Music venues are among those feeling the brunt of the deepening COVID-19 crisis, having to close their doors and lay off staff while postponing or canceling shows. In Worcester, these establishments are making sure that they can open back up once the coast is clear. No one knows when the exact time will be, but they’re preparing and hoping for a positive outcome.

Electric Haze has been the city’s hotbed for jam and funk bands while resonating psychedelic vibes over the past few years. The business fortunately has some savings, but its owners are trying to help their employees as best they can in the wake of the shutdown.

“We had a little bit of savings before the closedown and we’re using the savings to pay our minimal bills,” co-owner Victoria Mariano says on how Electric Haze is dealing with the crisis. “We have three full-time people, which are the two co-owners and one manager, and we’re still paying them the management salaries. Unfortunately, the part-timers were paid mostly in tips and income from shows so the money they usually make isn’t there in this current situation. Eric Collier, who is my co-partner, offered advice on how to get set up for unemployment and there’s also a bartender relief fund that he sent the links to. Obviously, we’ve both made ourselves available to help anyone who wanted to come to us about finding different jobs and discussing potential options concerning part-time loans and stuff like that.

“All of our part-timers are pretty independent, strong-willed people that haven’t come to me personally, I don’t know if they’ve come to Eric,” she said. “In terms of Electric Haze, we’ve gotten our operation to run pretty economically, so there’s not really too many expenses to have to pay when we open back up besides the salaries and rent. Our utilities are efficient, so despite not being in there it’s not too much money to be closed, to be honest.”

The Palladium is one of Worcester's largest music venues, booking major acts such as Soundgarden, Jimmy Eat World, Slayer, Wiz Khalifa, Evanescence and the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. It's facing big losses, but general manager Christopher Besaw is optimistic about the endgame.

“We understand that closing concert venues, bars, restaurants and all other non-essential businesses was necessary,” says Besaw. “The safety of our customers, our employees and the general public has to come first. The spring is one of our busiest seasons and it’s a big hit to the business, our employees and the touring bands. We are working as hard as we can to reschedule as many events as possible. Most of our staff are part-time shift workers, bar staff, security, box office etc.; these are the people hurt the most.

“They need and rely on these events to pay their bills and put food on the table,” he says. “These are also the people we need to make events happen; without them we wouldn’t be able to have concerts. We are trying to support our staff the best we can and have provided them all of the information to apply for unemployment benefits and assurance that their job will be there for them when we are able to reopen. We will reopen, the economy will bounce back and as much as this is an economic and emotional setback for all of us, at least we can say we are saving lives and helping stop a pandemic.”

For his part, Vincent Hemmeter – who owns Vincent's, Ralph's Rock Diner and Nick's Bar and Restaurant – tried to get ahead of the crisis before it hit.



“I kind of had an idea it was coming from the news reports,” says Hemmeter. “The last couple weeks I ordered less stock, and when it came, they said were were going to reopen in three weeks. I was doubtful … Hopefully, my employees are healthy and we get through this whole thing.”



Hemmeter said it was hard to let go of the roughly 30 employees the three bars had, even temporarily.



“I asked all of them that were in the toughest positions,” he said, “to see how they were doing economically, and gave some work to a few of them.”



Most of the work has been cleaning, but he's also using the occasion to make some major repairs at Vincent's. “This is the first time we've closed in over 22 years,” he says. “I've been patching the floor behind the bar. I tried to look for a silver lining. This gave me an opportunity to rip that whole floor apart. I'll never have to do it again.”



He says he's not thinking about reopening until he gets word that he's allowed.



“I'm ready to go,” he says. “I just hope they give us at least a week's notice. It will take a little time to prepare everything.”



While he's wants to reopen as soon as possible, he'd rather wait than go back too soon.





“You don't want to rush it,” he says. “You don't want to get back there and then have to close again.”

