The Venue is Closed, but the Show must Go On

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Prior to the stay-at-home order issued by Gov. John Bel Edwards, Premier Companies had booked some local acts for its spring music series at The Pour House, 541 Corporate Drive in Houma.

Instead of just canceling those shows outright, leaving those gigging musicians to recoup their losses elsewhere, the organization decided to still support the artists by hosting their performances — but this time, on the internet.

“For a lot of the musicians this is their livelihood. They don’t have a nine-to-five job. So the quarantine kind of just halted their business completely,” said Emily Rini, Marketing Coordinator for Premier Companies, which also owns Peppers Pizzeria and Grady V’s, among other establishments.

“We were trying to like figure out creative ways that we could still support local music,” she continued, “keep them going so that when the time comes and we can open up again, they can pick up right where they left off.”

Then, Rini said, they began reaching out to the artists to see if they were on board with performing live-streamed shows sponsored by The Pour House. “We had an overwhelming response from everyone,” she added.

“I was excited,” said local musician Kerry Thibodaux. “I thought it was awesome for them to do that…for them to sponsor it and still keep the same rotation going.”

Thibodaux rocked with the virtual crowd for just under three hours last Wednesday for the first evening of the “Livestream Music Jams” series. “It still kind of felt like I was at The Pour House,” he said. “It was cool. I had a lot of interaction.”

Every Wednesday and Friday at 6 p.m., The Pour House Facebook page hosts a watch party as the performer broadcasts their show from their own page. So far, Thibodaux and Matt Chauvin have played for patrons. Next to entertain home audiences is Jahne & Preston (Today, April 22); then it’s Steve Junot (April 24), Rick Price (April 29) and Michelle & Kaleb (May 1).

In addition to enjoying some acoustic tunes, attendees get a chance to receive giveaways, such as Pour House merchandise (shirts, key chains, cups, etc.) and food and beverages. Bourgeois Meat Market participates in the event by offering giveaways as well. Every livestream has four or five prizes, Rini said.

Patrons can also support the musicians by sending money to Venmo or PayPal displayed during their concert. “They’ve certainly gotten very creative,” Rini said, “and I have to applaud all these artists because it’s not easy.”

“Some of them play for like three and a half, almost four hours by themselves to a laptop. You don’t get applause or anything,” she continued. “But, they are making it work and just having a ball with it. We’re really proud of all of them.”

If the stay-at-home order gets extended, Rini said, Premier Companies will likely look into extending the series.

“We’ve gotten such a good response from the community…We have to thank them for tuning in because if they don’t have anybody to play to it’s kind of pointless,” she said. “They can support the musicians just by logging on to Facebook and watching. It does a world of difference: the comments and the likes. It really just like raises morale for the musicians, especially to help them connect.”

Check out the previous livestreams below: