Carnival of Sins drove 25 hours to play at One-Eyed Jack’s during the biker rally that attracted 460,000. They didn’t get paid—and now the bar is dealing with COVID exposure.
The bass player in a Mötley Crüe tribute band thinks karma may have come in the form of COVID-19 to a saloon they played at the Sturgis motorcycle rally.
Not that Michael Long of Carnival of Sins was fearful of the virus as he and his three bandmates set out from their native Ohio to the South Dakota town where 460,000 people would be gathering largely without masks or social distancing, as if there were no pandemic. Long did not hesitate even though he suffers from COPD.
“If it happens, it happens, it’s going to happen no matter what,” Long told The Daily Beast.”
As a warm-up band played, the sound system proved to be what Long terms “iffy.” The lead singer was a tenor and his voice became, in Long’s words, “ear screeching.”
But when Carnival of Sins got its turn, it was nonetheless able to deliver what Long says was one of its best sets ever. Patrons crowded around the stage as if COVID-19 were nothing to worry about.
“The energy and the hype was all there,” Long later said. “Everybody was into it. You can hear people singing.”
The next morning, the band members woke up to a call from their agent, who relayed what he said was a message from the owner of the saloon.
“His words to the agent were, ‘Fuck them, I’m not paying them a dime.’”
“Saying we weren’t welcome any longer to play there and don’t come back,” Long reported.
The two other performances were canceled. And the band would not be paid for the one they had played.
“Let’s hope the karma does not extend to the near half-million people who defied all sense to attend the rally and now are scattered all across America.”