|
Ned
Devine's Audition Night - April 25th, 2004 Herndon,VA. Ned Devines. A bar on the 2nd floor of a strip mall. At first glance it seems like a quite normal strip mall bar - a nice looking bar, a good amount of tables with people eating, and at the end a pretty decent size stage. Just like any other bar ... until the music starts. This place rocks. Once a month, on the last Sunday of every month, Ned Devines of Herndon invites band to come and 'audition' for a gig. I was rather skeptical at first. In a world of "we don't care what you sound like, can you bring a crowd?", what bar actually listens the bands they book? What bar would never, as part of its auditioning process, ask about a crowd. Apparently Ned Devines. Starting at about 8:30, going late into the night, bands play between 3 and 5 songs each. As I the guys and I squeezed into a table with our legs twisted around all our instruments to work through what songs we would play, we heard the first band start playing. Holy Crap! What a sound system! The house system was amazing. The vocals cut through the room like a knife while the thump of the bass kick shook the barstools. Ned Devines actually hired a sound engineer to run their house sound system for an audition night. On the night of April 25 when we played, there was one band that had traveled from Dewey Beach and another from Pennsylvania... on a Sunday night! And the most impressive thing I've seen in a long time - the owner who takes care of the booking stood behind the soundboard and listened to every song by every band, all the while determining whether the band was right for his venue. So... after a couple of cover bands and a local original band, it was our turn. We were all pretty excited and I was pretty nervous. We have been playing around quite a bit, but knowing this was an audition adds a bit of adrenaline to the veins. Upon setting up my electric American Strat, I realized that I wasn't getting any juice out of my amp. I tried another cable. Crap, I blew a tube. I'd have to go full acoustic. Crap. Showtime. We started with Blinded and moved right into Wrecking Ball. To my amazement, as I looked up while Randy started the intro to Wrecking Ball, I saw a crowd of people all looking up at the stage cheering. I was completely taken off guard. Generally, with an 'open mic night' type of crowd, people are talking and waiting for their band to start playing. When a band finishes a few people clap and the band moves on. Not in this case. The crowd really appreciated our music. We continued and played Follow Me and then Dear Whomever as people looked on with interest. Even without making the shift to my electric guitar, we were in a groove - and the crowd responded. Dan's bass pushed through the room, while Randy's drum set seemed to be on fire; with Charlie's guitar riffs on top of Fennell's keys, the overlay of the three part harmonies soared with the power of a cruiseliner. After the show, we were greeted by some great comments from people we didn't know, including the sound engineer who said something to the effect of "Do you have a demo? You guys are f*ing amazing!" The owner told us he definitely wanted to book us either as an openner for the Herndon location or a headliner at the Fairfax. As I looked around at the other guys in the band, I noticed that the energy was shared among all of us. Wow - What a night. Moments like these are why we play music. Greg (Dodson - founding member of Wonderjack) |
