Concerts Are Coming Back: Opening Night Plans for Rock’s Big Acts
As live concerts slowly begin to creep back into the schedules of artists and fans alike, there's a certain sense of relief felt by all.
“It was a great feeling - kind of surreal in a way,” Kansas drummer Phil Ehart told UCR. On May 8, he and the band played their first show for an in-person audience in more than a year. “It was kind of like, ‘Wow, for a while, I thought we’d never get a chance to do this again!’ I came to find out a lot of my peers felt the same way. Everybody’s glad to be getting back out, and the crowd looks really happy, so that’s good.”
After endless months of canceled gigs and scrapped tours - many acts have rescheduled itineraries more than once - most artists were unsure of when exactly they'd return to the stage.
“It was one of those things that you lay awake at night, at three o’clock in the morning, going, ‘Okay, well, how are we going to do this? And what’s going to happen?’" Ehart said. "There were no ready answers. It wasn’t like you would pick up the newspaper and it would tell you what was going to happen. Everybody was really riding it out day by day.”
Now, as the world cautiously starts to reopen its doors, concerts are being scheduled for not only the rest of 2021, but 2022 as well. Below we take a look at 28 artists who'll be playing shows this year or next. We also rounded up a dozen who haven't gotten that far yet. Additionally, it should be noted that these dates and announcements are subject to change.