Avalanche Hits the Stage....Finally!

That moment as Avalanche took the stage for the very first time I will  always remember, but to be honest, a lot of the specifics elude me. I do remember some of the thoughts and feelings clearly, though.The stage had been built specially, just for this day, and was at least four times larger than in other years. It was about seven feet above the ground, so as we all walked up the steps to take the stage...the panoramic view...and the "sea" of people was incredible. As I looked at all of our stage gear and PA, completely set up for the first time...even I was impressed. I got the same feeling I'd get when I went to a concert and saw lots of gear on the stage...and I knew that I was going to see a good show. The crew was waiting...and handed us the guitars, and smiled, and I remember Bruce, Mark, and Dave...saying something like "let's tear this place up!" It felt very comfortable, and familiar...and I knew we were among three thousand friends, and it was going to be alright. We checked the monitors, and the amps with a few chords, and Barry made sure the drums were comfortable, when the crowd heard those first few notes, the atmosphere became very electric...and it seemed like all of them moved closer to the stage. I still had a few doubts...but they weren't about how we would do...but rather what we had chosen to do. We had 35 extremely good all-original songs...tightly rehearsed, but at the most, we would get to do about 15 of them. Trying to select the songs for that gig was a challenge. The only two I knew had to be in the set were the two songs that the audience already knew. I don't have a clear memory of the set list, but I do remember that it was a non-stop assault, and that the audience response was very positive...and the one thing I remember the most was...that it ended sooner than I wanted it to. We played roughly a 90 minute set...we would have played longer, but there were no lights at this place, and we had to make sure we left ourselves enough daylight to pack up all that gear. When we were finished...and I walked back down the steps, I felt like I was somehow different...and I think everybody else in the group did too...and we knew...we were on our way....