Come Early, Stay Late (or Hamburg Sets)
Posted on April 7, 2010 with 0 comments
We recently played a night in Stowe. We hit our first note at about 9:30pm and played two long sets, finishing the night right around 12:30am.
At 12:35, a dear friend of the band walked in hoping to catch the last set or two. "What do you mean you guys are done? It's not even 1 o'clock yet!"
Let me tell you folks: although we occasionally still do sometimes play those 4-hour marathon shows, and occasionally still have shows that run until 2am, it's not very often. Those days are few and far between.
Now, I know it's not cool to show up too early. Especially in Downtown Burlington, you're not hip if you arrive before 11 or 11:30. But the fact is; our first set is every bit as good as our second, or third (sometimes better). These days, we're often finishing our show at midnight(ish).
Not only do we need your support, but we don't want you to catch only 3 or 4 songs when you come out to see us. We've had many shows that end up being crazy, packed rock & roll parties, but they started out incredibly slow. I can remember thinking, "Wow. We are really kicking tonight, and there's only 25 people around to hear it." Then of course, the room starts to fill up and things are great. But I'm always mindful of the great first sets that people are missing (or the first half of first sets).
People say that if you wanted to see The Beatles at their best, you had to see them in Hamburg, before they became famous. I feel like some of our first sets are "Hamburg sets". You're not taking advantage of being able to get close, hear everything clearly, hear us while we're fresh, before we're spent (hahaha). If you want to see us really rocking a great set, before the booze hits me, before the booze hits you, before there's too many distractions in the room, before the room gets too loud, crowded and crazy, if you want to get a seat, come early. You can always stay late!
Peace,
dp
At 12:35, a dear friend of the band walked in hoping to catch the last set or two. "What do you mean you guys are done? It's not even 1 o'clock yet!"
Let me tell you folks: although we occasionally still do sometimes play those 4-hour marathon shows, and occasionally still have shows that run until 2am, it's not very often. Those days are few and far between.
Now, I know it's not cool to show up too early. Especially in Downtown Burlington, you're not hip if you arrive before 11 or 11:30. But the fact is; our first set is every bit as good as our second, or third (sometimes better). These days, we're often finishing our show at midnight(ish).
Not only do we need your support, but we don't want you to catch only 3 or 4 songs when you come out to see us. We've had many shows that end up being crazy, packed rock & roll parties, but they started out incredibly slow. I can remember thinking, "Wow. We are really kicking tonight, and there's only 25 people around to hear it." Then of course, the room starts to fill up and things are great. But I'm always mindful of the great first sets that people are missing (or the first half of first sets).
People say that if you wanted to see The Beatles at their best, you had to see them in Hamburg, before they became famous. I feel like some of our first sets are "Hamburg sets". You're not taking advantage of being able to get close, hear everything clearly, hear us while we're fresh, before we're spent (hahaha). If you want to see us really rocking a great set, before the booze hits me, before the booze hits you, before there's too many distractions in the room, before the room gets too loud, crowded and crazy, if you want to get a seat, come early. You can always stay late!
Peace,
dp