Day Of The Showcase (Part 2)

[...cont...] So with sound check all finished, it was time to sit down and relax. Because the lead singer now does their sound (due to all that drama), he had set the PA up and organised everything so was pretty shattered and ready for a good meal and a rest. It was another 4 hours until they hit the stage so it was a good time to sit down and hang out with all our friends that had come to support the guys.

As 10pm rolled round, the main VIP that had organised the show turned up. As always, it was great to see him and chat about everything. I also noted a couple of other VIP's including The White Stripes international tour manager. Unfortunately at that time there was no sign of radio reps or record label execs.

The young couple arrived back with an awesome looking canvas banner!! We hung that up on the back wall behind the drum kit and the stage looked stunning!

The venue manager then came up and asked the guys not to start until 10.30pm as the restaurant below them still had patrons. Fair enough. But bare in mind it was a Thursday night and kicking off a show at 10.30pm seemed a little late to me - especially since everyone works the next day. Not only that, but the venue itself is quite a drive from the suburbs - it's not exactly in the city, so I knew we wouldn't get many people wander in off the street.

Predictably the venue became less busy by 10.30pm and I could foresee this was going to be a hard gig for the guys. You see, when you have a packed out venue with people dancing etc, the band feeds off the audience and it really fires up the show (if you're in a band, you will know what I mean). But when you have a couple of dozen people just sitting down... watching... it becomes quite a draining show. I'm not in a band, but I have been around long enough to see both sides of that coin.... [...to be cont...]