Journal Entry

:: Yee haw ::

The gig at Fred’s Barn went very well. The stage, as you can see, was very patriotic, unlike anywhere I’ve played before. The whole experience was unlike anything I’ve done before musically. Not only was it playing country music, which is not common for me (and something, growing up, I never imagined I would be doing), but almost everyone in the audience was younger than me. I played a gig at a high school, but that doesn’t count because it was, after all, a school. The age of the audience was a big surprise, actually, because I keep hearing that country music is the most popular music in the US among adults. It never really occurs to me that country is really popular among late teen and twentysomethings too. When I found out the dance barn was a big local hangout for students at Southern Illinois, but more importantly the local young adults, I was really surprised.

After we checked in at our hotel and had a fine dinner at that “neighborhood grille” that starts with A, we made our way up the winding road to the barn. Kevin, the guitarist in the band, posted some pictures from the trip, including the sign at the drive, which was something else. The double-wide trailers in back, the signs outside warning not to bring weapons inside, and the promo shots of other bands, not a one without cowboy hats, were more than enough to show we weren’t in the big city anymore.

The barn was pretty big, but it was more spread out than I was picturing. I had pictured a hay barn like the one my aunt has in New Hampshire, with a very high roof and a loft. This one was fairly low, but spread out. The walls were covered with antiques, or things that were supposed to look like antiques. Photos of famous country singers, and faded photos of famous entertainers of other stripes, plastered one wall. Fred’s Dance barn is BYOB, but they do sell soda and snacks at a concession stand next to the entrance. To the left and back from the stage was the poker room, where they had ten or twelve tables for the Texas Hold Em tournaments they have every Saturday (yes, the same night we were there). Around the inside perimeter were various alcoves (stables?) that can be reserved in advance. Each had a name like “The Hog Pit”, and one of them had a bathtub.

The important part was not the barn, though. The important part was that the barn looked very empty as we set up. I was wondering if the crowd would really come. We had been told that Fred’s draws a few hundred on a bad night. To cut to the chase, we were fine.

There were between four and five hundred people there. We had some screw-ups at the beginning of the show with a couple of the covers (the words of Boogey Man and Boot Scoot Boogie start kinda same-like), but once we got past those, we played a good show. People were dancing, hootin’ and hollerin’, Antje’s own tunes got just as big a reaction as the tunes they already knew. The biggest reaction, what caused everyone to jump up and scream and sing along, was Lynyrd Skynyrd. We played two tunes by the kings of southern rock, and they were unreasonably well received. We’ll keep that in mind for the future.

Our last set was a sort of audition for the owner, who just flew in from Atlanta or someplace. His name, contrary to my belief, was not Fred. I had a lot of misconceptions going into this trip. He wanted to hear original music, and see how we worked the crowd, in anticipation of booking us at his amphitheater that he’s building somewhere down there. It will be a couple thousand sets, I guess. He liked us, and if this theater thing actually happens, we just might play there.

As it is, I think this show represented the largest number of people I’ve played to indoors (the Concord Jazz Festival tops it in raw numbers), and it was among the most fun I’ve had. I still have some issues to deal with in terms of playing a kind of music that I don’t listen to much outside of the context of this band, and that probably has some social associations that I don’t agree with (i.e. the country market, unlike the folk market for example, is not very liberal), but the music we’re playing is good, and I’m glad it’s being received well. We’re going back there in April, and I’m looking forward to it.