/Iowa will likely be our last 2 shows until next year, if not longer. I hope to see you there if you’re vaccinated, and that we all find a way to work together to get past the shittiness of the last 18 months. I miss unfettered live music, and I know you do too.