Friday 2:05pm. I walk amongst the many students toward the student parking lot, easily spotting my vehicle. A 1993 red and white suburban, or “Burb” as we call it. For my band members, that suburban is much more than some ancient piece of metal and wheels. It’s our band vehicle. That suburban’s job is to lug a drum set, cymbals, cymbal stands, amplifiers, guitars, bass guitars and of course the band itself. That suburban has a history to us, and is much more than some vehicle. It is practically a member of the band. Sure it might reek of fast food and sweat, but it’s a smell we know to be one unlike any other.
2:10pm. Buckling into the suburban, turning on music and setting aside our bags is something we do reflexively. It’s us removing the school side of us for the day. We’ll talk about our day at school, but then we move onto The Show. Where it is, what time “load-in” is at. When we’re going on. What we need to get. All of this consumes us as we make our way to our guitarist’s house to start packing up our gear.
2:30pm. Arriving at guitarist Shawn Verrill’s house is a routine thing also. We enter with a direct path to food. Going a whole day without junk food is pretty hard for three teenagers with high metabolisms. After grabbing what we can, we make our way up to Shawn’s room and grab guitar chords, guitar pedals, his amplifier head and cab and, most importantly, his guitars. Trying to be as efficient as possible, we load in all the equipment into the suburban. Knowing Shawn as long as I have, I have observed some things he does before shows. Shawn will apply his Bose over-ear headphones and listen to his iPod as he gets dressed. Pumping himself up for the night is his main goal. Making sure that when his feet hit that stage he will be ready to perform at his fullest.
3:30pm. Once we’ve told Shawn’s parents where we’re playing and what time we hope to be back, we’re off to our second destination, Richard’s house. Richard is the drummer in our band and the frequent driver of the suburban. Once at Richard’s house we all begin the procedure of putting all the drums into cases and into the suburban. But you cannot just throw the drum set into the suburban and call it alright. Richard won’t let that happen. Richard treats his drum set much like he would a mother caring for her child. Richard, and only Richard, puts the drums into the suburban. Shawn and myself simply help if he asks for it. Once the drums are in place, Richard gets his last minute things together and we move to our third destination, my house.
3:55pm. At about this time, we’re at my house. Shawn and Richard stay in my driveway in the suburban while I take care of my equipment and myself. This is one moment during the evening where I can get myself into the mindset I want to be in. But I don’t fully get into it just yet. Instead I focus on making sure I have all the cords I will need, my basses are in playable condition and most importantly, I make sure that I am. During this time I pace around my room countless times. Saying out loud all the things I have and all the things I will need for the night. “Okay got my bass cords, bass one, bass two, clothes for Shawn’s house after the show, my wallet, picks, toothbrush..” The list goes on for at least five minutes. But once I have checked off everything in my mental “Bring To Show” list, I load in my amps and guitars, and we begin the long drive to our show.
4:00pm. Load-in is at six a’clock. The show is in Kennebunk. We’ve never played at this venue before. But we don’t really worry about it. We don’t worry about much of anything on that ride to the venue. Except our performance. This is when I enter my most focussed mind set. I don’t block myself from the world with music, I don’t close my eyes and try to relax. Nothing like that. I simply look out the window and think of my dream. The dream that has gotten me through two years in this band, over fifteen shows and countless hours of practice. The dream that one day soon, my band will be famous. I try to envision it the best I can. Picturing huge shows, thousands of people, everything you can imagine a famous rock star has and experiences. As I look out the window, that’s what I think about. And then once I have told myself that one day soon it will come true, I am back in the suburban. On the highway heading to our show.
6:00pm. After the usual, “Dude where is this venue” fiasco, we arrive at the venue. Once we’re at the venue the three of us all head inside and we do the same thing we do at every show. We stand in the middle of the floor, looking up at the stage where we will be playing in a few hours. Then, the load in process begins.
7:00pm. We’ve brought in all our gear, one of us manages to have stubbed their toe or banged their leg on something in the process. It always happens. Lugging around forty pound amps isn’t safe, you know. But by this time the show has started, the first band starts their first song. And we arrive back at the middle of the floor, watching the band play. Richard always focuses on the drummer, making sure their drummer keeps proper time. When it comes to other drums, Richard critiques them no matter what band they’re in. He checks if they have any style when they drum, if their drum set is adequate or if the drummer does anything funny when he plays. Richard usually catches it before any of us. Shawn always pays attention to the overall song the band plays. Catching key parts where the band did well and didn’t do so well. As for me, I focus on the bass player. I have always believed that the bass player should be just as important as the guitar player. Bass players should just stand still. They’re the segway between the drums and the guitar. They’re the piece of the puzzle every band needs. I always make sure that I am the bass player that moves around the most by the end of the night. And from my perspective, I usually am.
8:30pm. The moment that I have been awaiting since 2:05 today finally presents itself. We’re on. I tune my bass. Make sure my shoes are tied and I make my way up to the stage. Once my feet have made contact to the floor, it’s near impossible to take them off. A lot of people would be really uncomfortable being up in front of fifty to a hundred people they have never seen before. But to me it’s just a challenge for me to obtain new fans. I make sure my bass is on, I make sure it’s loud and I make sure Shawn and Richard are all ready to begin. Once I get confirmation from the two. I command the audience to move around to our music, I tell a few lame jokes that are usually inappropriate and mostly make fun of Shawn or Richard. We laugh about it in that brief moment. And then we begin our first song in our set list.
9:00pm. I don’t ever fully remember a show. I will have jumped around so much that I somehow how scrambled my own brain into only remembering bits and pieces of shows. Once we’re off stage we begin the rat race going back and forth from the stage to get our equipment off and lug it all the way back to our vehicle. Among these frequent trips is when we get a chance to talk with our fans and other bands. Richard always hears about his fast, obnoxious drumming by other drummers. Shawn and I mingle with fans, sell merchandise and talk about the evening. We don’t like be boring. So we do our best to make sure we’re as amusing on stage as we are off the stage. As all this happens, in my head I slowly start to think less about the rest of the show and more about getting something to eat. But we need money to get food. So then I start to think about money. And once my mind sprouts the question, Shawn and Richard subconsciously wonder it also. “When are we getting paid?”
10:30pm. The final band has just played, and other bands are starting to wonder the same question. Among the three of us, Richard is usually the one to go and ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind. He tends to be good at cutting right to the point of things. With Shawn and I however, we feel a little rude asking for money. But driving from Poland to Topsham and playing half an hour should be rewarded with a little money. But we all enjoy playing the show more than we do getting the money for it.
10:45pm. This is usually one of my favorite times of the evening. We got paid, all our gear is loaded into the suburban and we’ve said goodbye to our fans. We go to the nearest fast food restaurant and we talk among ourselves about the show. This is when we reflect, when we say what was good and was was bad. We play every show as if it’s our last. And we always want to make sure we’re satisfied with our performance.
11:30pm. Being back in Poland the only thing on our minds is going to sleep. Nothing else seems to concern us at that moment. All we want is sleep. By the time we arrive at Shawn’s we simply don’t have the energy to bring all our gear back inside. So we leave the suburban in the garage, lug ourselves up the stairs to his room and fall down wherever is comfiest.
11:35pm. After a few minutes of laughing about the tiniest of things that would be tasteless in the daytime, we all return to the place where we started our day in. Fast asleep, dreaming about our next show. We’ll shift into high gear on a Friday afternoon, when most of our classmates are winding down.
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