Just before 7pm on Friday evening, I logged onto the website of indie record store ‘Banquet Records‘ for my first virtual concert. Craving that endorphin rush only achieved when experiencing live music, I’ve watched a lot of different live performances streamed over the last 3-4 months as the music industry is house-bound.

There have been the poor performances, such as Elton John‘s bizarre garden rendition of his hit ‘I’m Still Standing‘ (I still don’t know what to say about this?!), but there are artists who have somewhat thrived in these bizarre circumstances. Artists like Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion practically created full music videos for their quarantined live performances, Jack Garratt moved his live rig to his attic and strapped on a GoPro, whilst The Flaming Lips found a truly unique work-around to social distancing measures by enforcing a compulsory zorb dress code for themselves and their audience: honestly it needs to be seen to be believed.

Amongst the countless live performances and concerts streamed by quarantined artists around the globe, the work of pop-rock band Haim really stood out to me. At home renditions of new tracks like ‘I Know Alone‘ performed for ‘late-night tv’ by each of the sisters in their separate homes was done beautifully – with strobe lighting and smoke machines for added effect.

When I saw the advertisement of ‘A Night With Haim‘, a paid-for ‘virtual live performance’, I felt it was finally time for me to pop my quarantine cherry and enter the new world of live music in the time of COVID-19.

For the performance, Danielle and Alana Haim were without their third sister and band-mate Este Haim who was sadly unwell, but they were accompanied by co-producers Ariel Rechstshaid and Rostam Batmanglij on guitar and piano respectively. Over the course of just under 50 minutes, the group played 5 songs from the new album ‘Women In Music Pt. III‘ and answered a few pre-submitted questions from ticket holders.

Haim were flawless musically. Hearing stripped back acoustic versions of new tracks like ‘I’ve Been Down‘ gave me a new appreciation for them, whilst Rostam’s piano accompaniment on ‘FUBT‘ really added an extra dimension to the emotional track which hadn’t previously stood out for me on my listens to the project in the week since release. I found it interesting to see the group in a studio performing the tracks and it was nice to know it was a bit more of an exclusive live performance, but perhaps my expectations of the show were a bit too high after seeing their previous quarantined virtual performances.

It all just felt a bit lacklustre for me – one big issue of digital performances is that you don’t have the same intimacy or personality that comes with a live show in-person, so I feel something different, extra or special is needed to make up for it – but this is where ‘A Night With Haim‘ was lacking for me.

The tickets for the virtual concert were included with album bundles purchased online, or could be purchased separately for £9 – so I’m cautious to be too critical.* I purchased their album on vinyl so I could get an access code for the virtual gig, but I would definitely have been purchasing the record regardless of this added incentive. That said, I felt there could have been a few easy improvements that would have made this whole experience more enjoyable.

Firstly, I have to question whether this ‘live virtual performance’ was actually live. The quality of the stream was at times inconsistent – I had a 5 second audio delay for the first half of the show and varied video quality of the stream throughout, which made it seem plausible that the California group could have been streaming live from the West Coast of America straight into my London living room, but I feel that technical feat probably would’ve been a bit too risky. Also during the course of the virtual performance Haim hit number one in UK album charts, an achievement assisted by everyone who had bought access to the concert by also purchasing an album bundle. That said, there was no reference to their number one placement during the gig, which felt a tad impersonal if the performance had truly been live, but in fairness they could have not learnt about the number one until after the gig concluded (_{although the group’s twitter account did tweet about the accomplishment mid-virtual performance}).

Secondly I had been excited by the prospect of it being ‘A Night With Haim‘, rather than just a live performance, but the QnA part of the live-steam was a bit all over the place. I’d been eager to hear from producer Rostam about his work on the album, being a fan of his earlier career in Vampire Weekend as well as his production on Clairo‘s debut album released last year, but I didn’t learn much from the questions asked. Rostam did reveal that he got addicted to hearing Danielle’s powerful drums during both their work with Clairo last year, but other than that I felt that not too much was revealed by any of the submitted questions. Without any real structure, the four musicians rambled about random topics like their Glastonbury experiences, favourite snacks and also sang happy birthday to someone’s partner who was tuned in. It was interesting, but for me the conversation part of the evening was mostly forgettable and could have been aided by a more structured conversation or perhaps a moderator/host to help the flow of the evening.

On the whole as Haim finished up with hit track ‘The Steps‘ I felt disappointed. This disappointment was in part that my expectations of the ‘night’ had shattered over 50 minutes, but I was also disappointed as I came to terms that performances like this are the best thing available for now.

I absolutely adore Haim, I think they came over really well during the live performance, I think they’re incredibly talented musicians, I think that their newest album deserved to hit the top of the album charts and I think I’ll be one of the first to grab tickets when they return to the UK properly. It’s clear that my excitement to be watching live music again, is only dwarfed by the group’s excitement to be properly performing live music again, as the sisters reiterated throughout the night how eager they were to hear crowds singing along to their lyrics once more. However I’m still disappointed that the next opportunity for this won’t be until 2021 at the earliest.

All things considered, I feel that virtual performances like this are still the music industry’s best option. Novelties like ‘drive-through gigs’ which are set to tour the UK next month will likely be nothing more than a novelty, which I’ll be avoiding for now. Sadly the safest and easiest thing to do for artists to keep on streaming their performances from the comfort of their LA studios until social distancing measures have been curbed sufficiently. Additionally, for record stores and music venues like Banquet Records, these streams act as a great way for them to continue to bring in revenues and funds when they can’t be putting on intimate in performances from world-class acts like Stormzy earlier this year. With the UK Government still reluctant to give out sufficient financial support to keep the UK live music industry alive, I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future virtual performances to keep me going and help ensure concerts will continue when the world returns to normal

*It’s also important to note that £2 from each purchase for Haim’s virtual performance was donated by Banquet Records to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust a great charity helping to tackle racial inequalities in the UK. Whilst the music industry is in need of financial support in these trying times, charities such as the SLCT are doing great work in the UK to help create a more equal and just society.

Setlist
I’ve Been Down
Man From The Magazine
Los Angeles
FUBT
The Steps