The Bud Greene band never talked about it but I think we were all aware of the fact that a party with a band was more special to them than the people who could afford to hire a million bands. I tried to certainly give them every bit of a good show as we'd give the Kappa Sigs, our main guys everywhere, if not more. They appreciated a band a bit more sometimes.
I remember playing some tiny school somewhere where they could only afford to hire like maybe two bands a year, so when we played it was like a stadium show to them. Even the teachers were having a good time and the kids were going absolutely apeshit before we even sat down to play.
They couldn't afford to build a stage so we set up on the ground. The crowd was roped-off but I honestly thought they might break through and mob us, which they pretty much did at the end of the show. I kept all my used sticks because people would occasionally ask for one. I gave away all of my used sticks and even all of my new ones. I could get more. It was very humbling, but we also felt like Rock Stars.
Anyway this other gig took place somewhere in south Alabama I think. They weren't quite as poor as the last guys but they couldn't afford to hire a band for every party. We set up in the basement of a tiny frat house. We were doing soundcheck, and the power went out. We reset the breakers but it happened again. We realized that the power supply wasn't adequate for both the PA and lights, so we had to ditch the lights. They'd built a little 4" high stage, but it wasn't big enough to fit the whole band.
It was either get everybody to round up lanterns or flashlights, or maybe candles. I got the main guy and told him to get everybody to collect any candles they might have, and I asked if there was a thrift store in town. Luckily there was one close by, and I ended up spending quite a bit of my own money on candles...I bought several hundred anyway. We went back and O' and I went around the stage setting up and lighting candles, and then we started playing.
As you can imagine the vibe was very warm, and also primal. That's what fire'll do. It was nothing whatsoever like the photo here, but in its own way it was just as cool. We ended up with maybe 350 candles or more, and it looked like some sort of temple. Everyone had a smile on their face, and something else happened that I never really never thought about again until now...people drank less alcohol. There was still drinking, but lots of the kids got off on the vibe, and hopefully the music too, and didn't feel the need to get as hammered as they usually did.
I was really appreciative of that because I was always a big fan of people getting high off the music rather than alcohol or whatever, and that applied to the band as well as the audience. I never touched a drop of alcohol either during the gig or the day of. I'd go through at least two 1.5-liter bottles of water every gig, Summer or Winter, and I'd display my water bottle as much as I could. I was sending a subtle message that you could have as much fun as a barrel of monkeys without having to be loaded. I loved seeing people get off on the vibe in the room and letting that be the buzz.
Another interesting thing happened. Without thinking about it we brought the volume of the band down a bit, to match the vibe in the room. The atmosphere and the music and the interaction with the crowd was a little more intimate than usual. People generally had fun at our gigs, but I never saw so many smiles. If I had a time machine I'd go back and play that gig again. It's worth doing on purpose. Rock on, by any light.
No comments:
Post a Comment