July 15, 2005 at 4:02 PM

Saturday's concert was ... well, fascinating. It was fun, certainly, but most definitely non-standard as concerts go.

It was supposed to be an outdoor concert, next to a lake. However, if you've been anywhere near the northeast US this last week, you'll remember the downpours we've been having. So it was instead at the rain venue, a small-town, covered outdoor hockey rink sans ice.

We didn't bother with costumes because the changing room 1) didn't have a mirror and 2) smelled awful. So from the start, it was a more casual affair. We got there early, did a sound check, and enjoyed the fact that it wasn't raining. The dinner we were provided was... not terribly fresh. The vegetarian had to pick meat off of the sub in order to have anything at all, because the fruit plate had quite a kick to it.

People began to arrive a little late, being that they were being redirected from the original concert location. We waited an extra fifteen minutes, and then started as people were still wandering in.

The first song went well, despite the wind that had blown pages shut; we were pleased, and the audience was still growing. We started in on the second song, a lovely arrangement of "Star of the County Down" -- very quiet and pretty.

Ten seconds in, there was a deafening roar all around us! I thought it might be an earthquake -- then I looked outside, and saw rain pouring down in buckets. Newcomers held lawn chairs over their heads as they dashed for the shelter of the rink's tin roof.

Halfway through the song, I felt a drip on my head. Sure enough, we had set up my mic just beneath one of the only holes in the roof! I scooched aside to try to keep the violin dry, though the wind whipped up behind us and sent a fine mist spraying in on the bass and myself. I gave up on the dry part, just keeping out of the worst of it, and kept playing. We could barely hear ourselves over the rain.

A couple of songs later we took an early break, in hopes that the rain would calm down and thus improve the sound -- we had to turn up the amps to the edge of feedback, which really isn't pleasant for anyone. A good half of the audience gave up on us then, I think.

3/4 of the way through the concert, the rain finally let up for good, and the last few songs went really well. The music was fun, the arrangements were interesting, and the people were excellent musicians.

More later!

From Carley Anderson
Posted on July 15, 2005 at 6:50 PM

Wow...sounds...interesting. Is your violin okay?

From Patty Rutins
Posted on July 21, 2005 at 3:57 PM

Yep, the violin is fine. The case was a bit wet, but I luckily had a towel with me and got the worst of it. When I got home, I opened up the case and by morning you couldn't even tell anything had been wet. So, all's well that ends well, eh? :)

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July 15, 2005 at 4:02 PM

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