Day 15: Mainz - Just when the band gets into the swing of things... we should have listened to The Shirelles.
Mama said there'd be days like this.
We felt cursed the moment we stepped on stage. It's interesting, the effect that a stage can have on a band... it's an aspect of the business that I don't think audience members often take time to think about. Sometimes, when you step out onto a stage, it fills you with inspiration. Whether it's the heighth above the crowd's heads, the distance from the front line, the space from front to back, or side to side, we're not sure... but something in the mix
really makes a difference, and you feel it the second you step onto that platform.
Today, stepping onto that platform felt like running one's hands along a dead body. It was cold, lonely, and sent a shiver down the spine. We did everything we normally do... but there was little to no reaction when I spoke, short and hesitant applause after numbers, and half way through the set Brandon actually spied a woman falling asleep on her boyfriend's shoulder. As I was announcing that we had two songs left, I heard the intro to our final number and realized Brandon had gone ahead and cut a song.
Cutting a song. What a difficult topic to breach. On one hand, if the audience is bored, prolonging their boredom is simply going to make them resent the band... and in that frame of mind, cutting a song is the appropriate thing to do. On the other hand, there's
always a handful of people in the audience that love what we're doing. In fact, on this particular night we had a couple people that had come just to see us. In this frame of mind, don't we owe it to them to give the best show we're able to give? Is it better to call it quits and cut your losses, or to fight through to the end and give it all you've got, regardless of the feedback you're getting? I suppose it depends on the situation. Honestly, that sentence makes it sound a lot easier than it really is. APop had a similar experience tonight... it was the only show on tour that they didn't end with an encore.
Personally... I blame the stage.
CD sales weren't bad afterwards (they weren't
great, but they weren't bad) which once again taught us what we should have learned in Krefeld. Sometimes the energy onstage and the reaction from the audience don't accurately portray the reality of the situation... but once a person is in a negative frame of mind, even simple things can seem devastating. We're learning this slowly but surely.
After the show tonight, the band went to an after party at a bar called "Chili Peppers" and drank. A lot. It was fun, though, and we got to bond with APop (which we've done a lot of lately). Personally, I don't remember walking back to the Vanix that night... but Dinger got the worst of it. Proof that he drank far too much was found on the streets outside the van the next day... and now the stage is set for entirely new struggle for The Anix...
