Glory be to Gus's bar and all in Lansing

We almost made a big mistake today. We considered not playing a show for about 15 seconds. Thankfully we made the right decision.

When we showed up at Gus's Bar in Lansing I walked in to find out that we had been canceled. I was never notified that we were canceled. From what I knew we were still on to play "Happy Hour" at 4:30 for $XXX.XX, and now the club is telling me that they had no idea we were coming anymore. Mary, whom was helping us figure out the dilemma, had mentioned that at one point we were scheduled, but had been canceled. She called the gentleman who handled this show and came back and offered us half the money to play "Happy Hour". This show was set up third party, so from where we stood taking half the money was better than making no money at all. For all we knew we never were supposed to make the money we thought. It could have been pure miscommunication. Mary said, "If you guys want to play, you can start loading in, I apologize for the confusion". I felt like we weren't wanted and was feeling so tired that getting in the van and making it to Chicago by night seemed enticing.

I went outside and talked with the band explaining what had happened. Keep in mind that at this point we have played 13 shows in 14 days... We have played REALLY big stages, and we have played REALLY small stages. We have been asked to turn up, and we have been asked to turn down. Our last 3 shows... i.e. Pittsburgh, Annapolis, Cleveland we decided (based off of the crowd, feeling in the room, and size of the room) to play so unusually quiet that it was really messing up who we are as a band.

This was hard on Brad, and especially hard on my guitar tone. Guitar amps, especially tube amps, do not sound good at 1. So venturing once again into the unknown seemed intimidating. It takes nuts to lay yourself out there to a room full of strangers, especially when the elements are against what you usually do. Trust me when I say, and have been told, THIS WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER BAND. Playing outside of your element will force you to alter everything. Sometimes you find something you wouldn't have in a song or a move.. or how to move more with less space... or how to sing softer without sounding lame. "Stretching" as James from Union Pulse calls it. The life of an independent touring band is all about venturing into the unknown.

When I initially walked into Gus's I thought... "Here we are again". Small stage, older clientele, and no sound system. From previous shows this translates to... "Can you turn down?", or possibly and eventually some people taking offense to the volume of the band and leaving. Either one is bad for a rock band. We are not an extremely loud bands by any means. We play very dynamic... but when you are in a neighborhood bar... The locals decide what is loud not you.

Do not let this falter you. Like the note in my previous blog: Do not alter your performance based off of crowd analytics. The day after I wrote that note in my blog we played in Cleveland. A majority of the crowd had their backs turned and we sold only 1 cd. This was the down from the previous up in Pittsburgh when we sold a good amount of records and were tipped out very well by a lot of the patrons. Same scenario in Cleveland and completely different results. Sometimes, no matter how well you perform, you will not win over the room. This is a lot harder "Half - Staff", when you have even less control of how you are selling yourself.

With all of thougts on my mind; the heat, the thought of setting up the PA, loading in, and the thought of singing with a tired throat, I was ready to just say... "lets go". We discussed it and quickly my mind was out of the lazy and cowardly gutter. Reverie drove from Cleveland to Lansing... We are playing this show regardless of the outcome.

We set up quickly and got to our first set at about 4:30. The first 10 minutes or so I was unsure if these folks were just clapping because they wanted to be polite. Every performer has this insecurity. I just like talking about mine. Once again, I was wrong. By midway through the set a lot of the bar had changed their seating arrangements and moved closer to the stage. By the end of the set we had men and women from 21 to 60 whistling and cheering us on, not only between songs but while we were mid-song. Our set concluded and we were happy to see many of these bar patrons buying tee-shirts and CDs.

One of these patrons happened to be one of the owners. Ray was a co-owner and was just stopping in to have a drink. He ended up calling his friends and relatives and helped fill up the room for us. Ray and then Ralph, a regular, tipped us some extra cash and offered us money to do another set! I said.. "No way I can take that, but we can talk about doing another set with the bar". I can't take money from a stranger like that!

Ray assured me that we needed to stick around and perform again at 9:30. He offered us some more pay, some food and free drinks to do it all over again.

In all the years I have been playing, I have never come across a group of 20 people that wanted to hear the same 2 hours of music... again. Sheepishly, we agreed. Almost everyone in the bar stuck around for the next 3 hours until we played again and to our surprise more people showed up.

We did almost the same exact set, with some new covers thrown in and a few other originals we hadn't performed the first time. Once again we had the crowd lit up and when we finished all of the people that weren't there before, got in line to buy CDs and Tee shirts. We were happy to sign the tee shirts and CDs for them. We spent some time meeting a lot of these people... Ralph, Ray, Justin, DJ, Kaitlyn, Candance, and Doug to name a few! Thank you for a wonderful afternoon and night. I am so grateful for your support.

I am SOoooooooooooo glad that we made the right decision. Our final night out of town proved to be not only our biggest lesson learned but also our most lucrative venture. Making new fans and pleasing them is glorious.

Glory be to Gus's bar and all in Lansing.

Stephen Francis