Chapter 6 - THE TOUR BEGINS
The
first show was in Virginia, at the Wolftrap Filene center
to be exact. I had played there so many times with various
artists that to me, it was just plain Wolftrap. It's a beautiful
old amphitheater that provides a wonderful natural environment
for a summer concert. I knew all the Dan fans would be out
in force and they'd be ready to listen. Plus, the venue was
just a short drive down the highway from our hotel in D.C.
What better place to start the tour than right here! Of course,
that short drive stuff would change rather quickly, as you'll
see in later episodes.
We
rolled up in the late afternoon, piled out of the bus and,
once again, took the stage in a repeat of yesterday's rehearsal
ritual except the only familiar things from the previous day
were the crew, the sound system and the instruments. The look
and layout of the stage was different, the acoustics of the
building, both on stage and off, were entirely different and
we had a limited amount of time to get it all together. But
as I mentioned earlier, I was with some of the best in the
business and it's not like we haven't been down this road
before. So I was totally confident that, by the time the doors
were opened and the audience began to pour in, we would be
ready to rock! That's not to say we didn't feel the pressure,
but by the time we broke for dinner, everything was pretty
well dialed in and about as good as it could be.
As
the concert start time approached we all were backstage going
through our separate pre-show routines. Dan was busy doing
vocal warm ups, as was McEntee and Photoglo. Zoot was doing
a double check on his keyboard rig to make sure it was all
working perfectly and I was trying to avoid eating the wonderful
desserts provided by the caterers. Obviously, you can imagine
who had the most difficulty during these pre-show warm up
periods. Come on! It's hard enough to keep a sensible diet
on the road and adding some of those decadent desserts to
my daily menu would have turned me into the Pillsbury Dough
Boy! Not a pretty sight!
It
was approaching eight o'clock and it was time for us to head
for the stage. I could feel an old familiar tension as I walked
through the stage door. It was time to raise the bar one more
time. And as I stood off stage in the darkness, I heard a
new sound. It was the low din of a large group of people talking.
It was..........THE AUDIENCE!!