So, first, I want to say that St. Patrick’s Day was a BLAST this year! With it being on a Sunday, there wasn’t any nasty workses to get in the way of everyone partying pretty much all day. There was dancing, shenanigans, good food, tasty drinks, and SO much music! And with it being a weekend, there were TWO DAYS of it. Seriously love it. Every. Single. Year.
With us releasing our newest album ON St. Patrick’s Weekend, it made it doubly special. I want to thank everyone that listened, cheered, sang along, dropped something in the tip jar, or bought something from our merch table!
I also want to thank the people that without them? We can’t make as much music! HUGE thanks to our Beta Blocker Gabby Johnson, to Rose Johnson for checking in on me, Phil Leco our manager for once again making sure that we don’t lose track of anything and also being a Blocker, Inge Atkinson for being our amazing merch goddess, Merrick for being the roadie extraordinaire, Josh Boydston for helping out all over the place on Saturday, Eric for being our absolutely stellar Sound Guy, and Melissa McCollum for the ridiculously perfect pictures.
With two solid days of performing and running around though, comes the day after. That’s what I wanted to hit on. This is where sometimes when someone that hasn’t performed before, didn’t take music in school, will say “Oh, but you’re just playing, right?” and a performer will grit their teeth and say something to the effect of , “No, I was working. Performing.”
Because as fun as the gigs are, as crazy as we put on on stage, that is a whole lotta work. And not just the length of the performance. There’s rehearsals beforehand, learning new songs, testing out different arrangements of stuff you do know. Food prep, because you don’t want to eat the entirety of your pay those days and on St. Patrick’s Day you definitely can. Then there’s load in, set up and tear down for each performance, driving in between sites, then getting home, and in this year’s case, cratering into unconsciousness for about 5 hours so you can turn around and do it all again the next day.
Then there’s the harder stuff to talk about. The mental strain that happens when schedules get off, when gear gets moved without knowledge, or you think somethings gotten forgotten at the last gig, thankfully to turn up in a slightly off place. The anxiety when all of that occurs, and then there’s the fact the world has been through a pandemic, where we didn’t get to see anyone outside of the house for months, and crowds became a danger.
The day after? Is for recovery. For taking care of all the little hurts that happened over the weekend. For me, it’s oddball joints that are out of place, taking a long moment to shed anxiety and stress from old traumas, checking blisters and one index finger that tried very VERY hard to split on Saturday. It’s also a LOT of calories. I call myself a hobbit for a couple reasons. The main one is my metabolism requires that I eat about every four hours, and during performance marathons, I’m BAD at getting enough fuel in the tank. As per normal I ran myself out of fumes by the end of Sunday. Monday I *ATE*. Ye olde smart watch clocked 15k+ steps on Saturday and 22k+ on Sunday. That doesn’t take into account those ‘steps’ are from me bouncing around, and off of stage, dancing between sets to keep energy up, etc. So there is a lot of omnomnom and a lot of naps. Snuggling with doggos. Checking in with my gothlings and seeing how they’re doing, spending a little time. More naps. Maybe a little video gaming, but that’s it.
I can’t speak for anyone else that was on that marathon with me, but that’s my aftercare for St. Patrick’s Day, and any long set of gigs, really. I’m mostly better now, though I think my fingers would like one more day off from practicing…
Catch y’all later!