Lawrence band starts ‘porch concerts’ during coronavirus pandemic

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KSNT) — A Lawrence band is bringing concerts to people in northeast Kansas while still maintaining social distancing.

The Last Shreds of Decency is a Lawrence band who started playing together about a year ago.

“For the fun of music, honestly,” Robbie Matthews, the band’s drummer and singer, said. “We all have been playing music for pretty much most of our lives. We all thought we bonded well together so we just went with it.”

The band actually just started booking shows in town but because of the coronavirus pandemic, they couldn’t play in public anymore.

Guitarist Clay Ptacek was home one day when his wife told him the neighbor across the street was bored being inside all day. So he went outside and starting playing.

“I did that once by myself,” Ptacek said. “I said, ‘well hey! Why don’t I just bring the band over.’ And the neighbors seemed to love it. They all sat on their porches. Some people would pull up in their cars and watch. They seem to like it a lot. It’s fun to do.”

The first porch concert was on April 1 and neighbors seemed to really like it. So much so they’ve planned to do more concerts on the porch. The concerts are at Ptacek’s house on the 2100 block of Kentucky Street, bringing people together through music while we’re still six feet apart.

“You know, you gotta do something,” Paul Matthews said, the group’s bassist. “You get bored and if we can help the neighbors have fun too. Then as long as we’re not bothering people and they enjoy it, we’ll do it.”

There will be another concert on Wednesday at 6 p.m. if the weather is dry enough. The band plans to live stream the porch concerts live. You can find that information here.

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