Date: June 19th, 2008
Venue: The Opera House
Series: Hotboxxx Records – The Underdogs Showcase
This Opera House gig was everything we had been working towards for the past month and a bit. We had taken painstakingly difficult measures to get a photoshoot done on time so as to get them in a press kit for label AnRs who were going to be in attendance. We had overcome the most epic of obstacles in getting two of our singles pressed on time, in the form of a demo pre-release that was going to be handed out with the press packages. We had almost resorted to sexual assault to get Conor’s business cards ready for distribution for the night, because the printing company he was originally going with reeked of incompetence. We had gone and took Bradford by storm by playing what was originally supposed to be a “practice gig” for the band to get comfortable with each other (so that we wouldn’t be playing our first gig as a band in front of industry executives). We had put our academic futures on the line for this show – Gideon and Patrick had exams the morning after the gig, and I had one the morning of – chances are that all three of us will be sleeping on a sidewalk somewhere in the very near future as a result of this gig. We had put ourselves into overdrive for the last month or so, promoting and getting a 150-people guestlist together for the organizers. We almost died because of this Opera House gig... but it would have been worth it if we did – we Incredible Hulked that shit.
It didn’t feel like we were going to come out on top at first, though... upon arrival to the venue at around 9 30pm, Dante (showcase promoter) came up to me and informed me that we would be playing closer to 11 30 – 11 45ish thanks to several bands on the bill showing up late – this would push our set back an hour and change. My gayness detector went off immediately. Who’s going to hang around for an extra hour on a Thursday night to watch a no-name band perform for 30 minutes? People have places to be. I had to remind myself out loud that at least the label guys were guaranteed to stay the whole night in order to restrain myself from playing “whack-a-mole” with my privates.
My worst fears were soon realized. I saw the venue becoming more and more vacant as time wore on. Conor came up to me on several occasions to ask me where the hell everybody was. Mel and Kevin kept feeding me the worst news ever – they were receiving texts and phone calls every ten minutes, riddled with apologies and sob stories from their friends saying that they had to bail out on the event. Also, because Aaron, Gideon and Patrick were in the middle of exams, most of their peer group was unavailable for support. Most of my guestlist made it out, thankfully, and most of those people managed to bring a group with them, but that hardly mattered. The meagre-ass crowd that hung around was visibly, slowly dwindling...
The only thing that put a smile on my face throughout this ordeal was Katherine’s t-shirt – it had a big Soul Plane logo on it that said “OFFICIAL BLOG READER” in big, sparkly letters. That shirt made my night – when she showed it to me she immediately became my favourite person there. I almost proposed to her on the spot for being such a hardcore fan (and I still might). But despite this little ray of sunshine, the bigger picture of the current situation was still very stressful – there were maybe 10 people on the floor as Soul Plane went backstage to prepare for the set. I mentally braced myself for the biggest shitcarnival ever.
As we got on stage I saw almost nobody in the audience. The boys took some time to set up, so I kept myself entertained by chatting with Kevin as he was plugging in, not really paying attention to anything else that was going on around me. As the sound guy was finishing up setting the levels of the different instruments against one another, I turned around, preparing to face a tiny audience. I was blown away: as the lights came on, I saw in front of me a floor filled up with people who had come to see us. I mean, the shit was packed with people screaming out my name loudly, Mel’s name louder, cheering for Soul Plane and rushing the stage. My spirits, along with my penis, were lifted immediately – I was ready to roll. Also, Mel has hot friends.
They jumped with us for “Welcome to T-dot City,” they vibed with us when “No Worries” dropped, they sang the chorus with Mel when “Impossible” kicked in, recognizing the song from our website. However, the hugest response bar none came when we played “Liquor on the Curb” – a number of our audience in attendance were friends of Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin, two guys who were senselessly shot to death several days ago. The audience chanted out the lyrics to the soulful ballad louder than Mel was singing them – with a simple, quiet dedication to the shooting victims, Soul Plane established an emotional connection with the crowd beyond just our music. We gotta learn to write more songs that do this more often.
As for the crowd, they really didn’t want our set to end – by the time we had rounded our set off with “Life is Beautiful,” the audience was shouting in unison for an encore. Unfortunately, we couldn’t oblige due to time constraints, but for Soul Plane, there’s always next time.
There have to be next times, too, if we ever want to get anywhere with this music shit. The label reps were speaking to Conor after our show and gave him some feedback about us that we really should take seriously, like, right now – although we do sound good as a band, and although there is a good deal of potential in what they hear from us, they took one look at our band resume and dismissed us as a “university band,” meaning that we fart off during the school year and come together only in the summer to perform. In their eyes, this shows a lack of consistency – in order for any labels to consider signing talent, the band has to have, at the very least, 50 shows under their belts (we have about a dozen if we go ALL the way back to Paiken-era Soul Plane, or, before the Opera House, ONE with our present roster... sadly, I’m not joking) – clearly we need to get grinding. They won’t even begin looking at you until you can pack a venue like the Opera House by yourself – a following of the band needs to be developed. But that’s also why we have a manager, and as far as getting us shows goes, I’m confident Conor will handle that business as long as he’s armed with our demo and press kit. The rest should take care of itself with time.
Oh yeah, the best part about the gig:
I got this email in the afternoon when I got home:
Look ‘em up – their list of clientele includes acts such as Rush, the Barenaked Ladies, and Chantal Kreviazuk. And soon, Soul Plane.
That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
I want to thank all of you who came out and made the night the wonderful event it was. On behalf of Soul Plane, I sincerely hope you guys enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed playing it and emerging victorious with free recording time at one of the top recording studios in Canada. We’ll see you all again as soon as possible...
