Anyway, now that I'm back in town, and Scaldeddog has joined another band, I once again have the opportunity to attempt to photograph a band, and the crowd enjoying the show.

A local software company has an annual "Family Day" each year. One of the bandmember's wives happens to work there and managed to get the band invited to play at "Family Day". It was a free gig, but it got them out in public. So, on May 18th, 2002 Midlife Crises debuts. At least the Raleigh version. Turns out there's bands by that name all over the country.

May 18 did not start out well. The plan was to show up very early and check out the set up of the stage, and maybe do a sound check. By the time Scaldeddog and I got there it was raining cats and dogs. We even stopped for a bit of breakfast on the way. The band wasn't due on stage until 3pm, so we were pretty early.

As the rest of the band showed up, and the rain kept coming, we decided to go hang out at the lead singer's house until closer to showtime. His wife had planned to have everyone over anyway, since none of the wives had met each other to this point. We passed some time palying ping-pong, drinking beer, and having sandwiches. At one o'clock, we returned to the Family Day fun. Luckily, the rain had stopped. And people were starting to show up. Here's Midlife Crises with Scaldeddog pointing out the band's name on the schedule of events:

The guy that owned the P.A. equipment wasn't real friendly, nor real interested in any kind of sound check. The band prior to Midlife Crises was playing Irish Ballads and folk music. It was almost amusing. We prepped all the equipment for a quick move to the stage. Turns out the paid band was due up on stage just after Midlife Crises. So they had to get on, play, and get off pretty quickly. It took about 10 minutes to get set up. And cooler heads prevailed. The guy actually running the sound equipment wanted a sound check. He noticed he was going from Celtic Ballads to American Rock 'n Roll.

It took me a while, but I finally got a shot where you could see everyone in the band:

The interesting thing about the selection of music that they play is that it spans a lot of different styles. They do mostly covers, but have one or two originals mixed in for fun. The show starts off a little slow and builds momentum to some toe-tappin, fanny-waggin good times. Plus, this was the first time on stage for a couple of the guys. As I said, Scaldeddog has experience, and the lead singer is a natural on stage. I'm not too sure about the rest of the guys. So naturally, they were a little tenative at first, but got into it pretty quickly. The secret to playing for crowds: Have fun! And they started to have fun playing. Just about that time, the emcee had to interrupt the show and make a "lost child" announcement. It's to be expected at a "Family Day" this size. Luckily, the guys recovered just fine and got on with the show, even working the lost little girl into some of the "show rap". At one point, there were even people on the dance floor. And what would a Ranch o' chunkking band pictorial be without a picture of a chick on the dance floor?

Of course, she was only about three or four years old. But there she is. She was joined a little later by three other kids and they seemed to have a good time. And the Tiki God didn't seem to bother any of them, either. Oh yeah, the Tiki God. That belonged to the lead singer and the song is a cover of a Dead Kennedys song, I believe. If you've watched The Brady Bunch, you may recall the episode where they went to Hawaii and Bobby found an amulet of the Tiki God, and bad luck followed until he got rid of it. Thus the inspiration for the song. Turns out it's one of the lead singer's favorite songs. And it's pretty upbeat, so the crowd seemed to enjoy it, too. Here we see the band jamming out on "The Tiki God".