Half Way Home and The Natives melt faces while maintaining social distancing

AWKSD is proud to premiere an exclusive, corona-safe performance

There are some mornings when I wake up and spend a good amount of time lying in bed, watching old clips of concerts on my phone. It’s simultaneously thrilling and anxiety-inducing to see shots of crowds—everyone hugging, moshing, swapping droplets. These clips are my lifeline to the old world. My Wilson, if you will. Once this is all over, I will never make fun of anyone filming a live concert. 

Yes, I’ve been mourning the death of live concerts more than any of the other luxuries that have gone away since the pandemic started (ICYMI, I wrote a piece for Voice of San Diego about the state of concerts in 2020 and whether they’ll happen), and I crave anything that provides that sweet high. 

So bless the dear lads at Half Way Home for gifting us with some hard rock during these uh... hard times. 

Readers of AWKSD may recognize San Diego’s live-music session showcase Half Way Home from a feature I wrote about them a months ago, which was the last post I did before lockdown. After experiencing the cramped, sweaty conditions in which they film their shows, I couldn’t imagine how they could continue to produce their shows without disregarding safety precautions. 

[Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park voice]: But rock finds a way. 

In this new, quarantine-safe video, San Diego band The Natives—one of the rowdiest and loudest—manages to melt faces while maintaining social distancing. In the video, each member is isolated in different areas inside and outside. Despite lacking the visual cues often needed to perform live, The Natives never miss a step—a testament to how tight they are as a band.

“The Natives couldn’t have been more perfect of a choice to record under such circumstances,” says Shane Moylan, a producer at Half Way Home. “The feeling that fun and pure musical expression can still flourish in a dismal scenario shows that the best medicine can always be wrung out of the emotional sponge that is a wet T-shirt after a sweaty concert.”

Until we can get our shirts sweaty again, I’ll take this. 

So please enjoy this exclusive AWKSD premiere. I hope you get as much joy out of it as I do. It’s a reminder that, although things are different, the things we care about aren’t going away, and that being apart can still bring us together. 

Got a tip or wanna say hi? Email me at ryancraigbradford@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @theryanbradford. And if you like what you’ve just read, please hit that little heart icon at the end of the post.