Some Great Gigs!! Weddings, Corporate Events, Clubs…

We have had some fabulous gigs lately. It’s been a real pleasure these past few weeks. Everyone has been in the mood to party! I notice it now more than ever before. Maybe because spring has sprung, or Obama is President, or people are just feeling optimistic but our audiences have been so enthusiastic. Of course I might add that the band is sounding better than ever these days, especially with the horn arrangements that Kenny Anderson (on trumpet) has been creating! Anyway, I am so happy about this that I have to tell you about three gigs that stand out in my mind as exceptionally fun gigs for us all.

Our recent House of Blues gig was awesome. It was a long night (6PM – 1AM) We had to do a private party that started at 6PM, then wait two hours to play the late night set (open to the public) Luckily they have nice dressing rooms with a teley and couches and a fridge packed with beverages. And of course they also have yummy food which is always a plus with the Shivers! But most importantly, the audience was amazing!! It was a predominantly International crowd and so they were really into listening and being entertained, which is great for me cause I can do the “Lynne Jordan as Diva” thing, which always loosens the crowd right up for the dancing thing. When they got into the dancing thing, it was crazy!! All hell broke loose. Whoo hoo! Loved that!!!

Recently, we did two fantabulous weddings. One was at Carnivale – a hugely popular Latin fusion restaurant in the city (with killer food.) The client bought out the place on a weekend night. Nice & very costly!! The decor is as you might imagine it – brightly colored and fantastical and very high-end. The guests were dancing fools and very gracious. They had a wedding planner that I like very much and so we were a great team.

I took some shots of the happy bride & guests.

The second wedding was totally different – no wedding planner. It was held at a ballroom in one of the south suburbs. The place was celebrating 80 years in operation. It was built for ballroom dancing so the room was huge and round with a massive wooden dance floor. And like a dance club from the thirties, there were alcoves everywhere with clustered seating. Most of the guests and even the photographer commented on how they hadn’t been to a wedding with a live band in ages (??? – hard to fathom since that is our bread and butter) and they were proportionately enthusiastic. The bride and groom were especially sweet and really made us feel like they were honored to have us there. We all felt it. So guess who worked their butts off to deliver the goods? We rocked it out.

Corporate parties are a different animal because unlike weddings, you are not guaranteed a happy, dancing crowd. Though it is rare for us to have a crowd that won’t respond to us, sometimes you can get a very conservative – I’ll say it – stiff, tight-assed crowd – especially at a corporate awards dinner. A corporate party can go either way: crazy and fun; or dry-assed and boring. It is my mission to get the guests on their feet if possible. But often guests consider these events an obligation to “get through” and will make a bee-line for the door as soon as the dinner portion of the evening is over, even though the invitation says: “Dinner followed by Dancing.” There are those rare occasions when it is impossible to get rise out of the group and you just hope for the best. Let me tell you, there is nothing more brutal than to play for a crowd that is low energy or is non-responsive. It’s as though the guests just don’t give a damn and that hurts! Sometimes an unresponsive crowd will make me lose heart:

Fuck it! I give up trying to please these people!

Thankfully Mike Jackson (my sax/vocals/percussion) always has a big smile on his face and says:

“It’s all right, it’s cool!”

and I will not drop the reigns because if I lose heart the rest of the band picks up on that vibe as well. We always try to play music that makes the audience/clients respond by: dancing, clapping, yelling, tapping a toe or (at the very least) smiling. It’s a reciprocal relationship. We take it personally if the clients don’t respond to us by dancing or showing their pleasure in some way. It’s a love thing you know?

Anyway, this corporate affair was a love-fest! They were so ready to dance that they asked us to “pick it up” during the dinner music set. They were all baby boomers and so they grew up dancing to soul music and disco and they LOVED the band.

How can I help but be uplifted after all of this affection?

How do I know when my job is well done? When everyone is dancing. What a way to make a livin’!