We arrived at about 1 pm and got the bus parked. There were several thousand people there already. We got out and walked around and did a bit of ghost hunting (Sloss Furnace is haunted, for those who don't know). Well, our excitement was quickly subdued by the sweltering August summer heat. Some of us lasted an hour before we wound up back in the comfort of the bus. When it came time for us to go to the stage to get ready to play, it began to cloud up some. We joked about how we wish it would rain so that everyone would have to come under the roof and listen to us.
We finally took the stage and it had become totally overcast. There were close to 2,000 people under the cover of the roof. The venue where we were playing looked to be the old loading docks. It was a large metal structure that was open on the end and all along the right side of the stage as we looked out. There were also large doors to the outside just on each side of the stage. We kicked off the set and got through the first song without a hitch. As we got into the second song, the wind picked up, blowing in on us from the left side of the stage. By the time the third song ended, the promoter and a weather man from a local TV station interrupted us to announce that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning but the our location wasn't in any immediate danger of anything other than wind and rain. Um, isn't that what tornadoes are made of? We continued. By this time, the crowd had really started to gather in seeking shelter from the impending storm. And then it happened. The bottom fell out. It started raining, a driving rain. We didn't know what to do. It had started while we were mid-song. We still had microphones and people were still there, so we kept going. The roof began leaking on us and the wind was blowing the rain in on us through the aforementioned large door to the left of us. The energy in the crowd began to build. Now, that was interesting. Our instruments were getting wet, we were getting wet, the people were getting wet but nobody was stopping us. So we played on. Some people on the front row got up and started dancing and things really began to break loose. Before we knew it, there were people standing up all over dancing and singing and having a great time. All this while a severe thunderstorm was passing over us. There are not words to describe the energy that was in the place that day. It could only be described as....the perfect storm.
Check out a few of the pics we were able to get while all the excitement was going on at Sloss Furnace.
Wayne & all TBSP
