House of All I Could Handle On June 5th...

Well, after a long day of dealing with almost every thing you can imagine could go wrong, I still feel blessed beyond words of the many people in my life that support & encourage me in this new journey with Air Review.
Yesterday started with a relaxing time with my wife @ the mall. About 3:30pm I was headed to Irving to pick up my gear for the show & I was greeted with a big BANG on 75 during rush hour. I pulled over & so did the small little truck that rear-ended me, walked over to him & asked him if he was ok. He said he was dozing off. A shock to both of us, it could have been a lot worse being that my van has a nice little dent in the back door(still can open). His truck was in worse shape in the front =/. Oh yeah...did I mention that He didn't have his insurance with him? He said he had Geico, so we just exchanged numbers & now we'll hope for the best. I didn't have time to involve the cops, I just hoped & prayed for the best & we'll see if he follows through. After that little episode I endured more traffic, finally picked up my gear, and then arrived at House of Blues.
The load-in time was pretty exhausting with all the endless amounts of gear & merch, but the HOB staff there was extremely helpful getting us in and taken care of. The headliner (Early Republic), had the honors of a sound check while we just had to wait it out till our time to play. I met my wonderful sister & bro-n-law in the restaurant & then my parents brought my wife and we had dinner together before I had to check in with "band" duties. Radio Revival finally got started after a few technical difficulties, during that time I set up my kit in the back so I could just throw it on the stage when they were finished playing. Finally our turn came, and we all frantically drug our gear on the stage. Setting the drums up was the easiest thing for me after having to help Doug put that stinkin huge piano together, while everyone was eagerly waiting for us to start. That took all my energy before we even started. Getting the monitors comfortable with all the guys was another task. I think the most nerv-racking thing for me was hoping everything was working ok (technically wise), and the crowd of people that all came out to see us patiently waiting... I didn't want to let them down.
The first song went smoothly as expected, then Chasing Corp came & Doug lost the cue for it because He didn't have enough monitor to hear it. So that was a bit of a disaster for us because we didn't have the track, so we just had to roll with it & keep pushing through. That was the most miserable song for me. 3rd tune went smoothly, then the 4th came & I so confidently started the fill for the 5TH song!! Bad!!! We added the 4th song to the set, and I completely forgot & proceeded to start 'At the Switch' instead of 'The Landing'. Jeff yelled at me to stop, since I was starting to play with the wrong track, so I did...swallowed my huge mistake, and went on with playing 'The Landing' which came together smoothly after that. The rest of the set, I thought, went fine. It was just a rough night, being that, all the stress getting everything set up & working properly, and monitors working. None of that mattered really quickly because of so much crowd support. People just loved every minute of it, regardless of how rough the sound was (mainly because of part of the sound system blown), and regardless of our dumb mistakes we made. The songs spoke for themselves, and everyone was amazingly supportive, and we felt so loved being there. I felt so undeserved of all of that because of how rough it was for the band. But... I'm sure that will be the first of MANY down the road.
I'm so thankful to my wonderful family, my close friends & musicians, and my marriage group that came to support not only me...but the band. I feel so encouraged, regardless of how much of a beating it was for us "perfectionist" band members. When you rehearse about twice a week for a few hours each time running through the set, then you come to perform it in front of people and it goes NOTHING like rehearsals, it's frustrating. That's the reality of most bands though. Crap happens, and you just gotta roll with it & not be discouraged, because so many people love what we do and support us. That's what matters, and that's what keeps us going. I am blessed beyond words.

jj