Friday's parting shot

Night 1 of three nights with Unwound at Irving Plaza (with Horsegirl tonight!) ...

ICYMI: Arts and entertainment venues can reopen starting on April 2

ICYMI: On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that arts and entertainment venues can reopen at 33 percent capacity, with a maximum of up to 100 people indoors and 200 outdoors starting on April 2. 

And those numbers can go higher — up to 150 people indoors — if the venue offers a rapid COVID-19 test on entry. 

Either way, all attendees must wear masks and be socially distanced.

Despite the positive step forward after a year-long closure, some venues said they would not be reopening just yet.  

From Gothamist:

"Obviously any news about a path forward, even a limited capacity one, is great considering where we were just over a month ago," said Dennis Dennehy, spokesperson for AEG Presents and Bowery Presents, which manages bookings at Forest Hills Stadium, Terminal 5, Webster Hall, Brooklyn Steel, Music Hall of Williamsburg and more. "That said, we remain focused as of right now on fully reopening when we can do shows at 100% capacity. It just doesn’t make sense for us to do anything with limited capacity."

While he left open the possibility that some individual artists might decide to eat their losses to do a couple of one-off shows at big venues, he said it ultimately wasn't efficient for them to be back until they can play to full houses.

From the Times:

Michael Swier, the owner of the Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge, two of New York's best-known rock clubs, said that the state's order that venues require social distancing and mask-wearing means that the true capacity at many spaces may be much lower. 

"Given that social distancing is still part of the metric, it brings us back down to an approximate 20 percent capacity, which is untenable," Mr. Swier said.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists & the Make-Up headline the Seaport Music Festival

Via the EVG inbox today...

The Seaport Music Festival is proud to announce its 15th anniversary celebration in partnership with The Village Voice and South Street Seaport Museum ...

In addition to live music, Seaport Music Festival will feature film screenings, comedy and dance.

This year’s lineup includes performances by:

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, who’s self-releasing his first album since 2010 called "The Hanged Man." At this year’s festival, Ted curated a special lineup which includes: comedic, musical and visual artist Jean Grae, heavy-beat minded electronic duo Azar Swan and NYC rock’n’rollers Big Huge.

New York Night Train DJ Jonathan Toubin has also been invited to curate a line-up, which features The Make-Up, who announced highly anticipated reunion shows this year. The line-up also includes Martin Rev (the surviving half of one of the most important bands of all time, Suicide), James Chance & The Contortions, The Wolfmanhattan Project, Death Valley Girls, Surfbort and Warm Drag.

The free Festival takes place at the South Street Seaport from Sept. 7-10. For more details go here.