I honestly don’t know where the time has gone. I know it’s been a month and a day since the Live Recording, but August feels like it was only yesterday. I normally would have put this to page weeks ago, but this time I found my hand stayed.
Looking inward, I’m so sure a big part of that is likely a desire to hold on to some amazing memories.
The Live Recording show left me astounded. So many familiar faces, from quite some time ago, as well as newer ones, not to mention the families they themselves have made over the years. Torn between the need to focus on delivering the best show ever, and the desire to catch up with everyone.
There was also the nostalgia of hitting Denny’s afterward with the band, crew, and a few friends.We were all wiped out; think of the shawarma shop stinger scene at the end of Avengers, and that pretty much what we looked like for about the first half-hour there as we attempted to sort out what we wanted to eat. “One of everything,” was joked about by a few of us there. We swapped stories of the evening, detailed who we’d seen after such a long absence, how they’re doing, described witnessed reactions to what we’d played or joked about. The evening was a much-enjoyed step into the wayback machine in every way.
Which reminds me, we have so many to thank for making all this happen: To VFW Post 9400 for hosting our event, Kim for making us feel welcomed and taking care of our fans at the bar, and Ray for introducing us to the right people to make all that happen. To Duane at Pyramix Studios for getting all the tech together and getting such an amazing recording of the evening’s shenanigans. To Eric for helping us sound good, Merrick for speedy setup and teardown and merch sales, Lissa for getting amazing photo and video, Rob being our runner and getting video, Josh and Gabby for getting fans checked in and handling distribution of the pre-ordered event t-shirts, with Phil for somehow keeping us all wrangled and doing some amazing singing of his own, my bandmates for coming together to play as though it was the last thing we’ll ever do, and to our fans who showed up to share the evening with us. We also need to give thanks to a few fans who went above and beyond by sponsoring our ticket raffle, and others who made sure to coordinate and make sure everyone who needed transportation was taken care of.
And now, for the more bittersweet of memories. As many have undoubtedly heard, O’Connors Pub held their last hurrah on Saturday, 9-Sep. Open Beta played our set there that day, and while all had a great time, I have to admit I had a heavy feeling as we wrapped the set, as though I was saying a final goodbye to an old friend. Memories were recalled, friends embraced, final pints downed. Pulling away from the lot wasn’t easy; turning around and going back inside was always an option in that moment, but deep down I knew that would just prolong the parting.
Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of emotion: the highs of the recording and listening to those tracks (y’all sound amazing, BTW), the noticeable lack of O’Connors on our usual schedule, and the joyful news that Jim and crew had gone in at the last minute to recover the drywall mural of the counties of Ireland. We’re also in the process of reaching out to some new venues, and look to be announcing additional dates to our performance calendar soon.
In closing, it’s definitely a time of change around here, and we look forward to all of you joining us for the journey. Thanks for listening reading, and we’ll see you soon!
Much Love,
Paul