The local arts scene has always had a lot of eccentric, offbeat little corners. On a given Monday night, for example, you could catch the open mic at Funky Murphy's, or Comedy in the Cabaret at Nick's, or the Dirty Gerund Poetry series at Ralph's. These are regularly scheduled events that not only showcase and develop artists and audiences, they also foster community. For many regular attendees of these shows, their being shuttered because of the pandemic has been a bigger loss than a night's entertainment. Thankfully, those shows have found new lives online.

“It’s been going great surprisingly,” says singer-songwriter Matt Soper, who hosts the Songwriters' Mind series Wednesday nights at starlite gallery in Southbridge. “We’ve built a tight-knit community of songwriters and fans that have really rallied behind the live streams. If you join one of our watch parties, the comment section almost feels as if you were at starlite having at drink.”

Soper's been hosting nights of eight songwriters, each going live from their own Facebook page. A watch party of the live stream is then shared to the show's Facebook group. It's one of many ways to do it, on a variety of platforms, but for the organizers of these shows, it's about holding those communities together as much as it is about sharing art.

“Obviously, everyone is feeling terribly isolated right now during these scary times,” says poet Alex Charalambides, who hosts the Gerund. “These spaces are offering a vital connection for some. Weekly events like ours become part of the fabric of our routines, like church, like the gym, like school. We value it. Seeing the faces all together on a screen doesn't quite match seeing them in the audience, but it's real.”

Jeff Campbell, who has been helping coordinate the online show process for the Listen Sunday poetry series with regulars Heath Bleau and his daughter, Storey Campbell, says the shows have been going well. “We have been able to maintain connections with old friends and regulars,” he said. “I think it was (host Dave Macpherson) who observed it sucks that we can't quite reach out to folks who were more on the periphery. But on the other hand, there have been a few attenders who never could have made it in real life. I was really surprised when we started doing it how much I missed those people and that part of my routine.”

Facebook Live has been a popular vehicle for delivering these shows, but others have opted for Instagram Live, Zoom or Discord, each to varying effects, and some are still experimenting with platforms. For the online version of Listen, Campbell says, “the first week we did a group message in a Discord server. That gets about a B, in my opinion. We then did Instagram. This Sunday we will do Zoom. We will then take a vote on favorite platform of those 3 and stick with that.”

Storey Campbell says that “Discord has plenty of admin controls, but lacks video in calls with more than 10 people. I think its reliability and chat features more than make up for it. (Charlambides and Nikk Lessard) of the Dirty Gerund did a show via Zoom, and that went well.”

Michael Robert Kelly, who hosts the Thursday night open mic at Slater's in Bolton, went about producing an online version in a completely different way. “I realized I wanted to keep my Open Mike Slater's community together but there was no platform to really do one live,” he says. “So, I figured I wanted to at least get videos from people and put something together. Luckily I have some die-hard people who come most weeks to Slater's, and I like to keep up with them and keep them in the loop of what I'm doing. The response was great and with everybody's help the online method has worked out great so far!”

Danielle DeLucia, lead singer of the band Auntie Trainwreck, is doing something similar with the Sunday open mic at Rascal's. “I am still having people sign up for slots ahead of time like they did when we were doing the open mic in person, but now I am having them send me a 20-minute video of them playing and sharing the videos online in our event page at the exact time that they signed up.”

It's an evolving process, but one in which it seems both audiences and artists are invested. Rick Hamel, who runs the Monday open mic at Funky Murphy's, says, “The last two Mondays we went online and I had 10 musicians play each time for about 15 minutes each. I have teenagers that come to my open mic regularly and it gives them something to do (not just attending the open mic, but practicing to get ready). For everyone, I think it gives them a sense of normalcy because we're all continuing to do something we used to do week after week.”

Still, supporting the artists that regularly play these shows remains a paramount concern. “We recognize the difficulty for artists who perform live,” says Charalambides. “As a community we pride ourselves on paying artists for their time and talents, so it was also important to put in some systems to try to replicate that as well. We set up a Paypal for the show, posted our featured artists digital pay profiles, and found some success in the first week of paying a featured performer and auctioning off our guest visual artists live painting.”

Other shows have displayed their performers' Paypal or Venmo information in order for people to “tip” the artist directly. Other groups have used the platform as a way to help support the people who've supported them over the years. For example, Shaun Connolly — one of the organizers of the Wootenany comedy festival, with Bryan O'Donnell — says that at streams of the Monday night comedy show and Connolly's “Sort of Late Show,” they've taken tips to help Nick's bartender Sean Courtney recoup the money he would have made tending bar during those shows.

On the whole, there seems to be a broad consensus that the online stopgap measure is doing its job and helping keep those communities together. Perhaps even more surprising, some of the organizers have conceded they're enjoying the arrangement.

“The biggest surprise has been how much fun I’ve been having doing it,” says Soper. “I’m able to book incredible lineups where you might see songwriters like Gracie Day, Nate Cozzolino and Kala Farnham all in the same night. Something that probably wouldn’t be possible on a normal Wednesday night in Southbridge.”

DeLucia concurs, saying, “Having some people jump in and give it a try that have never performed at the open mic in person was a nice surprise. And having people 'watch' and comment and like the links and posts has been nice. It's upped our visibility a bit and hopefully that will translate into more in-person attendance when we're back up and running at Rascal's.”

Of course, as Jeff Campbell notes, “in some ways physical distance is irrelevant right now.” He had a friend in California participate in the Listen open reading livestream. Conversely, Worcester poet Ashley Wonder says she's enjoyed being able to watch readings in Boston and New York. But still, it's clear many are antsy to get back to their regular shows.

“My life has always revolved around seeing live music,” says music lover and photographer Ted Theodore, “so these windows with the artist are very important to me. Being able to see them play, seeing the room fill up and chatting and 'clapping' along with the community is almost like being there. It will never replace the feel of the room, so I am hoping for a return to normal.”