It was at a bar called The Country Pines, kind of out in the boonies. It is a huge place. The owner actually called us a few days ago to say he was thinking of cancelling the gig and closing up the bar for the weekend, because the place had really been empty--January and February were traditionally his worst months, but with the economy the way it is, they've been truly abysmal for him. We had told him we didn't mind playing to an empty house and would rather not cancel, and didn't mind if we didn't make any money (we had an arrangement for payment that was based on what kind of business he did that night, an arrangement that has worked out nicely for us in the past at other places). Besides, we had invited a lot of people, and even though we always invite way more than we get, we were pretty sure that several people were coming.
So the show was to go on.
When we got there, the place was empty. Completely. The owner wasn't even there yet! But he came soon. By the time we were set up and ready to start, several people had in fact shown up, and at one point there were probably 25 people. Which would be a nice little crowd in some of the places we've played in, but as I said, this place is HUGE.
Not that we mind a small crowd--in fact, what they lacked in numbers they more than made up for in enthusiasm. The problem was, the place was so big (and had wood floors and only a bit of wood furniture, and not much on the walls), that it was like singing in an echo chamber.
Have you ever tried to sing in an echo chamber? Well, me neither, but I now feel like I have. When I started singing my first song (Gimme 3 Steps), my voice came bouncing back to me from all over the place, and it was so completely disorienting. I felt like I had nothing to latch onto with the music. It sounded horrible to me, and I couldn't believe people weren't running for the hills, or at least the bathroom, to escape.
Around somewhere during the second verse, I realized that trying to listen to myself wasn't working, and I had to just let go and hope for the best. Focus in on Bob's guitar and try to block out everything else, including myself, and just go for it. Doing this took a great deal of concentration, and was not really conducive to a fun, high-energy performance, however. In fact, it was *quite* stressful.
I wondered if my bandmates were having similar issues, because it seemed like everyone's concentration was just a bit off. We weren't quite clicking. It almost felt as though we were playing underwater, like everything was kind of a struggle and we weren't as honed in on each other as we normally are.
But, we forged onward. And during about my third song, something came over me--the realization that this was our second-to-last gig before we take my "maternity break". It hit me that it will be awhile before I'm doing this regularly again, and I felt really wistful about it! I decided that I was going to milk this experience for all it was worth. That I was going to have a ball, echo chamber or not. Grating vocals or not. Seventh month of pregnancy or not. And you know what? It worked. I had the time of my life up there. I loved it. Loved it. And no one was leaving, so I was thinking maybe it didn't sound as bad as I had been fearing.
There are a few songs that I don't need to play on, that have been serving as built-in breaks for me during the sets. When I came down off the stage a little over halfway through the first set, I thought we actually sounded pretty decent. Though of course I could not hear my own vocals then! But it gave me hope that the whole thing was sounding better than it did up on stage.
By 11:15 or so the crowd had thinned out, and we had agreed in advance with the owner that we would end early if there weren't a lot of people there. I was actually having so much fun I wanted to keep going, but I went with the flow.
I'm not much help packing up the equipment these days, so I left early... but Bob told me that as they were packing up a new group of people came in to hear us play, and were really disappointed that we had ended early! Of course we love it when our friends come out to hear the band, for *sure*... but it also always feels great when people you don't know have heard about you and come to see you.
Even better than that, Bob reported, the bar owner LOVED us. He told Bob that we were the best band he'd heard in awhile, and that he does a lot of catering/private parties, and that we were going to be the number one band he recommends from now on to people who ask him. We were kinda shocked (since we truly did not feel we'd put our best foot forward), and thrilled.
So, one more gig, next week, and then it's at least three months off for me. But I will definitely be back. Definitely!
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