For Bray, who works for the national concert promoter Live Nation, which has leased the Masonic auditorium since 2009, reopening the hall has been an enormous task. The biggest change, he says, has been to the way crowds enter the building. Today, almost everyone is guided through the California Street lobby. For each show, Live Nation places a half-dozen staffers at the doors (as well as at the VIP entrance) to check the vaccine cards and IDs of everyone entering the building—a protocol that was repeated for the fraternity’s Annual Communication. Once inside, nearly 50 socially distanced standing tables are arranged throughout the upper and lower concourses for attendees to gather in groups of two to four before heading into the show. When a table is vacated, a staffer quickly sanitizes the area.

Then there are the other points to manage, like having strong-enough flashlights for staff to be able to read patrons’ vaccine cards. The entire staff of the Masonic is now certified by the Global Biorisk Advisory Council to follow proper disinfection protocols; even the supply orders have shifted somewhat. “There’s a lot more Clorox in the mix,” Bray offers. “This is what everyone is doing industry-wise.”

Yet getting a concert venue reopened isn’t only a matter of loading up on disinfectant.

Where many businesses were able to open their doors almost immediately after the county gave the go-ahead, booking concerts with touring acts happens months and sometimes years in advance. Because of the pandemic, Live Nation had to reschedule more than 100 shows at the Masonic. Often that means figuring out entirely new tour calendars for dozens of artists and juggling the dates to fit availability at multiple venues. (Adding to the headache, big venues like the Masonic rely on corporate events throughout the year, which can complicate the process of booking national tours.) But according to Bray, most of the canceled shows have been rescheduled for 2022 and beyond. “Everything is starting to bounce back,” he says. “Artists want to play, and fans are buying tickets. As long as we follow the rules, keep our masks on, and are vaccinated, we’re good.”

Bray says that through all the behind-the-scenes challenges, the goal is to make the experience of seeing a performance at the Masonic as familiar as ever. The Modest Mouse show seemed to manage exactly that as the band launched into “Trailer Trash” from their 1997 classic The Lonesome Crowded West. Frontman Isaac Brock’s epic guitar solo felt nothing short of life-affirming, and as dozens of balloons floated through the room and bodies swayed in unison, it was possible to forget the strangeness of the experience and the circumstances. If only for an evening.