The Austin Symphonic Band traditionally plays the 4th of July fireworks show in Round Rock. It's been rained out the past two years, so last night was our first Round Rock performance in some time. And it was a doozy!
Rather than the sticky, hot, still, uncomfortable weather we're used to on July 4th, last night was actually pleasant. There was a strong, cool breeze that made things unexpectedly comfortable for the audience. For the band, though, it was another matter entirely.
First, the Round Rock sound guys failed to bring wind guards for the microphones. So when we played, the mikes picked up the wind--which sounded like continunous thunder, or maybe a fighter jet circling about 20 feet overhead. But it turns out that might have been a good thing. Because with the conducter directing with one hand and holding his score down with the other, and with players' music blowing away at regular intervals if it wasn't clipped to the stand, and the STANDS blowing over if the music WAS clipped down, it was an interesting performance, to say the very least.
The good news is the fireworks ended just right during the final strain of Stars and Stripes, and when that happens, nobody remembers the rest of the music. So in the end, it was all good.
AND, we get another go tonight at Bastrop. To save our dignity, if nothing else.
But, man, that was some performance.
4 comments:
Do you have bigger pics?!?!?!? STANDS BLOWING OVER... what's up with that? I was in a backyard here in Cali freezing my ass off...
Actually, this photo isn't from this year--I linked to it on Round Rock's website.
We played Bastrop last night, and it started out much better, but then a crazy storm cloud blew over (and I do mean BLEW over) and the situation was much the same. Even though they had us under the pavillion at Bastrop, music was flying everywhere--but it was still better than RR.
The funniest part, though, was that they told us there'd be 13 minutes of fireworks (compared to 19 in RR), so Bill pulled one march out of the fireworks lineup. BUT, there was much more than 13 minutes of fireworks. So we played the super-extended dance remix of Stars and Stripes. You know, the one where you repeat the trio 6 times. . .
It was fun!
it was fun... hope mr bear and mr bunny have found happy homes (away from mr pink)
remind me to tell you what my bulldog used to do to stuffed bears sometime...
Thanks for coming out. I wish I would have gotten to hang out with you guys a little bit, but I enjoyed knowing you were there soaking up some patriotism (hahahaha).
Mia fell asleep with a tight grip on Mr. Bear the Bunny. I have no idea what happened to Mr. Bunny the Bear. So far all of the animals have remained safe from Mr. Pink. He's really a shockingly good dog.
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