Dancin' in the Dark

Teleblooz · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:23 am Post subject: Dancin' in the Dark

Had a gig a couple of weeks ago. It was a smallish local tavern doing some kind of "special occasion - customer appreciation" thing where they roped off the parking lot out back and lined up 3 bands to play under an awning.

We were the last band to go on, scheduled to play from 7 to 10 PM; after that the noise police would get in on the action, as there was a residential neighborhood right behind.

First, the previous band didn't relinquish the stage until 7PM, which was when we were supposed to start playing, not start setting up. We went on a half hour late, give or take. No biggie though, and our first set went off fine. The house was happy, and the patrons were having a good time & drinking lots of beer (Ka-ching!).

Took our break, socialized with the drunks, and went back up. About 3 songs into the second set, it's getting noticeably darker. Soon it becomes painfully apparent that nobody thought to put any kind of lights under the awning we were playing under. While the regular parking lot lighting was enough to light the audience, we're soon playing in near-pitch black, using the bass player's amp panel lights to read the set list.

At this point the set list goes out the window, and I just call the songs we can do with our eyes closed ('cause that's essentially what we were doing). Kept a real close eye on the (thankfully luminous) dial of my watch. Quit playing at 10 on the dot, give or take 30 seconds.

I was pretty pissed off at the venue at the time (though smart enough to keep it to myself), but in hindsight I realize that this was a one-off thing for them and they probably had no experience in putting on an outdoor show after dark. They loved us though, and we made some good contacts for future billings.
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#1 Zero · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:32 am Post subject: Re: Dancin' in the Dark

SAguitar · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:53 pm Post subject:

Job well done, Teleblooz! Cool

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...all the gray areas are becoming black holes...