Avalanche Sells out the Club

We arrived at the club around 2:00PM the day of the show. Setting up the Avalanche gear was a two hour job, and we wanted to have the sound check done by 5:00PM at the latest, so that we could leave, get some dinner, and relax before the gig. I remember as we began the sound check, that one of the owners of the club had come down from the office, which was on the other side of the club, which was a very large building. Because we had been so loud, he had become curious about our stage set-up, and I remember seeing the look on his face as he saw our gear set up on the stage for the first time...it was like he realized, for the very first time, that we were not just another local band...and there was no mistaking the surprised look on his face as he listened to our sound check. Things went very smoothly, and we left the club around 5:00PM, as planned. When we returned there at 8:00PM...two hours before showtime...we had trouble finding a place to park. The parking lot was totally filled, and there were hundreds of people in line waiting for the doors to open. Bruce, Mark Brett, and I looked at each other and just started to laugh. This was unbelievable. It was a Tuesday night! When the Police had played on a Tuesday,(before "Roxanne") they drew 13 people! We walked through the crowd, knocked on the doors and were let in to get to the dressing rooms. We got to our rooms on the second floor and began writing up our set lists. This time, we didn't have to pick songs. These people were going to get two 90 min sets, which meant they'd get to hear most of our new material. Even people who had been at the show two days earlier were going to hear a different show tonight. By the time we hit the stage at 10:00PM...the club was sold out, and it was wall to wall packed. And there was no chance we wouldn't be really good that night. We had done this, just two days earlier...and here, at the club, we were in our element, and as we hit the stage for the first set, we had the crowd in our pocket again before we ever played a note..and all I can remember thinking was..."this is unbelievable"...