During the COVID-19 pandemic, DJs and entertainment insiders kept “live music” on social media – from D-Nice’s “isolation dances” that drew 100,000 virtual guests like Michelle Obama to WME power agent Richard Weitz’s charity shows “Quarantunes” featuring performances by Elvis Costello and Beck.
In another corner of social media, the well-known music geeks flocked to Instagram weekly to hear Christian James Hand’s “The Session,” a show from his home in which the LA-based DJ and producer breaks classic tunes.
By isolating instruments, vocals and sounds, the sonic surgeon and former drum technician dissected the songs to rebuild them — and school fans on how they came together, with a dose of music history and snarky humor.
The online show, which has since moved to Twitch, is based on a segment master mixologist Hand originally shot on local LA radio. Sometimes the performers themselves, such as John Mayer, appear on the social media shows.
Hand also performed at popular live performances…until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Every month I did… New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco,” he told us backstage at a recent show themed “The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones” at New York’s Gramercy Theater.
The live performances first started through word of mouth at an audiophile friend’s apartment where, “you could fit in like 30 people,” he said.
The shows, which grew into theaters, also provide mythical mash-ups, such as Queen and metal pioneers Pantera. “I should be getting people in to watch Pantera,” he said of luring fans out of their comfort zone. “But I should give them” [more crowd-pleasing] Queen, right?”
Hand played at the Bourbon Room in Hollywood on Saturday night with a show that analyzed the music of The Cars and Carly Rae Jepsen – “The Cars-ly Rae Jepsen.” He also did a recent gig he called “Elton Joel”, plus a show with Prince collaborator Wendy Melvoin going through songs from His Royal Badness.
Hand also hosts a show on AMP, “Man vs. Radio”, which spans multiple genres.
After the pandemic, booking venues has become competitive as live bands have also come back to line up dates. “Trying to find a place where you used to plug in right away, and just take it every Saturday. It’s like, uh no… So that was the difficulty of getting live shows up and running again is actually finding places,” Hand said of the re-emerging IRL music scene. Rock on!