PLAYING TO AN EMPTY ROOM: A Visual Herstory of Live Music in a Lockdown is an emotive photography collection that features moments taken during the 2020 pandemic at Westside Bowl when the Rust Belt’s local music scene kept a community together despite being mandated to stay six feet apart.

 

Captured by Mollie Crowe of Little Blackbird Photo, PLAYING TO AN EMPTY ROOM is a celebration of nights spent throwing back beers in the Trophy Room with your best friends. It’s the desperate cling to hope that things will be okay and a sharp gasp for breath after drowning in the evening news. It’s a reminder of how fragile we are and finding ways to heal. It’s paying it forward, 10 pizzas at a time. And it’s the awkward and deafening silence of ending a song without applause.

 
The exhibition will be on display from January 6th through the 31st at The Soap Gallery, 117 S Champion St in Youngstown.