Band Performance Fundraiser
Back in December, a friend of my bandmate invited our band “Unrequited” to play at a fundraising event for homeless people at Mississippi Pizza on January 18th. We happily accepted and for the next few weeks, we squeezed in time to practice a set list of four songs for our performance. The set list consisted of a cover of Sparks by Coldplay and three other songs which were originals called “Someone Like You,” “Rearview Mirror,” and “Moonlight.” It was certainly a challenge to fit band meetings into our schedules with sports in full swing and the end of the semester nearing, however, we were able to make it work.
In all honesty, we didn’t feel too confident on the day of the performance. Although we had scrapped together some band meetings, we still hadn’t perfected each of the four songs so we were bound to make mistakes. Feeling apprehensive, we fit in one last meeting just hours before the show in preperation for what we felt would be a doomed performance. We walked onto the stage both excited and anxious for how things would go.
Looking back on the performance now, I have not one bit of regret for how things went. In the end, everything ended up alright. The performance was far from perfect, yet even with all the mistakes we made, we kept going and we left the stage overwhelmingly happy. It wasn’t the relief from being done with the performance or anything like that, but just true satisfaction with the whole experience, mistakes and all.
As we sat back and watched the other bands, my friend told me how the other band’s guitarist was so much better than him. I agreed that the other guitarist’s skills were great, however I told him that “I wouldn’t take him over you any day because the most valuable thing to me isn’t guitar skills, but spending time with you guys.” And as the night progressed I found this cheesy reply to be true. After the performance our band went out to get ice cream then we spent the rest of the night laughing and playing games. So even though the weeks of effort of fitting in band meetings and practicing didn’t amount to a perfect performance, I went to sleep that night happy that I was able to share this whole journey with my band.
