3/14/2020

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After thoughtful and difficult deliberation we have decided to cancel all of our upcoming live performances. Every band is unique, composed of members who have various health conditions and different situations, so each will have a different capability and willingness to play during the current crisis. But aside from the band itself, another huge consideration for us is our families, friends, and EVERYONE in our community. We also put an extremely high value on the punk and ska communities which we are involved in and we will not engage in any activity which directly or indirectly puts the individuals in those communities (or elsewhere) in harm’s way. We do not agree with the prevalent narcissistic attitude many are promoting, including claiming “I’m young, I’ll be fine”.. Dissonance & Dissent encourages empathy instead; consider those who are most vulnerable and how all actions will affect them. This is the true underlying philosophy of “unity” in a scene.

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This administration is clearly not capable of handling or helping this pandemic, so action is now left in the hands of our communities. While we can’t do much directly against a virus, we can work in a united, intelligent, and responsible manner. At this time the best form of mitigation seems to be “social distancing”. We’ve concluded that encouraging people to come out and congregate during a pandemic (when contagion rates are high and still dramatically unknown due to insufficient testing) would be much more detrimental than beneficial. There comes a point where the “right” thing to do is often also the hard thing to do. Dissonance & Dissent has always been about standing up for the vulnerable and against what is wrong in our society. We put ethics and empathy above profits and self interest and we are not willing to deviate from these morals even when it is inconvenient or unpopular. 

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This pandemic will also have a devastating economic impact. The effects will be felt across the country, from the worker who doesn’t have sick time and faces job loss and eviction when they are too sick to go to work, to those in many industries who are seeing a complete collapse. This will be especially hard on musicians and the entertainment industry at large. Bands, venues, promoters, production staff, bartenders and service personnel are all in an industry who had the bottom fall out from under it, and currently see no end to the pain in sight. Several of our members are in industries which will be some of the hardest hit and face their own financial strain, so we understand and can sympathize with the hardships many are facing. We really hope our cancelation doesn’t cause too much more strain to the others involved in our upcoming (cancelled) shows. Our hearts go out to everyone in these industries and we hope they make it through these hard times.

We wish everyone safety in their journeys forward. Until we see you again in the pit, love to you and your families. Take care of each other. 

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-Dissonance & Dissent