Turn the Page – Special Patrol

October 13th, 2009 - by Eddie

Audio, Turn the Page

Tonight’s show is an interesting mix of discomfort and excitement. We are supporting a band, whose audience is unlikely to have heard of us, and maybe they just won’t care; but it’s in our home town, which means dotted through the crowd of strangers are friends and family who know how we sound, how we act, and whether or not we’re faking it. So if we’re about to go down with the ship, people we know and love are going to witness it.

Turning up early for sound check people are already lined up at the door, a sign of the dedication of the fan’s of the headline act. There’s some tension as the sound crew have run out of time for our sound check, and we scramble onto the stage for a quick line check before the doors open. When they do, the Governor Hindmarsh fills to capacity. It’s edgy backstage – there are going to be seven of us on the stage for some of the set, and we don’t know the mixer. We’ve played in this room before though, it’s the most famous live music venue in town, and we are hoping we’ll go down well tonight.

We walk onto the stage and there is a hush in the crowd as we pick up our instruments and make sure everything is in place. The Gov has a raised, semicircle stage so the audience surrounds the band, quietly peering up at us as we take our place. It’s very quiet given that there are a thousand people in the room. I look down at the people in the front row, and they look back at me. They’re smiling, encouragingly. Maybe they can sense my discomfort. We start with the opening song from our new album, and immediately I know we’re not going to sink. I see a young girl turn to her boyfriend and nod, then start to subtly move to the music. Straight into the second song and I can feel the tension on stage start to dissipate as we all have the realisation that they are listening, and they are reacting, and it’s a good reaction. The lights prevent me from being able to see very far into the audience, but as each song ends the noise from the audience tells us that they’re warming to us, as though with each song one row further back has begun to listen.

That feeling on stage: a collective realisation, a shift from tension to excitement, when we are playing and it’s sounding good – This is the reason I do it. I’ll always love playing our own shows to our own fans, seeing people sing along and cheer when they recognise a song they know, but a gig where you can sense a big crowd of strangers warm to you song by song – it’s a buzz.

By the time we finish I am flushed and hot and in need of a beer. I wander through the crowd looking for familiar faces and am greeted by lots of strangers smiling and giving their thanks. It’s a funny thing getting up and doing the only thing I’ve ever loved doing and having people thank me for it. It seems a little back to front.

-Briohny Campbell, cello/keys

Special Patrol – In Between You and Me