Life and Times of an Indie Band- Part Two

With a great parking spot secured, The Vespers headed off to lunch with the recording industry executive. Caitie and I grabbed a cup of coffee at the nearest Starbucks and then headed back to the van where we discussed the future of the world....well maybe not the world but we did cover a lot of topics. Caitie had branched out from being the merch person, and she now handles the lights and audio when no audio technician is provided by the club. On this tour, the other band, Caleb has their own audio guy and this venue has  pretty sophisticated stage lighting. So there will be a lot less gear to unload as a result.

The Vespers are at a crossroads in their life as a band. The two sisters, Callie and Phoebe, are getting married in the spring. How this will exactly affect the band is uncertain.  The touring is fun, but is tiring and can be a grind. Can they attract attention of a record label and a subsequent larger audience? They need the backing of a label to appear on the late night talk shows. and to get the radio and internet play they would need to take them to the next level. For an independent band, they have done a lot on their own, including the release of 2 albums and with the publication of  two big articles on them in the Huffington Post. But the organic growth and their own drive will only take them so far.

Bruno, Taylor, Callie and Phoebe return from their meeting with the record executive. He will be attending tonight's show as he has never seen them live. His young daughter made The Vespers a cute card with some drawings representing some of their songs. While the meeting went well, no specific deal has been offered at this point.

For now, the immediate concern is unloading the van and getting all the gear down the flight of stairs of Webster Hall to the stage area. There is no elevator and the venue does not provide any assistance as is the case at most shows. The Vespers have done "the load out" hundreds of times and have it down to a science. Everyone pitches in . It is really cold and rather dark in the stage area. The other band, Caleb, is also unloading, and there is a  constant flow of young people lugging equipment. instruments, and hard cases down the stairs.

The load out is also a little easier today, because both bands are sharing a drum kit. It's now about 4pm, and I am getting hungry, as I haven't eaten since breakfast. The Vespers are used to it, as they rarely have three meals a day. When they first toured, they would rarely order an entree for each of them, as things were so tight financially.

The stage is soon filled with the drum kit, various other instruments, and sound equipment of all sorts. Caleb's sound guy begins the somewhat lengthy process of doing the sound check. He gets some info from Summer, the sound gal from Webster Hall, and then proceeds to have the Vespers play a few bars from every instrument. Once that is complete, he asks them to sing into their individual  microphones. Phoebe and Callie belt out some spiritual tunes, which sound wonderful. There's a lot of standing and waiting as the sound check goes thru it's arduous process.Yawns abound.

After what seems a cold eternity, the Vesper sound check is complete! A few of the band members are hungry. Taylor gets a tip on a good Thai restaurant that's just down the street, and the six of us are on our way for some much needed sustenance. Show time is still 4 hours away! To be continued.......