Loud Quiet Loud, Love of the Stage

It took until college for me to discover one of the most pure loves in my life. Playing on stage to a crowd that is truly into your music, screaming between songs, screaming during transitions in songs, screaming just for the hell of it, is one of the most amazing feelings I have ever, and probably will ever, experience.

 

Yeah, we had a short set of originals. Without those, you’re just a cover band, and we didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into getting popular off of other people’s music. But without a lot of writing time, it’s still incredibly difficult to fill out an entire set with just originals, especially at your first show. What’s a brand new band to do when faced with a set 15 minutes longer than we’ve written music for? A few genre-friendly covers did the trick nicely. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and The Pixies were our gracious benefactors that evening, but the song that stands out in my mind as the most powerful was written by the skilled hand of one Black Francis. Famous for the utter contrast in their songs, Where Is My Mind? exemplifies the sonic background of The Pixies music, with a soft, entrancing verse followed by a crash into an incredibly powerful chorus, as utilized for the ending of Fight Club.

 

While the crowd cheered when we strummed the first opening chords the noise immediately died out, replaced with intent, gleeful faces until the chorus hit. The idea of loud, quiet, loud, had struck the audience as intensely as it did us. Slightly distorted backup guitar riffs drove the audience into a frenzied passion, and it was that exact moment that I decided to make live music mine.