Avalanche's Swan Song

The day of the West Hartford concert dawned cold and gray. Looking back now, that was very appropriate. At our first concert, eight months earlier, the weather had been a sunny and clear summer day...and a good omen. On this day the weather was ominous and threatening. By late afternoon, it was snowing, and I knew that in addition to it being hard to draw a good crowd in the middle of the work week, we now had the added problem of bad weather, which would also have an impact on attendance. We did our load-in and sound check, finishing around 7:00. At 8:00, snow was coming down hard, and the owner of the Ballroom we were playing, told me that he was considering cancelling the show. With all the gear already set up and ready, and the band anxious to play again, I hoped he would let us play, but I realized that even if he did, it would be a light turnout. It was kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation...either the club would be unhappy, or the band would. On this night, even though it was our first time at this venue, I thought I'd rather have it be the club. I could always say that a light turnout was about the weather. But the band couldn't really afford another disappointment. Some die-hard fans began showing up around 9:00...and by 9:30...there were, maybe 150 people in the huge main room, which felt very empty for an Avalanche show. We delayed our first set for 30 minutes...so people who might be slowed down by the weather would have a chance to arrive, because the snow was getting worse. It was the first time we had played to what felt like, an empty room. The band was good, but the energy that usually came to us from an audience and drove us...was noticably absent, and we felt it. Midway through our second set, there were only 50 people left in the room. The weather had done its work. But I knew that the weather wasn't all of it. The loss of momentum that had been so crucial to the band's energy and audience interest, had finally caught up to us, and was taking its toll. The owner was polite, but was also disappointed with the turnout. I wasn't optimistic about us getting a return engagement, any time soon. As I drove home after the gig, I realized we had a big problem...and that the only chance to turn it around was in the recording studio...but at that moment, I had no way to know that we had just played our last gig as Avalanche...