One of the NWT’s most popular bands is planning live online shows from a deserted downtown Yellowknife bar as restrictions on gatherings kick in.
On Tuesday, the territory’s chief public health officer declared all gatherings of 50 or more people in the NWT must be cancelled. That’s bad news for the Gold Range bar, one of Yellowknife’s busiest destinations.
Karen Novak, lead singer of the band Welders Daughter, expects the Gold Range – the band’s home turf – to remain closed indefinitely.
That’s a worry for Novak and her band. “We have no other source of income,” she told Cabin Radio late on Tuesday evening as she worked to set up a donation button on the Welders Daughter website.
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Welders Daughter was absent from the Gold Range last weekend, instead heading to the Dehcho to play a show in the 90-person community of Nahanni Butte. When the band will next appear at the Gold Range is hard to predict as the territory works to resist the global coronavirus pandemic.
Novak had earlier described herself as “officially out of work” as the restrictions on gatherings were announced.
Now, she hopes to keep the band playing – and earn money through donations – by streaming live from the empty Gold Range this weekend.
“The Gold Range has informed us they will be closing their doors tonight. We hope to set up a live online show by the weekend,” Novak announced to fans on Tuesday.
“We have permission to use the Gold Range. I’m just learning how to do it all now and setting up programs to make it all work,” she told Cabin Radio.
A date and time for the first live show has yet to be confirmed. Watch the Welders Daughter Facebook page for updates.
