Somerville band Nowhere Lights will be joining the roster of local musicians participating in the alternative CouchFest online event this Saturday.

By Isabel Sami

Somerville’s annual PorchFest is back this year as CouchFest, the same basic event for local musicians to perform at home for audiences, but this year from a safe distance, broadcasting online. Since 2012, PorchFest has been a day-long event where musicians can sign up to perform on their porches or front lawns where audiences come listen to them play.

This year the event was disrupted by the shelter-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines set due to the coronavirus pandemic. The usual format for the event became impossible, so organizers moved it online. Musicians can choose to broadcast live on Facebook, post pre-recorded “premiere” performances, or post an old video of their songs to participate.

Links to the Facebook live performances and music videos will be uploaded to the PorchFest site, where there is a map of locations where every band is playing virtually. Around 60 bands are registered to play, and the audience can click on parts of the map that are linked to performances, which is supposed to replicate a “virtual music tour of living rooms around town,” according to organizers.

One thing is certain: organizers emphasize safety. They announced that under no circumstances should musicians gather to play unless they are already quarantining together. In an email about the event, they state, “Please do NOT gather a band together to play for this. We also ask that you play inside – as playing outside might encourage people to congregate.”

Somerville Arts Council executive director Gregory Jenkins said that by March it was clear PorchFest could not take place in-person, but the virtual event will replicate the original event as much as possible. “The intent is still the same,” Jenkins said. “On Saturday from 12 to 6, you can go to our website and still peruse a map of the city and see where these various bands are going to be performing virtually.”

Aqua Hamster, shown here playing during the 2017 PorchFest, will be livestreaming their music for CouchFest this weekend.

CouchFest is set to take place on Saturday, May 9, with performance times based on where the band is located. West Somerville musicians play from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.; Central Somerville play from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.; and East Somerville from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

One Somerville band, Nowhere Lights, has been playing at PorchFest since it began nearly ten years ago. The four band members normally play on guitarist Mike Murray’s porch in Teele Square, with audiences gathering on the sidewalk. This year, with band members living separately, Murray said they could not safely perform together, so broadcasting live was not an option.

“It’s pretty easy to livestream if you’re alone or if you’re with people that you’re playing with physically, but separately the latency issues between the locations make it pretty much impossible,” Murray said. “You can’t play a song together on Zoom. Have you tried singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to anybody yet over Zoom? It’s not pretty.”

This year, Nowhere Lights is making two pre-recorded “premiere” videos, where each musician uses their iPhone to record themselves playing their songs, and Murray edits the clips together. A quad-screen format will show each musician — drums, bass, guitar, and vocals — playing in their own home. Murray said it is harder than he expected to stitch the clips together with his editing software, trying to line up the audio for the tracks perfectly.

“PorchFest on a beautiful spring day is a pretty magical event where people are just having a great time and it’s really fun. It’s hard to imagine that there’s going to be quite as much as excitement around this, but I’m psyched to do it,” Murray said, adding that it’s fun — and frustrating — to learn the editing software, and he likes that he can create something that people can view more times in the future.

Somerville band Aqua Hamster plans to livestream on Facebook this Saturday. Guitarist Tony Basile, who has experience livestreaming from his weekly Instagram performances, and his bandmate Ben Peirce live together and are using the opportunity to perform as a duo during CouchFest. Aqua Hamster’s third band member, Ian Dumais, will take over after an hour and livestream by himself in his home to participate.

Basile was surprised that organizers found a way to make PorchFest virtual. Having participated for the last four years, Basile said he feared PorchFest would be cancelled. He believes that people will still tune in online for CouchFest. “I think there’s still demand to watch it,” Basile said. “It’s been really popular every time that we’ve done it, so I hope people can find it as much fun.” Basile says his band is glad they can perform even during the pandemic. “We’ve done it a lot of times and it’s always been so fun, and we’re so glad we can still participate this year, even if it’s not safe to gather yet.”

The Somerville Arts Council wants to give artists a platform, and Jenkins echoed this sentiment, saying, “People are responsive in the sense that they appreciate the opportunity to perform and to promote their work through our social media platforms. The Arts Council does all these events and festivals, so the question now is, how can we do them virtually?” Jenkins said the biggest challenge currently is being unable to do live events. For now, at least people can still enjoy Somerville’s music scene from the comfort of their couch.

Tune in to CouchFest at http://somervilleartscouncil.org/porchfest/2020 on Saturday, May 9.