Thursday July 14 2022

Waking up at 11 a.m. at a Courtyard Marriott in Kettering, Ohio.

 

Breakfast Bar. Banana.

 

Driving about 15 minutes to the venue. Fraze Pavilion, an outside stage built right in the middle of the neighborhood. Everything is super nice and well taken care of here.

 

Lunch spread is absolutely legit.

Egg Salad Sandwich with Fruit. Chocolate Chips Cookies.

 

Setting up the stage – plugging in cables – plopping down gaff tape everywhere – setting mic stands – filling batteries in ear packs and mics.

 

Sound check. The sun beats down directly on my keyboard rig the whole time.

 

Dinner spread hits the spot perfectly.

Cod Filets with Pasta, Spinach, Broccoli, and Rolls. Cherry Pie and Ice Cream.

 

The crowd is incredible – a sea of people across the bleachers and chairs. We almost experience a scary moment where the stage power pops off right when Nigel introduces the band. But a quick reset and we’re good to go! Because it’s the first show of the weekend we tap into the fresh energy of the songs. We get through our two sets with flying colors.

 

 

Afterwards it’s always all hands on deck rushing to get everything packed up and taken care of. Rebecca is way behind because of having to deal with the venue merch people – they required an inventory count-in and count-out. It’s quite the hassle cause it just adds extra work to everything we already have to do. I can tell she’s overwhelmed with that added responsibility.

 

Eventually, we do make it out of there before midnight. Piling in the vans and driving a couple hours out to Van Wert. Checking into the hotel and conking out.