I'm going to leave out some details of the story so as not to throw the venue under the bus, but REO had a scheduled tour stop in Oklahoma recently, and we were scheduled to open for them. The show however, very nearly did not happen. This is the tale of how REO Speedwagon saved our show!
Long story short, the venue had talked to our drummer about having us play friday night for free (the night before REO - this was a weekend Bike Rally event). No opening act was scheduled. We don't play for free so we said no. Their reply, what if you get to open for REO the next night, will you play both for free?
We accepted that deal because it makes us much more marketable, so obviously we said yes. We had a gig already booked for that evening, so we had to find a replacement band and give up a paying show but we felt it was worth it. We had recently played at Rocklahoma a few weeks earlier and the opportunities that created really pushed us up the food chain in our market, so we felt opening for REO would do more of the same.
We drew up a performance contract that basically said we agree to play for free on friday (two hours) in recompense for opening for REO on Saturday (one hour set). We got this signed and returned on Tuesday of last week. Wednesday morning, the venue calls us and tells us we are no longer opening for REO.
It was explained to us that REO "didn't want an opening act." We found this odd because the venue had told us someone from there had already spoken to REO's tour manager who reviewed our press kit and approved us himself. So we started trying to figure out some way to save the day...
Well, it turns out my lead singer went to high school with a lady who is married to Bruce Hall, the bassist for REO. They had been in communication a little bit for a month about this show because we were trying to get an opening slot and my singer's (and Mrs. Hall's) 25 year hs reunion party was going to be at the REO concert.
My singer sent Bruce a facebook message telling him what was going on and asked if there was any possible way they could look into it. We didn't expect much at all but it was our only hope for making this show happen...
Bruce replies pretty quickly and confirms that it did not come from REO at all, and that both their tour manager and production manager had us on their schedule to open - AND specifically said, "We want you guys to open."
Well... it turns out that the guys from REO Speedwagon are pure class acts who didn't really like the idea of a venue blaming the headliner for pulling the opening act. We were later told that their tour manager says blaming the headliner for ditching an opener "works 9 out of 10 times." Well friends.... this was the one time out of ten that it did not.
REO's tour manager called the venue and while I do not know the details of the conversation, I do know that once it was done, we were back on the schedule. We were told by the venue that they felt they had never gotten a firm "OK" from REO about the inclusion of a local opener, and while we take that at face value, REO clearly did think we were opening for them.
My guess is that with the expense of a few more hours of the sound man's time and the pain in the ass of clearing the stage of an opener before the headliner, they wanted to save a few $$ at the last minute and let us believe it was REO's call, and that bit someone in the ass.
I am going to stop well short of saying the venue was trying to torpedo us or lied, because once the show was on... they treated us like kings. I have honestly never experienced a better crew or staff treatment of a band I've played in than I did that weekend.
I don't know what happened to jeapordize our performance, but I do know this.... REO Speedwagon personally got involved in keeping us on the bill and saving our show. And for that, I am now the biggest REO fan on this board.
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As for the show... we had a great show friday night. Saturday's was a little more challenging, playing in front of REO's massive backline and not getting a proper sound check, we had a lot of trouble hearing ourselves well on stage and while our show was good, we felt friday's was a lot better.
The REO concert was amazing, and my singer (who is also my wife) and I got to meet Bruce Hall and hang out with him a bit at an after party for her reunion group. Bruce was an absolute class act and made a point of telling both of us several times how much he enjoyed our set and that he thought we had a great band - but in particular he felt my wife is a great singer. He mentioned several songs she did that he liked and she lit up like a Christmas Tree - which made my day.
In the end it was a great experience and completely surpassed my expectations. The mid-week drama was regretable, but actually resulted in a better story!
