Stone Church down in Brattleboro is adding video cameras and production to their post-pandemic arsenal. We think this is a good idea. It’s too soon to tell exactly what things are going to look like when live music restarts, but COVID-19 definitely busted open the live video thing (both live-streamed and documentation-for-later).

Video is an integration that plenty of venues have already made, and more will be making. Stone Church has already proved that they have the talent on their team to do it right, and they have the resources to not have to start with two $50 no-name kiddie-videocameras like we did.

We kinda expect that other nearby rooms with bigger budgets than we have will follow suit. And we welcome it. This doesn’t in any way step on Stage 33 Live’s scrappy toes… we applaud anything that elevates the visibility and reputation of southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire. All boats get raised.

Those other places and us are different things. We’re primarily meant to be a stepping stone for local and regional performers and presenters on the rise – people who those larger performance venues don’t book because they’re not a big draw… yet. We WANT people to be able to graduate from our humble room to bigger, more well-heeled stages.

Of course, we do also totally welcome more established acts when they’re into it – some of them, even though they could play bigger venues, have an artistic preference for small listening rooms like Stage 33 Live. Their participation adds visibility and “legitimacy” to the whole project… their glory-gravy spills over onto our home fries.

If somebody comes along and does what we do, but better, that will be a happy day. Honest. Our mission isn’t about us. It’s bigger than us.