So It Wasn't The Best Performance; Now What?

Part of our blog journey is to share all aspects of our musical journey, the good, the awesome and even the bad. Today's blog is some bad, that in fairness we hesitate to share, but feel that sharing this experience might help other musicians in similar situations. 

THE BUILDUP:  We made it a goal for 2019 to play no less than 6 shows a month and try to work our way up to 12-15(to make an actual full-time living playing) Fortunately we have met or exceeded our goal nearly every month and we now play an average of 10 shows per month. That number might seem low or high depending on what type of musician you are, but considering Ginger works a full-time job and Brock a few part-time ones, this number works well for us, currently. Recently, we released an album(shameless plug here) and have ramped up playing, even more, to promote said album. Things have been gowing great and playing so often has done wonders to increase our fanbase, it's also taught us a few lessons on areas that we could improve and make even better. 

YOU SHOULD KNOW: We only recently became what we'd like to consider completely original artists. That being said most of the shows that we had on the books or venues we still book in between all original shows require covers, and lots of them. If you're unfamiliar with the playing expectations of most cover bands it's to play 3-4 hours of music with a mixed variety of your chosen genre. Our genre happens to be all of them. We are considered a variety group (even our album is a variety of genres, that's just how we identify as musicians,) and that means we play a mix of top 40 hits from rock, country, pop, blues, R&B, funk, etc... Different types of music require different vocal and playing styles and you switch every 3-4 minutes. We are seasoned and use to doing this at 2-4 shows a week for between 3-4 hours at a time with at least an 8-hour rest in between (because vocal cords and finger muscles do get tired believe it or not,) and we usually never have an issue, usually. 

WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS: Remember the album and playing lots to promote it? Well, we have been fortunate to book back to back shows for the last few weeks including a few dates on the beautiful island of Islas Mujeres, Mexico.  We were stoked to go back and play on an island that we have played a few times and share our new music with our island friends. Right before we left, like literally the hours before we got on the plane, we played three 4 hour shows back to back, a Friday night, and two 4 hour Saturday shows, leaving no time for rest before hopping on a plane and playing in Mexico.  We played our first show with success and only a few hiccups that mostly revolved around having to tape a microphone to a broken mike stand and a keyboard stand with a missing leg (that's another blog in itself) but we played through, and although tired we did a great job. Cut to our next show just a few days later with meet and greets and other things in between that left little time for much-needed rest and well, let's just say, if that were your first ever Backhand Sally show, you probably wouldn't come back for a second. 

THE LET DOWN: The show was two hours- and it was pretty clear to both of us after the first set we weren't going to be able to do much in the second set. The keyboard stand was proving an issue this time because the keyboard kept sliding off, making it difficult to play because it had to be held by hand, which made some songs just not sound good. That was a technical issue, but the biggest hurdle that we simply couldn't overcome was that we both lost our voices. Now myself, Ginger, I have lost mine before, it happens, especially after singing for 8 straight hours; however, Brock never loses his and fortunately can take up the slack when mine is gone, so...we never considered what would happen if we both lost our voices because it had never happened. Yet, there we were in the middle of a second set and neither of us could sing. We did the best we could, talking our way through the tough parts and altering melody structures to fit the limited abilities of our vocal cords, but the results were written on the few patrons faces, we were no bueno and we knew it. We finished the last set with apologies and tails tucked between our very tired, overworked, under-rested vocal cords and bodies and called it quits for the next few days. We canceled our remaining shows knowing that trying to perform would be a bad decision and as disappointed as people were at having no performance, they would have been more disappointed at another bad performance. 

THE DAY(S) AFTER: So what to do after not so great performance? Our opinion is to address it head-on, which we did when it happened and why we are posting this blog. We were much more disappointed in ourselves than anyone else was, I assure you. The day after was a day spent resting and making a plan to not have something like that happen in the future. First thing first, admit we weren't at our best and apologize, which we did right away. We think making excuses or trying to blame something other than ourselves is bad form, so we admit we only had ourselves to blame. Frankly, we overestimated our stamina and underestimated how much we needed a break, along with a few other elements, and we won't in the future. Then we set about to fix it. We waited until the night before we left, and a few days rest, and went back to the establishment and played again, and we nailed it. We didn't make an excuse we just promised to be the band we are and brought our A-game plus some. We felt that it was important to leave on a good note and re-establish the trust and belief that we can perform what we promise. We did it for free and with no expectations because we are professionals and we believe in providing the best entertainment experience possible. It was the right choice as we left the island on a positive note and with future bookings! 

THE LESSON: We could have approached our not so great performance differently. We could have placed blame everywhere but ourselves, and we could have left and never looked back. We could have complained, we could have pointed fingers and made excuses that weren't valid or important, and all of that probably would have been easier. Instead, we just took the bump and decided to learn from it. Sometimes you don't play your best, for any number of reasons. Sometimes, even when you're really good at you do, you deliver a crappy performance. Sometimes, you must admit failure and that perhaps you can't do as much as you think you can. The sometimes are the lesson times, and we learned an important one. Yes, the show must go on, but not at the detriment to self, health or performance ability. If you have a bad show, admit it, learn from it, grow from it, and become better from it. That's what we took away from ours and we hope that our story will help if a similar situation should ever happen to anyone else. 

Peace and Chicken Grease, 

Backhand Sally

 

                                                                        View from the tip of the island at Punta Sur in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. 

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