A New Day Dawns

On the morning of July 2, the weather was sunny and clear. A good omen. We were playing at a place called Eagleville Speedway, in Eagleville, Conn. I woke up early, around 9:00AM, because I had to meet Peter Solak at the concert site. He was delivering a large bank of fusing circuits for the PA System. The PA was very large, nearly 5000 watts of power, and I was worried that we might damage the twenty JBL Concert Speakers or the twelve JBL High Frequency Horns..since this was the first time the entire system had ever been set up at one time. (in rehearsal, we could only use half the system). We knew that there would be "bugs" to work out on the first few gigs...but I wanted to be sure that blowing the PA system on the first gig wasn't one of them. By 11:00 AM the people started to arrive. Annie had come in the night before and had stayed with me. The band and crew were all there too, although we weren't scheduled to go on until late afternoon. I allowed all the bands playing that day to use our PA, but our special effects, our recording mics, and our stage gear were held back, so most of the mics for the bands came from the club. There were five bands playing that day, and the music started just before noon. By 3:00 PM, there were over 3000 people in attendance, and people were still coming in.  I knew we had a lot to do with the draw...The largest crowd ever for this event had been 700 people..the year before. I knew most of these people had come to see us. I couldn't help but think about how many bands ever pull a crowd of 3000 plus for their first gig? It felt really good. There were many people I had known over the years that had come to see the band, and I was pulled aside to "catch up" with people I hadn't seen for a while. Patti and Annie were both busy socializing too, because it was a party, and an annual event. The problem I had feared might happen with them became a non-issue. It seemed that they knew that I was there to work...and everybody else was there to just have a good time. As the hour approached...the band got together in a nearby house, changed into our stage clothes, did a few lines, and talked one last time about the set list..and then someone came in and said.."OK guys, this is it"...and we headed outside with emotions flying...