Estimated reading time: 5 minute(s)
We had quite a December! 21 concerts in 22 days. Thankfully 2 of those were canceled. But at one point, we had 11 concerts in 8 days. That’ll be plenty, thank you very much! 🙂
BUT, with all of that activity, comes plenty of blog-fodder… 🙂
So, in a year-end sort of way…
BEST LINE
This one already made the blog page… so, click here to open the blog in a new window.
WORST ATTENDANCE
We had an event at a familiar place, where we have played quite often, and are always warmly welcomed. We were very much looking forward to our evening there. You can usually expect 50-100 people there. It was a good Sunday night event.
Well, as we were setting up, the senior minister and we were talking a bit, and he referred to some recent poor attendance at events such as ours. I thought nothing of it, as I mentioned above, our events had always been great with this church, and I wasn’t really expecting anything different…
Well, by 7:05pm, there was a total of 9 people in the building and 5 of them were us! 🙂 Add the senior minister, the sound guy, and two elders who were there to help out, and, you have the entire compliment! 🙂
I think that may be the first time we have ever had NO ONE show up for a concert at a church 🙂
But, it turned out great, actually. It’s always good to catch up with old friends and see how God is leading in their lives. We had a good chance to chat, and at the end of the evening… instead of a “love offering”, they sent us home with a LARGE rubbermaid tub full of FOOD! Even a frozen turkey! Amazing!
BEST ATTENDANCE
Probably our best attended event in the Christmas season was on Christmas Eve. We were in North Syracuse, NY, helping with a decent portion of their service. We had left a bit late, trying to get lots done before we left. We were trying to get there at 5:45 for a 7:00 concert, but we strolled into the parking lot at around 6:03pm.
Much to our surprise, at that early hour, the parking lot was full! It looked like everyone was there! My first thought was predicated by an unnerving event earlier in my Christmas Eve history… allow me a quick flashback…
[CHR EVE, 1998 – Victor, NY] I was the college age minister for a church in upstate NY, and for the Christmas Eve service, was singing a song along with my then quite pregnant bride, somewhere in the middle of the service. We arrived to our quaint little old country church building about 1 hour before showtime… and MUCH to my amazement then, as I came in the room to set up my guitar… EVERYONE was already there. And not only were they there… they were in their SEATS!!!!!
The most odd part about that? The seats faced the door where you came in. 🙂 So, I waved… and went up on the stage to set up my guitar. 🙂 (What else could I do??) 🙂
[We now return to our regularly scheduled programming…]
SO, you can imagine, I was amazed, but not too concerned. A bit weirded out by the passion exhibited by these Christmas Eve die-hards, but not concerned. 🙂
BUT, I was proven wrong. I checked the sheet with all the info for that night, and sure enough…
It said 6:00pm. 🙂
So we had over 300 people waiting for us to arrive. Our best crowd. Under very interesting circumstances. Again, I think that is a first for us as well. We have shown up late for an event or two, but due to inclement weather or other events beyond our control… never just had the wrong time! HA HA!!!
MOST FUN
Now, not really wanting to exclude anyone or seem ungrateful for any of the fun that we had at any of our December events… I still thought there was one day that stood out to me.
On Dec 18, we sang at a WALMART! It was our second one… it was “our” WalMart. We sang in the WalMart in Newark, right in the area where people walk in. It was just fun to see people’s faces light up, smile, cheer up, and enjoy the season as they came in to some smilin’ faces singing live music. We saw a few folks we knew there, and we also were seen by lots more who knew us. 🙂 (That’s always interesting…)
But overall, I’d have to say that was a most excellent day!
EARLIEST DAY!!!
Without a doubt, singing for the K-8th graders at East Palmyra Christian School was our earliest gig. It felt like another TIME ZONE. 🙂 We had to start at 8:30am so we had to be there BEFORE eight o’clock AM. That is too early. 🙂
BUT, even with the early start, this was a close runner up for most fun. The kids were great!
MOST BAND-A-LICIUOUS!
As many of you know, when we perform live, it is usually two voices accompanied by only an acoustic guitar (or keyboard of some sort). Well not on Dec 17th! Crosswinds hosted our sort of CD Release Party for God Came. It was a blast! So fun to play with such amazing musicians. May I mention them here?
(Of course I can! It’s my blog page!!!) 🙂
E. Guitar: Mike Muscarella (our amazing guitar man!)
Bass: Ben Schoenfelder (now becoming a basic regular! and also amazing!)
Drums: Todd Haschmann (a fill-in who is welcome ANY time!)
We basically played right through the CD… and the amazing thing was, we had no rehearsal! Those guys are THAT good! So fun!
It was…
BAND-A-LICIOUS!!!
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Well, there are probably more stories, but I have one more blog I would like to type to end this year. So I will close this one, and begin the next.
Thanks to any of you who were at those events (or NOT in the case of the WORST ATTENDED one…) It was a pleasure to celebrate God’s love with you. And to have band-a-licious fun. And to drink Wassail. And all the other fun stuff. Thanks for a great Christmas season. 🙂