Outdoor Show...in 30 Degrees?!

True Story! Couple weeks back.

I'm from Northern New York, in a town called Lake Placid. We hosted the winter Olympics twice, the state just completed a huge and very expensive revamp of all the facilities, got it pushed through the legislature by booking a newer winter sports collegiate event called the FISU games. They were throwing around a bunch of funds, shut down the main street of our town to all motorized traffic for twelve days, hired bands to play throughout the event. I came back from Portland, Oregon (where I live now) for the reuniting of my beloved rock band from our twenties. We don't play often, but the cash was there and it sounded interesting.

Interesting, of course, because playing an outdoor stage, in northern NY, high in the Adirondack mountains, in January...is a dicey, dicey proposition. Here we go...

...after a few weeks of rehearsal, Christmas, New Year's, reconnecting with family and friends and the whole thing: they set up the stage. Initially things did not look, ahhhh...promising.



...especially because this was right above out town's protected, fully powered bandshell on the lake. The event promoters were adamant that we play on main st itself because it was closer to the beer tent. So it goes. For reference here's the bandshell:



...needless to say we were a bit spooked. That said, much to our amazement: the stage got cleaned up. While they refused to enclose it in any way, they did to their credit provide some huge-ass heat blowers that seemed to do the trick, imported from Vail for events they do outdoors there. The first few bands (started on a Saturday night, we were scheduled for tuesday) seemed to have a not-entirely terrible time, we chatted them up nightly as they got off stage and it seemed to be chilly but not physically deleterious. A bit of snow on amps, we readied what precautions we could in preparation...




...the day of the show came. We met the stage crew in the parking lot of a nearby hotel, they loaded our stuff into a gator and we were off. Soundcheck was a hoot. Stage was warm, as is the insufferable wont of the Adirondack Weather Gods, in the course of half an hour it went from sun to rain to snow. But it sounded great, equipment was reasonably well protected, and we even got a video clip of our friend, stage dancer and general societal terror Electric Bradio to play on the giant video screen behind us.





...it was at this time that the delegation from Norway gave me a hat. She was...quite lovely. I accepted graciously. I believe according to the International bylaws of Division 3 Collegiate Athletic Tournaments I am now a full-fledged Norwegian citizen, though something may have been lost in translation. Either way I'm expecting my health care and complimentary lutefisk ration any day now...



We regrouped for a fabulous brisket feast, lakeside, provided by a partner restaurant down the street. It was...it was a definitive Yes. We filled our various metallic fluid containers with juice-adjacent liquids of the extremely decadent variety.



...and then...SHOWTIME!!!

It was...a glorious blur. We are very, very lucky boys. Alost immediately into things, it warmed to about 33 and a half degrees and started to torrential rain. And our friends, our family, our community: man, they friggin' stuck around. We danced. We partied. We were ageless. Our kids got brought up in what we first brought up, back in the nineties. I'm getting all choked up, just thinking about it. There's not an emoji on the planet that can speak to it. We are blessed.

The stage was actually warm enough to play and not get damaged. No small miracle. When we had finished our 90-minute set, we waded into the crowd and got soaked and smiled and filled with laughter with our People. I'll never forget it.

Here's a photo dump of it all. Much love, big respect, play on, take care...

 

Woooooooow!! That is...that's warm, man!! Gosh darn...

...as it happens, we played a second (indoor) show at a spot up the street later in the week. Top floor of a 3-story A-frame, packed to capacity, line out the door...and everybody sweating in winter clothes. It couldn't have been less than 90f. I was still a bit wobbly to begin with, we played Hot For Teacher, I jumped up in the air when the bass came in, almost passed out / yakked up another night's complimentary brisket