Monday, June 1, 2015

Flashback: the night the lights went out at the Depot at Hillsborough Station


Though the Depot at Hillsborough Station has closed it's doors forever, one of Graymatter's most memorable moments occurred there one evening. There must have been something going on with the wiring that day because the poor sound-guy was having a terrible time keeping us up and running. Feedback, clicking & clattering, and huge issues with weird noises coming from both Barry's & Bev's guitars. All night we were experiencing the sound flickering in and out while we were playing. The poor sound-guy was doing the best he could throughout the evening but then the lights in half the building started to get twitchy too. He kept running between the sound board and the electrical panel to keep the place alive. We were beyond frustrated but kept pushing through. We had a nearly-full house, people had been dancing the whole evening, seats were full of people who had gathered to enjoy their wine, beer and conversation with friends...and they stuck with us through all the electrical annoyances...when the lights & sound in our half of the building flickered one last time and stayed off. At this point, we were working our way through the very last song of the night. Dancers were still dancing, people were calling for us to continue, we were singing our hearts out to "I'm a Believer." You'd think that we'd just give up right? Enough was enough, after all. But what really happened was, with no amplification to help us along and barely enough light to see, we moved in front of the mics, the crowd moved as one to the front of the stage, the seated folks got to their feet and the whole crowd sang at the top of their lungs, finishing out the rest of the song with us. Dave shouted his usual "Thank you and good night!" and we got a most rousing, energetic appreciative "good night!" back from the room. The clapping went on & on and people came up to us afterwards to say how much fun that moment was. What a night!