I was 22, we booked a show with three other bands at the student union building at my college. They didn't serve alcohol there, so the show could be all ages. 1 week before the show a friend from one of the other bands and I go to all the local high schools with flyers. We give them to kids and tell them to tell everyone this will be the coolest show of the year. We also tell them to photocopy the flyers and stick them in everyone's lockers. We did this at 4 separate schools.
Around the same time the local college radio station catches wind of this show (they were in the same building as the show) and asked if they could carry the show live on air. HELL YEAH!
The day of the show, about 2 hours before show time, we are finishing sound checks when the police come in. Apparently they wanted to let people in because there are too many milling around. College cops can be a bit fussy, so I stuck my head outside to see exactly how many people could be there THAT early. There were literally hundreds of people out there already. We opened the doors to the room (it was huge) and this WAVE of people comes in. Everyone was cool waiting (thankfully) Showtime comes around, we're the opening act and I make the following announcement (in a real serious tone) "Quick Announcement, per order of management, slam dancing...(pause) and stage diving...(pause, everyone's face is sinking at this point) are...ABSOLUTELY PERMITTED AND ENCOURAGED!!!!" and then I launched into my opening riff on my guitar. The cheer and the ensuing ocean of bodies flying in every direction was absolutely overwhelming and simply awesome. We had handed out stickers with our logo on them pre-show and during the show, everyone had put the stickers all over their bodies, which was great. People kept flashing us their stickers during the show. And we knew were live on air too. The whole show was phenomenal, all the bands tore it up. We had at least 600 people there, we ended up making something like 3k on the show. I have a couple of photos from it, that was when I had long hair and wore a kilt and combat boots on stage. We played original stuff back then too, I essentially wrote a lot of The Who meets The Chilis type stuff, though it was all pretty bad.
For weeks people were coming up to me saying that was the best night of their life, or that they heard us on the radio, etc. Just fantastic. The final sealing point of that show was actually last year's RPM Challenge. A kid who had been at that show and was a fan of the band decided that night at the show to take up music. He ended up being part of a very well regarded and regionally well known band. In a bulletin post last year he stated that one of the best parts of the Challenge to him was being able to finally meet me and talk to me, the guy who inspired him to make music. I can't ask for anything more than that.
WORST GIG:
One week after the show I just told you about, we had a gig at a local bar known for original live music. We were supposed to be the opening act, but our drummer insisted we should headline because of our previous week's experience. The other band, a very well known act in those parts, graciously said sure, no issues. (Our drummer was a totally jackass, but my bandmates voted me down) So, the other band plays, and plays well. The place is packed. Should be a good night, right? Well, we go on, looking ridiculous (don't ask me what everyone was wearing, but I think I was wearing a fake fur and leather vest...) Within 2 songs the place empties right out, I mean everyone just bailed. Apparently two things had happened: 1) we really stunk compared to the other band and 2) Everyone at the club was there for the other band, and when they ended up playing first, they figured they had no reason to stay. We sure didn't give them reason to stay. How....freakin'...humbling...
Epilogue: That other band ended up getting signed to Capitol Records, by the president of the company himself.
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