It’s March 11, 2020. Glass Animals are about to play the Troubadour in West Hollywood, just as the entire world is about to change.
On this day, the NBA suspended the entire season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. Holed up in Australia, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson revealed that they, too, tested positive for the virus, and were remaining quarantined in Queensland. President Trump restricted travel from Europe to prevent further spread of the disease. At the time, there were more than 1,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and more than 100,000 globally.
In California, Glass Animals are moving through the motions of their Déjà Vu Tour. Like many, they were unsure of the state of things, but ready for the release of their third album, Dreamland, originally slated for May (the album will now be released on July 10). But that evening, the Los Angeles gig would ultimately be the band’s last for the unforeseeable future as the world went into lockdown within the next twenty-four hours.
Tina Eves 