Streaming Fest Live From Out There Adds Billy Strings, More For Third Weekend

Courtesy of Live From Out There – Couch Tour Continues
Live From Out There returns to nugs.tv for its third weekend April 3.

Live From Out There, the stacked couch tour series presented by 11E1even Group, returns this weekend for the third installment of its six-weekend run.

Series regulars including Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Twiddle and Goose will return with sets, both scheduled for Friday evening, and Live From Out There has also announced new artist additions, including Billy Strings and G. Love, who will both stream sets Saturday night.

Other newly announced programming for future weekends of Live From Out There includes singer-songwriter Ashe and chef Matty Matheson, the latter of whom will host a session to teach viewers how to cook ribs.

“Within hours of seeing and hearing that our tours were going to be canceled, it wasn’t 24 hours before I started thinking of new ways to make the artists revenue and started thinking of who we partner with and how do we get creative with this,” 11E1even Group owner Ben Baruch tells Pollstar. “To not only keep revenue coming in, but keep morale up and get music out there to the fans.”

Baruch, also a festival talent buyer, “wanted to create a festival format for this and just keep building it,” and he likens the product – which features new performances and archival sets, but also artist tutorials, comedy and cooking shows – to “a television series that could last for six weeks.”

Broadcast by nugs.tv, Live From Out There offers fans subscription and a la carte payment options, with proceeds going to the COVID-19 Fund established by the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Since launching in late March, Live From Out There has brought in more than $150,000.

Once basic production costs are accounted for, Baruch says, proceeds are then funneled to Sweet Relief, and the bands involved can determine what cut they wish to take and how to use it to pay their crews and cover other expenses. Many are leaving their cuts with Sweet Relief or directing it to other artists in more financial need.

“It’s been really amazing to see the community all come together,” says Baruch, adding that the subscription model is a rising tide that lifts all boats, with larger artists driving subscription revenue that’s then evenly split between participating acts.

The Live From Out There model is in keeping with the artistic ethos of Strings, the wildly talented bluegrass musician who Pollstar featured as a Hotstar in February.

“I just want everybody to be able to come to a show,” Strings told Pollstar. “It breaks my heart when I see somebody standing outside with their finger in the air. … If it was up to me, I swear, I would just stay in one spot and start a commune and play 24 hours a day for anybody who wants to come.”

For more information about Live From Out There, visit the event’s Facebook page or nugs.tv.