Free vitamin water!

So, it's done. I played the gig, the big fat Peter G. gig last weekend. And the playing of the gig was fantastic. The actually being on stage in front of that many people was pretty darn great. Great. Wow. I want to stress that the actual performance was: Great.

But, maybe even more that than, WOW being a musician is _so much_ easier when you're important-enough-to-really-be-important-enough. Points:

-Sound! Festival sound is always a losing battle. You play them because it's fun and there are good audiences, but, always, the sound is horrible. A ten-minute-only turn-around/line-check pretty much guarantees this. But not if you're a headliner on the main stage! Oh, what care, what subtle nuance was devoted to our sound! Our amazing, wonderful sound.

-Headphones! I got to wear one-ear-only headphones. Sure, that doesn't seem like that big a deal, but usually us string players just have to deal with regular headphones balancing precariously so that one ear is on and one is off (so we can hear ourselves and hear the click or whatever). This time someone actually thought about it and invented and provided what we needed. Okay, even if they were a bit big and did slip down a little bit.

-Backstage! A guy who says, 'if we can get it, you can have it.' Like in the movies. But for real. We were a bit overwhelmed and so didn't actually ask for anything. So they brought us chocolate and wine and beer and fruit and shortbread and a cheese plate. Just in case.