Since COVID-19 shut down music venues across the country in March, many musicians, along with the businesses that once employed them, have been struggling to make ends meet. Cargo Coffee’s east side location is one of a handful of venues that sponsors musicians through livestreams, which are broadcasted on Facebook every Saturday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. 

“We started doing on-location livestreams around mid-August. Up until then, our featured artists would stream from their homes. . . Once we got the gear set up, though, we wanted to start inviting them to stream from the stage at Cargo [Coffee] to help us all stay better connected,” says Dana Perry, who is both a musician and an employee at the shop. 

Running the shows with Perry are German Joseph Schrock and Dustin Harmon, who is most known as the lead sound engineer at Madison’s Warm Glow Studios. 

Speaking on Harmon’s expertise, Perry states, “He has years of experience in sound . . . He gets the artists sounding good and gives us a clean, balanced audio feed to go with our video. We’re definitely spoiled rotten having him here.” 

Still, getting the coffee shop livestream-ready was not without its setbacks. Among the most common issues were cracklings sounds and audio and video not syncing. Despite this, in a matter of weeks, each stream began running without issue. 

What appears to separate Cargo Coffee from most venues during this pandemic is that these livestreams are not expected to be done once businesses can operate as they did previously. 

“We’re hoping to continue the series after we can gather audiences again. The hope is that people will stay engaged watching at home, then become a live audience member once the time is right,” Perry announced.