We had a great time at Huntington University yesterday, but the trip did not come without some struggles. Rob, Joey, and Chris arrived around 9:30 Monday night and I, on the other band, traveled with my friend Dave and his wife, and we did not get into Huntington until midnight...the night before the show. Dave took his ford pickup truck, and our original plan was rent a trailer from U-Haul and attach it to the back of the truck (to put all our gear in). Turns out, we found out at around 5pm on Monday that U-Haul has a lawsuit with Ford, and will not rent trailers to anyone using a Ford Explorer...funny thing is, Dave's truck is basically a Ford Explorer with the rear end replaced with a truck bed. So, we ended up barely fitting my keyboard & sound gear, and Dave's drum kit in the back of the truck. Things got even more interesting when we were stranded on rt. 33 in Bellefontaine, OH for an hour and 45 minutes. Apparently, there was an accident not far ahead of us between a pickup truck and Winnebago. It's easy to complain about this stuff, but had we left a few minutes early, we might have been the ones in the accident.
As mentioned above, we arrived at Huntington around midnight, about 2 hours later than expected. The sound man, Justin, was very kind to wait around for us. We basically dropped our gear off and then headed to the hotel to crash for the night.
Tuesday morning came quickly. We needed to be back at the Merrilat Centre at 8am to finish getting set up. Rob, Joey, and Chris had already set up their guitars and had had sound checks the night before. Everyone pitched in and by 8:45, we had the drums, keyboard/midi arsenal, and the merchandise table ready to go. Both Justin (sound) and Brad (lighting) were extremely helpful and professional.
Students started to roll in around 9:45, some of them collapsing in their seats with hoodies over their heads. Oh yes, the college experience, and the thrill of required chapels. =) Overall, we played a decent show although I don't think we were particularly into it. Between the late night and dissention among the band, I was honestly a little discouraged, and was wondering what else could possibly go wrong.
After the show, Joey, Rob, and Chris were off to Columbus pretty quickly. Chris had a music lesson he needed to get to. Dave and I tore down, and then grabbed some lunch at the school cafeteria. Dave's wife arrived shortly with the truck (and their dog), we packed things up, and headed home.
All in all, I think it was great learning and growing experience. I'm a bit miffed about where to go from here. It was sort of a bittersweet experience. In some ways, I see how God provided and blessed our time at Huntington...I also see a ton of areas I need to improve in from a standpoint of performance. Our next scheduled show is at Ohio Wesleyan on April 29th. We also have a number of potential shows at other colleges.
Sometimes, you think life is just supposed to be handed to you...I'm learning that there is a big difference between recording an album in a studio and then pulling off that same music on stage, while maintaining an audiences' interest.
Thanks to Matt Ayers for the sweet pictures above. We will have more posted in the near future. Check out Matt's page at: http://www.myspace.com/ayersphotography
No comments:
Post a Comment