In a new interview with Loaded Radio, former ANTHRAX and current ARMORED SAINT singer John Bush was asked if he is concerned about the COVID-19’s impact on the music industry. He responded (hear audio below): “I’m very concerned with the music industry. I think everybody should be. I was just reading a big article on live shows, and somebody wrote an article suggesting that this is the new norm and now viral shows will happen. And I’m, like, look, don’t plant that seed in people’s minds. Don’t do that, because you’re not gonna be replacing live music concerts with something on a viral live stream.
“Don’t get me wrong — ARMORED SAINT‘s doing our live stream October 10th from the Whisky A Go Go here,” he continued. “We want everybody to tune in. It’s gonna be a fun thing. It’s gonna be a weird thing, ’cause nobody’s gonna be there, and we’re gonna be playing to cameras. And I understand that we have to do this, but it’s for now. I’m not saying that this is something that I’m hoping two years from now we’re still doing because no one’s going to shows. I think that would be a huge, giant area of frustration if that happened. So I’m optimistic and a little resilient to the fact of concerts are gonna be affected forever [by] this. I don’t wanna think like that, because I love going to concerts, I love performing at concerts, I like going to hockey games at the Staples Center for the Kings. I don’t wanna say, ‘I can’t do these things anymore,’ because I can’t be around a big group of people. I don’t wanna think like that, because our lives would be forever changed, and I wanna succumb to that, quite honestly.
“I’m all for it — believe me,” Bush added. “If we can get a hundred people at a show and everybody has to wear a mask, come wear a mask and be at the gig. Do what we’ve gotta do to get past this. I’m down for that. But I don’t wanna think that things are gonna be forever changed; I don’t wanna accept that. In the meantime, it’s a big element that’s missing for musicians and for fans and for promoters and for venues, and I’m really empathetic for all those people, because they need it. Concerts have changed my life since I was 12 years old and inspired me. So I wanna hope that we can get past this, and maybe a vaccine will happen and a large contingency of people will be willing to take it and we’ll get that herd immunity thing and it’ll be safe and we can move on and think of corona in the past as something like, ‘It was bad, but now it’s like a cold.’ I wanna get to that point.”
On Saturday, October 10 at 1 p.m PST / 4 p.m. EST / 10 p.m. CET, ARMORED SAINT will host a live record-release show online for its upcoming album, “Punching The Sky”. ARMORED SAINT will be performing a full set from the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, California, including four new songs from “Punching The Sky”. Additionally, the band will be answering select questions from fans who submit them via a post on the ARMORED SAINT Facebook page.
Tickets, plus exclusive event merch bundles are available now at: armoredsaint.veeps.com. Fans who purchase a ticket can access the footage and bundles until November 9.
Ticket-bundle options:
* Ticket plus signed CD of Punching the Sky [$30 (USA only)]
* Ticket plus exclusive event tee and signed CD [$65 (USA only)]
* Ticket plus exclusive event tee [$55 (USA shipping), $65.00 (Europe shipping)]
“Punching The Sky” will be released on October 23 via Metal Blade Records.
