“Backstage……” reads Rudi’s tweet from Friday night. “Waiting for the curtain to go up. Where’s a can of doom when you need it? Dang butterflies….”
I chuckled and retweeted. I could so relate. In my own mind, I was thinking “How is this gonna go down?”
I think my bandmates feel the pre-show nerves as acutely as I do: “bout 2 go on stage hope dnt mess up!” shares Berto on Facebook, as we’re waiting in the wings to go on stage.
It’s definitely a new season in the RCB. We’re on the rise, and this is part of the journey. The sound is growing and becoming more and more ingrained in hearts and minds. The band and its music matures each night. And innovation is becoming top of our priority list.
The enigmatic Philippa Kerr joined us on Friday and Saturday night with some spellbinding violin, giving further depth to songs like More Beautiful Tonight, Where To From Here and Chin Up. We re-arranged some tunes, re-worked others and tried to push ourselves just a little bit further by not having big-screen multimedia. It was good to see the songs stand on their own, and innovation in numbers like On The Edge (with Tammy’s harmonica playing) and Crazy World (with a purely percussion intro) were a personal breath of fresh air.
One of the biggest benefits the RCB enjoys is the skills, experience and assistance of the Hexagon staff – in particular Marcus on sound and Kirsty on lighting. Without them, the show wouldn’t be.
One of the hardest parts of being in a five-piece band is getting people to come and watch the show and countering a big sense of apathy… and alas, we’re in the provincial capital of the world when it comes to this – but more about that in another blog post. As I said on the nights – Timbaland may have gone home from Durban empty-handed, but we certainly didn’t.
The crowds were eclectically different and buoyant each night, with each audience very appreciative and affirming of the band’s hard work, which makes it all worth it.
Here’s the big question: if we performed again in the Dive, would we see you there? And would you bring more friends?
