“Rather than despair or simply rage, we decided that it was important to provide an alternative as a platform for people (who) did still care about this,” said Keith Kohn.
Kohn, a musician in the extreme metal band Ruinous Time Blade, is also the co-founder of Save the Night, a volunteer-led COVID-conscious collective in Chicago focusing on creating and facilitating safer environments for audiences and performers. The collective was founded in 2023 in response to the federal government concluding its response to COVID as a health emergency.
“It was the end of mainstream support for the issue,” Kohn said. “It was the signal to people to stop caring about this, even though folks that are very tapped into this issue, who watch the data and watch the news about COVID, understand the science hasn’t changed.”
In creating their collective and platform, the organizers also learned that many other people were looking for more COVID-conscious environments. They’ve accumulated a growing list of venues, hosts and people they’ve connected with through organizing in this sphere that are sympathetic to their policies, including regular bars and venues that normally host music as well as DIY spaces.
From mask-required events to running air purifiers during shows, Save the Night (and other collectives like them) have shown that nightlife and COVID-conscious accessibility don’t have to be in conflict. “I would love it if people stole our idea as much as possible. You know, we don’t claim ownership over this,” Kohn added.
But Save the Night’s mission is about more than just meeting a never-ending checklist of conditions.
Instead, they are focused on creating a practical baseline that can be established, regardless of space. Kohn likens it to informed consent, and said COVID is a part of that. Sharing intimate spaces or breathing the same air can be as intimate as kissing. “Our goal is not to have a perfect baseline of health, because that’s unattainable given our resources. But we want to have a baseline of risk that people can consent to when they enter a space,” said Kohn.
The question of accessibility is multi-dimensional. From wheelchair and ADA accessibility to language translation, all of these things require time, energy, and resources. Starting somewhere — anywhere — is key. Rather than focus on perfection, Save the Night focuses on taking steps toward the outcomes they want to see and giving people a platform to continue to take action.
If all of this comes as a surprise, it shouldn’t. Kohn described Chicago as the “COVID-conscious capital of America.” As the home to major organizing movements both in the labor sphere and in the social justice sphere, Chicago has consistently shown other cities what is possible and how it’s done.
“The consciousness that exists in Chicago is the result of hundreds of years of struggle from revolutionary organizers and people (who) went forward boldly to discard decorum and to take the next step toward progress in society,” said Kohn.
On New Year’s Day, the collective put out a call to musicians nationwide, offering themselves as a resource to help touring acts book mask-required shows in the city at no cost. They also work with other COVID-conscious organizations and groups like the Clean Air Club, Parallel Play and the Chicago Mask Block to create as many accessible environments as possible.
This has resulted in events as varied as punk shows, dance mixers, and mini music festivals. Recent programming includes Gusty Fest 2, an eight-band noise and electronic showcase and a Ameokama show at The Burlington in Logan Square. On Sept. 26, they’re putting on a show with Hayloft, a Tennessee-based band, and on Oct. 5, they’re welcoming punk artist Feziwig at Uptown Taproom (1265 W. Wilson Ave.), a bar and restaurant that describes itself as “obsessively local and community first.”
In the end, their efforts are part of a larger goal of creating a national tour network that makes it possible for musicians to book mask-required tours at various venues in any city. Another goal — to establish an accessibility slot in the programming of many major music venues around the city once per month — is still a ways away. Save the Night organizers know real progress takes time, but they remain undeterred.
“To care about COVID is to care about humanity and to care about all of these righteous causes that are all fundamentally based in the same sort of struggle,” Kohn said. “And though wearing a mask is not enough to defeat evil on the whole, it is one very practical, small step that we can all take to sustainably continue that fight.”
Britt Julious is a freelance critic.