Mike and I usually have a story to tell when we come back from a show. Of course, a lot of the time it has to do with how cool the venue was or how God moved that night. On other instances, though, it has to do with a heckler. For some reason, there are certain people (and things) that don't want us to play on a given night.

Sometimes the hecklers don't even know they're doing the heckling. Once in Lancaster, Ohio, Mike and I were playing for a youth group on a back patio. During the most serious, thought-provoking, teary-eyed part of "The Love That Lasts", a mysterious thing in the field next to the house began shrieking at us. We tried to hold it together, but once the youth started laughing we fell apart. It turns out a peacock was making the noise...I repeat, a peacock.

Once in West Jefferson, Ohio we were just about to strum our first chord when someone in the crowd (I use 'crowd' loosely because there were only four people there) yelled, "Where's the drums?" After Mike kindly explained that the gentleman showed up on Folk Night, the upset individual replied, "At least there'll be drums next week." We lost 25% of our audience before our show even started.

Then of course there was the time in Fortville, Indiana when we had to contend with a train and the police. This was another outdoor show which happened to be a block from the railroad. You know where this is going....just try and play "How Great Thou Art" while a locomotive hurtles through town laying on its whistle. As the local police drove by later (this was a very, very small town), he stopped to listen. Our manager overheard him saying, "They don't look too nice, but they sound real good." Look for that line on a future Alexander Landing t-shirt.

In Canton, Ohio, we played at a place that sold some of the best coffee I've ever tasted. I don't think the owner liked us too much, though. Before we even started playing he said, "I hope you guys aren't like the ones who played here last night." We were curious...and a bit scared so we asked him what kind of music they played. He answered, "They were two guys on acoustic guitars playing some soft picking Jesus music. It was terrible." Mike looked at me and with a smile said, "Should we just leave now?"

It's weird how often this stuff happens to us, but it keeps things interesting and fun. Who knows what will happen next? Maybe you could show up at our next show and say something like, "Bring on Aaron Neville! You guys stink!" That would be pretty neat.

Posted by: Nate on Apr 02, 07 | 6:59 pm | Profile

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