It is absolutely not the same as it was or as it will be or as it should be, but live music exists in the here and now of 2020. In the past week or two, that's meant KASKADE playing a series of sold-out drive-in shows, one of them for first responders, next to ANGELS STADIUM in Anaheim. It's meant JEEZY, MASTER P, MYSTIKAL and others rapping to a socially distanced, masked audience at a Birmingham stadium. It's meant this intimate and not-infrequent scene outside a Brooklyn brownstone, and this virtual affair for 400,000 people in 41 countries emanating from the ROYAL ALBERT HALL. So many styles, so many venues, so many approaches, and none of it is enough. Not nearly remotely enough in a world where, without live music, some people literally don't exist. So I understand artists like MORGAN WALLEN, CHASE RICE and FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE's BRIAN KELLEY who see crowds at college football games and people celebrating last week's presidential election in crowded outdoor gatherings and can't help themselves from screaming, in anger, frustration and capital letters, "WE CAN BOOK SHOWS RIGHT NOW." The frustration is real (even if it suggests lessons learned a month ago weren't actually learned). But they're wrong on some basic facts, as Rolling Stone's JON FREEMAN and JOSEPH HUDAK lay out here (paywall), and they seem to be missing the big picture, which is that Covid-19 is exactly as real and contagious as it ever was (even in college football), no matter how bored of it any of us are. It isn't time to throw in the towel and pretend otherwise. This optimistic German study, which says it's possible to play indoor shows, right now, with a "low to very low" risk of viral transmission, has gotten a lot of attention in recent days. But the study, which hasn't been peer-reviewed, is based on staging shows with strict social distancing and hygiene rules in venues with specific ventilation technology; it's not trying to suggest the TROUBADOUR can open its doors tomorrow and let 200 people in. In Nashville, the CMA *is* opening the doors to the MUSIC CITY CENTER, where it will broadcast the CMA AWARDS live Wednesday with in-person performances and speeches in front of an audience of fellow artists at socially distanced tables. It's as close to a traditional awards show as anyone has attempted during the pandemic, and it will "safely [bring] country stars together," the Tennessean reported on Sunday. On Monday, two of those stars dropped out after testing positive for Covid. One of those stars is Brian Kelley's Florida Georgia Line bandmate Tyler Hubbard. "A hot, Covid mess" is how Vulture is describing the CMA Awards now. And there's still another day and a half to go. LIVE NATION, meanwhile, was one of the entertainment stocks that had a good day Monday after PFIZER announced positive results its effort to develop a Covid vaccine, but that doesn't mean there's a vaccine yet. "Please don't" stop wearing masks, writes the New York Times in its vaccine explainer. Word. Please don't... Once upon a time, though. Dodgeball, Slip 'N Slide, LES SAVY FAV, an enormous water-less pool and the strangely lackadaisical experience of walking BEYONCÉ and JAY-Z into a GRIZZLY BEAR show: The oral history of peak indie-rock Brooklyn, aka the MCCARREN PARK POOL PARTIES... The two most adorable drummers of 2020 plan to write a song together and, as soon as conditions allow, perform together... How metal was ALËX TRËBEK?... RIP ERIC FERRELL.