Thinking more about the two controversial, poorly social-distanced country shows Saturday night in Tennessee and Idaho (the latter was part of a multi-day festival, from which at least two headliners dropped out), it struck me that there was virtually no coverage of either event in the mainstream press before they happened. They were described after-the-fact as two of the first attempts to stage large-scale (or at least medium-scale) traditional concerts in the US in three months—maybe literally the first two—which makes it especially odd that they could be booked, promoted and ticketed almost completely out of view of so many people. A much smaller club show a month earlier in Arkansas by indie country-rocker TRAVIS MCCREADY attracted intense national coverage for several days by the likes of the NEW YORK TIMES and ROLLING STONE along with the attention of Arkansas officials and the eyes and ears of a good chunk of the live music industry. Saturday's shows were bigger outdoor events by one current and one former major-label artist, both with gold records on their walls, and unless you follow CHASE RICE or CHRIS JANSON on INSTAGRAM it's unlikely you had any idea they were happening. Are we headed toward a new version of the American culture war where there are two different live-music Americas, one in which concerts with live audiences exist and one in which they don't? And in which the two sides don't acknowledge each other's existence, if they're even aware of each other? I don't believe we're there, but in a country where wearing masks and going to bars are divisive political issues, it isn't hard to see how concerts, too, could become a left/right divide. I pray they don't, because music should be a connector, not a separator. A bridge, not a gulf. A universal truth. Chase Rice returned to Instagram Monday to talk about the east Tennessee show at which he played for an audience just shy of 1,000 people who, based on his own earlier postings, ignored basic social distancing conventions. "I understand there’s a lot of varying opinions, a lot of different opinions on COVID-19, how it works with live music crowds, and what all that looks like," he said. Which is true, strictly speaking, in the unregulated court of public opinion, but not really true in the world of mainstream medicine. In the latter world, things are more cut and dry: Wear masks. Socially distance. Period. But Rice then told his fans that "your safety is a huge, huge priority" and said his next show, Friday in Ashland, Ky., will be a drive-in concert, a safer genre of show that the other live-music America is generally comfortable with. "Please go by the rules," he said. "The safer we are now, the quicker that we get to get to actual normal live shows, which I know we all want." I'm reasonably certain there isn't a music fan in America or anywhere else who wouldn't agree with that. May the cars and trucks roll in for that one. And may everyone who wasn't aware of this particular corner of live music before, be aware now... Twenty years ago today, PEARL JAM was onstage at the ROSKILDE FESTIVAL in Denmark, where a very different kind of overcrowding led to the tragic deaths of nine fans. "Nothing has been the same since," the band posted on Instagram early this morning along with a video of nine candles and a live clip of the song "LOVE BOAT CAPTAIN" referencing nine lost friends "I'm getting to know"... MTV's VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS will happen Aug. 30 in Brooklyn, with satellite performances in all five New York City boroughs and either "limited or no audience"... Save STEREOGUM... MIXMAG puts print magazine on "pause"... RIP BENNY MARDONES, a one-hit wonder who had top-20 pop hits in 1980 and 1989 with the same song; YOUNG CURT, who had no hits but was an influential figure in the Bay Area's hip-hop scene; JOHNNY MANDEL, who scored both the film and TV versions of M*A*S*H and wrote the music for their shared theme song; Muscle Shoals session guitarist PETE CARR, and free-jazz trumpeter JACQUES COURSIL.