Concert #5: Cannons or thunder? (Or, the Fourth of July umbrella spectacular!)
Of the past three concerts, only one had decent weather. I hope this isn't a sign for the rest of the summer. Consider at Concert #4, the MC gave a statistic where, in something like the past 50 years, we've only had maybe 18 rain-outs. That's a really good percentage if you figure that's over roughly 500 concerts. But, well, we're messing with the stats this summer.
I've already discussed how terrible the weather was during the rehearsal. Thankfully the concert wasn't nearly as bad, but it certainly wasn't ideal, either. This concert was an anomaly, since it was on a Wednesday, not a Thursday. Like last year, we couldn't get the cannons on our normal day, so we had to push the concert up a little. Yep, we do a full-on 1812 Overture with Civil War cannons and area church bells ringing. Since I'd only been to the one concert, last year, I was not aware that they have to fire off test shots and was worried there was thunder in the area just before the concert, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
That was the day I ended up cleaning up the busted lightbulb at work, so I worked later than normal, which was fine. Hey, not like I had to be anywhere for a while. When I did finally leave, it was mildly misty/sprinkly outside, nothing major, but not the greatest weather ever. It was also a little cool, not uncomfortably so, but when the wind would gust it would make things a little tough. I had gone to a local park and was sitting in a pavilion attempting to read the paper, but the gusts weren't making that possible. I ended up in my car for a while, but I wasn't there as long as I could have been.
I knew from last year that parking, always terrible to begin with on concert nights, got even worse for the Fourth of July concert. This year, we had an extra challenge with another concert being held at a local theater within shouting distance of our park. Oh, dear. I planned to get there around 5:30 and brought a few musical things to do with my extra time. Also, since I'm one of the first people there, I typically hand out program listings. See, there are two programs--there's the regular one we hand out to the audience, which is preprinted probably a week in advance, and the guy in charge of those puts one of those on each of the stands. Then we have the band-specific program, which is essentially a flier, which lists the actual program we'll be playing. I'll grab a bunch and pass them out, one per stand. While some people would prefer to go paperless, I like having that there, and it gives me something to do. What can I say--years of band and camp and what-not have made me an action person when it comes to music. Also, last year we'd put little American flags on all the stands, and I'd have been happy to help do that too, except they were already on by the time I'd gotten there, as the wife, daughter, and I guess son of the main director were sitting there chatting. (The wife and daughter are members of the band. I had thought the guy was the daughter's husband when I first saw him after the Memorial Day parade and concert, but after listening to them talk I realized who he really was--and it helps that he sometimes sounds just like his dad, which was a little odd, but kind of funny in a way. Ah, family.) Anyway, there's generally not a problem with the programs once they're passed out, so long as the door is kept closed. Alas, we were supposed to have a barbershop group perform before the concert, and to get them set up the door had to get opened, and it was gusty, so everything blew everywhere. Sigh. How annoying. I managed to pick up the programs for most of the front two rows, and I grabbed clothespins to clip them all on, but past a certain point I went, this is futile, and left the rest alone.
It wasn't long after that that it started raining. Oh, goody. It never got torrential like on Monday; it was just a steady, and at times hard, rain. This meant that none of the sound equipment could go out, and the barbershop group couldn't perform on the risers set up on the lawn in front of the bandshell. As time got closer for them to go on, they stood off to the side and a few started singing "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie," which cracked me up. Nice. At least they have a sense of humor about it. Eventually they decided to have the group stand in the middle of the band's first few rows, so we moved stands and chairs off to the sides and fit them in. The problem then was that any of the band members who'd normally be sitting in their seats getting ready, couldn't. That included me, since I'd have been smack dab in the middle of them. I spent part of their performance standing behind the band set-up and listening, then the other half in the back part of the bandshell, in the storage area, holding all my stuff and waiting for them to finish. Since we were doing "Stars and Stripes Forever" as our finale, the section leader had told the flutes they could play piccolo on the final strain, second time. This was not the day to have to carry around a second instrument, let me tell you, even if it is small. It's still something else to juggle.
The barbershop group finished and we got word that it was ten minutes 'til our portion of the concert. By the time I got back in there, most people were seated and the set-up was mostly back to how it should have been. The problem was that most people barely had time to get settled, get their instruments together, get their music out; we didn't have a proper chance to warm up, and many people still had their bags and cases at their seats. This is generally a huge no-no, but given the circumstances we just had to go with it. Honestly, the only reason my stuff wasn't out there too was because I'd gotten there so early. I believe we started the concert a few minutes early as well. We were further thrown off by not performing our traditional opening song. Instead, since the door was already open, someone said the Pledge of Allegiance, and then we went into the national anthem before starting the program.
I have to give props to our audience. From pretty much the moment the door opened, all you saw was a sea of umbrellas. Either the benches were bare or they were covered with umbrellas. When people realized the rain was staying the whole time, some left, but we still had a good-sized audience, all things considered, and we went through the entirety of the program through "Overture '1812' " (which is how the title appears on our music). The director figures that so long as there's no lightning, we'll play. And we had no lightning. What we did have is a rough concert. No lie, no sugar-coating, this was probably the worst concert I've played with them. And it's not that overall it was terrible; it was just really rough. This is what happens when you essentially go into something cold. In fact, one of the early songs had a really not-good ending, but after that things weren't as bad. The flute section also had a couple more players than at rehearsal, so that was good and bad. Normally if you can't make a rehearsal, you don't play the concert, but since they've played these songs over and over they make an exception, probably also in part to people being gone for the holiday. I will say that with a portion of the band and audience missing, I was able to hear the church bells ringing this year during 1812. It's hard to miss the cannons, but with a fuller band you feel them more than hear them. The bells, I completely missed them last year, so that was nice to hear. I'd still love to be out in the audience to get the full effect but that may not happen, oh well. By that point, though, a decent portion of the audience got up and left. Everyone was cold and soggy by that point, I'm sure. We had four more songs scheduled after 1812, including two we had skipped on Monday; we ended up dropping those altogether. I'm surprised we played one between 1812 and Stars and Stripes, but we did; then again, it had a Civil War theme, and at the end of the song some of the cannon guys came up on stage and saluted each other. Then we went right into Stars and Stripes, and we finished probably a good 20 minutes early, and by then the rain had let up a bit but was still falling.
Oh, the other issues--so without a sound system out in the park, people couldn't hear the MC. Every time she tried to talk, at least for the first few songs, people would yell out, we can't hear you! Okay, we get it. There is an internal speaker system within the shell, so we could hear her; also, the main sound guy had gone up to the microphone and talked into it and the audience could hear him, so we knew it worked. Oh well. What are you going to do. We also had to cancel the raffle because so many audience members had left, we could have been calling off numbers all night, and a lot of the programs had gotten wet so perhaps people couldn't read their numbers anyway. And, well, not to mention that people probably couldn't hear the numbers that well, either. The make-up date for the raffle would be the last concert, where they'd do a double raffle--at least, that's the plan.
I've already discussed how terrible the weather was during the rehearsal. Thankfully the concert wasn't nearly as bad, but it certainly wasn't ideal, either. This concert was an anomaly, since it was on a Wednesday, not a Thursday. Like last year, we couldn't get the cannons on our normal day, so we had to push the concert up a little. Yep, we do a full-on 1812 Overture with Civil War cannons and area church bells ringing. Since I'd only been to the one concert, last year, I was not aware that they have to fire off test shots and was worried there was thunder in the area just before the concert, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
That was the day I ended up cleaning up the busted lightbulb at work, so I worked later than normal, which was fine. Hey, not like I had to be anywhere for a while. When I did finally leave, it was mildly misty/sprinkly outside, nothing major, but not the greatest weather ever. It was also a little cool, not uncomfortably so, but when the wind would gust it would make things a little tough. I had gone to a local park and was sitting in a pavilion attempting to read the paper, but the gusts weren't making that possible. I ended up in my car for a while, but I wasn't there as long as I could have been.
I knew from last year that parking, always terrible to begin with on concert nights, got even worse for the Fourth of July concert. This year, we had an extra challenge with another concert being held at a local theater within shouting distance of our park. Oh, dear. I planned to get there around 5:30 and brought a few musical things to do with my extra time. Also, since I'm one of the first people there, I typically hand out program listings. See, there are two programs--there's the regular one we hand out to the audience, which is preprinted probably a week in advance, and the guy in charge of those puts one of those on each of the stands. Then we have the band-specific program, which is essentially a flier, which lists the actual program we'll be playing. I'll grab a bunch and pass them out, one per stand. While some people would prefer to go paperless, I like having that there, and it gives me something to do. What can I say--years of band and camp and what-not have made me an action person when it comes to music. Also, last year we'd put little American flags on all the stands, and I'd have been happy to help do that too, except they were already on by the time I'd gotten there, as the wife, daughter, and I guess son of the main director were sitting there chatting. (The wife and daughter are members of the band. I had thought the guy was the daughter's husband when I first saw him after the Memorial Day parade and concert, but after listening to them talk I realized who he really was--and it helps that he sometimes sounds just like his dad, which was a little odd, but kind of funny in a way. Ah, family.) Anyway, there's generally not a problem with the programs once they're passed out, so long as the door is kept closed. Alas, we were supposed to have a barbershop group perform before the concert, and to get them set up the door had to get opened, and it was gusty, so everything blew everywhere. Sigh. How annoying. I managed to pick up the programs for most of the front two rows, and I grabbed clothespins to clip them all on, but past a certain point I went, this is futile, and left the rest alone.
It wasn't long after that that it started raining. Oh, goody. It never got torrential like on Monday; it was just a steady, and at times hard, rain. This meant that none of the sound equipment could go out, and the barbershop group couldn't perform on the risers set up on the lawn in front of the bandshell. As time got closer for them to go on, they stood off to the side and a few started singing "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie," which cracked me up. Nice. At least they have a sense of humor about it. Eventually they decided to have the group stand in the middle of the band's first few rows, so we moved stands and chairs off to the sides and fit them in. The problem then was that any of the band members who'd normally be sitting in their seats getting ready, couldn't. That included me, since I'd have been smack dab in the middle of them. I spent part of their performance standing behind the band set-up and listening, then the other half in the back part of the bandshell, in the storage area, holding all my stuff and waiting for them to finish. Since we were doing "Stars and Stripes Forever" as our finale, the section leader had told the flutes they could play piccolo on the final strain, second time. This was not the day to have to carry around a second instrument, let me tell you, even if it is small. It's still something else to juggle.
The barbershop group finished and we got word that it was ten minutes 'til our portion of the concert. By the time I got back in there, most people were seated and the set-up was mostly back to how it should have been. The problem was that most people barely had time to get settled, get their instruments together, get their music out; we didn't have a proper chance to warm up, and many people still had their bags and cases at their seats. This is generally a huge no-no, but given the circumstances we just had to go with it. Honestly, the only reason my stuff wasn't out there too was because I'd gotten there so early. I believe we started the concert a few minutes early as well. We were further thrown off by not performing our traditional opening song. Instead, since the door was already open, someone said the Pledge of Allegiance, and then we went into the national anthem before starting the program.
I have to give props to our audience. From pretty much the moment the door opened, all you saw was a sea of umbrellas. Either the benches were bare or they were covered with umbrellas. When people realized the rain was staying the whole time, some left, but we still had a good-sized audience, all things considered, and we went through the entirety of the program through "Overture '1812' " (which is how the title appears on our music). The director figures that so long as there's no lightning, we'll play. And we had no lightning. What we did have is a rough concert. No lie, no sugar-coating, this was probably the worst concert I've played with them. And it's not that overall it was terrible; it was just really rough. This is what happens when you essentially go into something cold. In fact, one of the early songs had a really not-good ending, but after that things weren't as bad. The flute section also had a couple more players than at rehearsal, so that was good and bad. Normally if you can't make a rehearsal, you don't play the concert, but since they've played these songs over and over they make an exception, probably also in part to people being gone for the holiday. I will say that with a portion of the band and audience missing, I was able to hear the church bells ringing this year during 1812. It's hard to miss the cannons, but with a fuller band you feel them more than hear them. The bells, I completely missed them last year, so that was nice to hear. I'd still love to be out in the audience to get the full effect but that may not happen, oh well. By that point, though, a decent portion of the audience got up and left. Everyone was cold and soggy by that point, I'm sure. We had four more songs scheduled after 1812, including two we had skipped on Monday; we ended up dropping those altogether. I'm surprised we played one between 1812 and Stars and Stripes, but we did; then again, it had a Civil War theme, and at the end of the song some of the cannon guys came up on stage and saluted each other. Then we went right into Stars and Stripes, and we finished probably a good 20 minutes early, and by then the rain had let up a bit but was still falling.
Oh, the other issues--so without a sound system out in the park, people couldn't hear the MC. Every time she tried to talk, at least for the first few songs, people would yell out, we can't hear you! Okay, we get it. There is an internal speaker system within the shell, so we could hear her; also, the main sound guy had gone up to the microphone and talked into it and the audience could hear him, so we knew it worked. Oh well. What are you going to do. We also had to cancel the raffle because so many audience members had left, we could have been calling off numbers all night, and a lot of the programs had gotten wet so perhaps people couldn't read their numbers anyway. And, well, not to mention that people probably couldn't hear the numbers that well, either. The make-up date for the raffle would be the last concert, where they'd do a double raffle--at least, that's the plan.