A lesson in loyalty

Tonight we played a show at University Of Gloucester's Park Campus.
we were all super excited about playing this show, as there were going to be camera crews, photographers and reporters attending as it was now quite a big annual event.
on top of that we had our whole lighting setup for this one, strobe and projector, was going to be epic.

so we unload the kit from the van as usual, doing stupid shit like riding on the cabs and tripping each other up, the sort of stupid shit you get up to when overly excited and super happy and had too much lucozade all at once.

as we start to get set up on stage, everything seems to be rushed, theres a weird vibe in the air, i just put it down to nerves i guess.
theres no sound check or even line check due the line up being so packed (badly organized show btw), so the lights go out and i start the set with the intro to 'Alter epos', andy comes in and we end up going through the ebow loop way more than we usually do, this was because we were waiting for chris to get on stage as he was setting the projector.
anyway chris eventually gets behind his drum kit and we pick up the pace and come into the main song. we play it perfectly, bang on time and beautifully as intended, one woman in the crowd finds it so atmospheric/emotional i think she started crying.

everything was perfect.

the ringing chords and ambient feedback fade out as the 'Alter Epos' ends and i start the intro to 'viking song (aka Feral Children)'.
its hard to explain exactly what happened next, but basically andys effects rig decides to give up the ghost, so me chris and tinny drag out the intro as long as we can, but andy is still on his knees trying to get his set-up going again, so while he is checking every patch and power lead, we decide to move on and play the rest of the song, as time is real tight.
i turn to take a glance at chris, his hand was covered in blood, im thinking 'what the fuck?'. i then make eye contact with tinny to see if he had noticed chris, insted the look on his face says it all, and it hits me.. this gig that we were all so excited about, had gone from epic to epicly shit in just a few miutes.
within one song we went from being in 'the best place on earth' to 'wanting to pack up and go home'.

we did struggle through and play the rest of the set, but the magic had long gone, and this brought down the sprits of us all, for the rest of the night.

it does make me think.
it makes sense why so many bands "give up".
but thats the thing, we do not just give up, we do not let a bad experience put us off.
the more i think about it, the more i see tonight as a good thing, a test.
it makes me realize how lucky i am to be in a band with such dedicated and amazing people. this is a real band.