The guy in the crowd

by Adam Steele

I know I’ve been telling a lot of stories from my old band lately, but here’s another one that just popped into my head. So out of the dozens of frat shows we played, the very first one was somehow the best because the crowd got into the show more than any other crowd we ever had…even more than the crowd from the last post when we broke the stage. There was crowd surfing, people storming the stage, random duets with people in the crowd…and it was the only show we ever played where the crowd chanted the band name (in a good way). I was thinking about that show the other day when I was looking through some old pictures and why of all the shows we played, that first show was like that. It wasn’t the tightest set we ever played, and we hadn’t even figured out how to tweak cover songs to our style (the up tempo rock version of red red wine always went over really well). Then I came across a picture from that night and I saw a guy that I remembered.

Then I remembered how he was the guy who at first we wanted to punch in the face because he was drunk and kept grabbing one of the microphones and yelling into it. But then he started yelling the band name again and again…and everyone started chanting. Then he grabbed the mic and started singing along, and others started to do the same and went wild. Then he led a bunch of people on stage who started dancing. Then he jumped into the crowd without warning and they were forced to catch him, which kicked off the crowd surfing.

As I think about this now, I realize that he is the main reason for the show becoming what it was. So if you’re out there guy, thanks a ton! And if others reading this are in a band now, then you might try finding a guy of your own, bring him to your shows, and buy him a beer.