Greetings to all the Garth Brooks fans in Kansas who have dutifully and cheerfully begun their mandatory ten-day quarantine after seeing the country superstar at a packed Arrowhead GEHA Field on Saturday night.
This news doesn’t pertain to you, but to those who are wishing to avoid falling under a similar order: This Thursday’s double-headlined show featuring Wilco and Sleater-Kinney has been moved from the posh Midland to the grittier confines of Grinders KC.
“This decision was made with an abundance of caution to protect our fans, our crews and the bands. We are committed to continuing this tour safely,” the bands said in a statement.
Chicago-based Wilco are road warriors but recently broke a five-hundred-plus day dry spell with their first show since March 2020 (KC last got the band in late 2019). This tour with veteran Northwest punks Sleater-Kinney had been planned for last fall but was rescheduled in the wake of the pandemic.
The show will be a little sweatier—Thursday’s high will be closed to the century mark with fifty-percent humidity—but safer.
Then again, the Garth Brooks show at Arrowhead GEHA Field was outdoors and has still caused a lot of consternation and an official warning to quarantine by the Kansas state government, which listed shows that size alongside Botswana, Namibia and Seychelles.
Both the Midland and Grinders hold three thousand people so these shows should fall under the Kansas quarantine line.