Many North Texas music venues still haven't received grant money to help get through the pandemic

DALLAS, Texas - Federal grant money for small concert venues that will be used to get them through continued hardships has been slow to get to the venues that need it.

Only about half of the 15,000 venues or so that applied have received a response.

This week, North Texas venues and those across the country are trying to raise awareness that they're open.

Live music venues across the Metroplex are still looking to climb out of the devastating financial hole caused by the pandemic.

"It’ll be surreal. It’ll be back to normal," said Mike Schoder, owner of the Granada Theater.

The Granada Theater has been hosting live music for 17 years, but last year, the music stopped. Schoder had to lay-off nearly all of the venue’s employees.

"That was the most brutal thing I ever had to be through," he said.

Schoder also runs the neighboring restaurant, Sundown at Granada. They were able to keep the business going with to-go orders and limited capacity, but that doesn’t work for live music venues.

"Bands want to play in a specific size venue and they want it to be sold out every time," he said.

Limited capacity isn’t cost efficient for the expenses of traveling bands. It’s typically all or nothing.

"You can’t scale it back and make the math work," Schoder said.

Independent Venue Week is this week across the country. There are 350 venues, including a handful across DFW, hosting concerts and celebrating somewhat of a return to normalcy.

Still, there are significant delays in federal aid passed by Congress to help small venues.

The Broadway hit "Hamilton" reportedly got $30 million in aid, but Schoder hasn’t seen a dime.

"My head was just at trying to keep the core of our family together," he said.

The Small Business Administration admits it’s been slow to respond to applications. There’s still plenty of the $16 billion allocated for venues left.

The SBA has responded to about half the applicants that applied. For the ones approved, about 24% of that $16 billion has been dispersed.

Schoder said bands and fans are coming back around, but it’ll likely be fall when things appear the way they did prior to the pandemic.

"Like, really September 1, this is really when bands are just starting to get back on the road," he said.

If they’re approved for federal assistance, it’ll go a long way, but for now, they’re grateful there’s music in the air.

"Being able to have people standing, you know, like, just this last week seeing a show where people can actually stand and dance and do what they do at a concert and not be quarantined to a table six feet away from the next person is pretty amazing," Schoder said.