“Stay in the Hula-Hoop, motherf---ers!”
Faze Wave, one of the two bands who performed at Saturday’s Indie Live concert, bellowed this sentiment from onstage in the middle of its set to keep rowdy concertgoers socially distanced.
The evening marked the opening night of the six-part outdoor concert series hosted by Heartwood Soundstage and Swamp Records, a student-run record label based in Gainesville. The sequence, which spotlights a diverse range of indie groups, kicked off with performances by upbeat, alternative band Faze Wave and rising Gainesville quartet Driptones.
Over 200 guests gathered outside the venue, sprawled across the lawn in sets of chairs, benches and picnic blankets. Heartwood set up approximately 30 groups of socially distanced seating options. About 15 plastic rings were spaced out upon the grass directly in front of the stage.
Though the audience may have appeared sparse for frequent concertgoers, the event, which capped at 250, nearly reached capacity.
Bella Clements, a 21-year-old UF marketing senior and president of Swamp Records, said the organization has worked closely with the venue in the past, producing its grand opening in 2017 and hosting both its Spring and Fall showcases at the location. The idea to team up for Indie Live, Clements said, has been in the works since “at least” Spring of last year.
“Our main mission is to bridge the gap between the Gainesville music community and UF,” she said. “Being able to bring in these indie bands that have a high college appeal into one of the cultural hearts of Gainesville really helped connect the two together.”
When it comes to blending the many facets of Gainesville’s rich music scene, Heartwood lives up to its name — it’s the heart of the community, Clements said.
Heartwood co-owner Dave Melosh, 40, is more modest in his praise of the venue, though he said the site is extremely lucky to have an outdoor space that, pre-pandemic, could fit up to 2,000 people — making it a perfect fit for socially distanced events.
While Heartwood mandated social distancing and mask requirements, however, in practice, the event was physically divided in terms of respecting guidelines.
Where chairs and benches were separated into groups of two and three, guests mostly followed safety measures during the concert. Crowds of viewers standing directly in front of the stage, by contrast, largely ignored premarked spaces, instead, forming tightly packed swarms of people.
Heartwood staff and bands alike both made efforts to discourage unsafe activities, with personnel alerting guests to keep on their masks and bandmates frequently reminding attendees of the rules.
Concertgoers such as Suha Zaidi felt similarly. The 22-year-old UF behavioral and cognitive neuroscience major said, while she was excited to jump back into live music with Indie Live being her first concert during the pandemic, she also recognized potential safety issues.
“I had a pretty solid experience,” Zaidi said. “There were definitely some aspects that weren’t perfectly socially distanced, but if you wanted to be socially distanced, you were able to.”
Matthew Flynn, the 23-year-old guitarist and vocalist of Faze Wave, also said he thinks live music is helpful for raising morale — though safety is more important.
“[Indie Live] is giving people avenues to go out and be social again,” he said. “But to know we’re doing it and doing it safely is important.”
The next installment of Indie Live is planned for Feb. 13 at Heartwood Soundstage. Presale tickets are $10 online. Tickets will also be available for $12 at the door.
Contact Veronica Nocera at vnocera@alligator.com. Follow her on Twitter @vernocera.
Veronica Nocera is a third-year journalism major, history minor and The Avenue editor. She spent two semesters reporting arts and culture for The Alligator and also writes for Rowdy Magazine. When she’s not writing, she’s probably reading, journaling or taping random pictures to her wall. Also, she’ll probably be wearing yellow.
