Dedication is Knowing There's a Tornado Outside

People are hard to read. Look up one minute and they appear to be listening intently, but the next they are trying to mentally remove themselves from the situation of listening to you play. The long-time musician who stays for your set might never say a word to you as they walk out the door, yet the musically inept may stick around to talk ...music.

It seldom works out just the way you want it. You're either beat and want an escape from the crowd, or you're pumped from playing an awesome set but no one seems to care. Yes, this is a bit dramatic, but polarized experiences make for good points.

This past weekend I had an absolutely amazing time at this tiny little venue, Live @ The Hub. The first time I played there I packed the place out with somewhere between 40-50 people at any given time. It was phenomenal, but I knew most of the people. Playing to people you know is easy. It's "safe." There's always someone to catch up with afterwards.

Playing to strangers is different. It goes back to not being able to read people too deeply. You really just never know.

On Saturday I had my second gig at Live @ The Hub. I knew two people there of maybe 20-30 through the night. A lower turnout for sure, but consider the following:

• torrential downpours
• flash flooding
• tornado warnings
• ...and a tornado that touched down 10 minutes from the venue

To say that these guys risked their lives to come out may be a bit of an exaggeration, but at the very least, they risked some safety. They may have come innocently, but they stayed because they were genuinely interested.

By the end of the night I had met more really great people, gotten more email addresses, gave out more business cards, and sold more CDs than shows where I average twice as many people. That is what having a love for music is all about.

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And on a side note: though the gig was over before 10 and was about 45 minutes away, I didn't get home until after 2am because the roads to my apartment were all flooded. I ended up trying to go to a friends house, where flooding made us turn around, and then I found a back way into my apartment that had likely been flooded earlier. So yeah... it wasn't too great a night to be out unless you were in it for the music.