What a weekend

Where to begin? Well, let's start with our drummer Adam testing positive for covid Wednesday morning. I wake up around 7 am to a message saying he had a 102.7 fever and two positive tests. He is deeply apologetic and makes it clear that playing the shows isn't a possibility.

I'm sure most of you have this context already, but we've been preparing for these shows since last summer. And Adam is the glue that holds the songs together via loops and a click track. It took me a few minutes to realize I wasn't having a nightmare, as I had been having recurring nightmares surrounding these shows for weeks. I handed the baby off to my wife and had a good 30 second cry. Okay, time for a game plan!

I have an emergency phone call with Jon and Eric. Jon's first instinct was that we should reschedule. We've worked too hard and there's no possible way we can do the songs justice given the circumstances. My wife shot that down super quickly. She pointed out what a disaster it would be for so many people having to cancel air bnb's and flights so last minute. And keep in mind we had already rescheduled once. So we're determined to put on the best show we can. We discuss a few different options.

1. Acoustic set. I bring the ole kick drum and stomp my way through the set, just like our first Halloween zoom party. Another option we strongly considered was having my brother bring his cajon (hilarious in retrospect).

2. Play to a drum machine. It's essentially the same as playing to some of the loops we already have in the set, all we need to do is add the drums back in. We weren't totally against this but there were a lot of technical aspects that would be difficult to incorporate so last minute.

3. Find a replacement drummer. Obviously the most ideal option but I was flying out in less than 24 hours and we had serious concerns of how we could pull it off.

After we chatted for a bit, we came to the determination that a full acoustic set would be too lame, a full drum machine set would be too technically difficult to pull off, and finding a drummer to play 2 hours of music would be impossible. So we figure if we can divide the set into 3 parts, maybe we can put on an interesting show. And pray the audience will be forgiving given the circumstances.

First things first, let’s find a drummer and we’ll give them all of the best moments. I reach out to a couple Chattanooga drummers first as I figure we may be able to squeeze in a rehearsal before I need to fly out. Both are booked but one of them gives me a contact in Chicago to reach out to. I reach out to this very professional Chicago drummer and he is extremely helpful, but he is booked for the weekend. He gives me a list of 5 drummers that will crush. This sends me on a rabbit trail of calling 12 Chicago drummers. All 12 booked for the weekend.

Around 2 pm, I email Lincoln Hall and make them aware of the situation. I let them know that we’re dedicated to putting on the best possible show given the circumstances. The Production Manager, Brad, asks me to give him a call. He tells me about his buddy Greg Fundis, who in his words is “the best studio drummer in Chicago.” He has no idea whether or not he’s available or interested but would like to make an intro. I’m not incredibly optimistic as I had already been told no by a dozen drummers at this point. But Brad makes the introduction and Greg is in! I get on the phone with him and he asks how long the set is. I tell him if he could learn 10 of the 27 songs we planned on doing, we would be in great shape. But we’ll be thrilled with whatever he can pull off with this time crunch (expecting it would be less). He says “I should be able to handle them all, but send them my way and I’ll see what I can do!” Love the enthusiasm! I’m cautiously optimistic.

I spent most of the day scrambling to make a game plan for the drum fiasco so lots of last minute planning had to wait until we got to Chicago (video elements, setlist plans, etc). The family and I fly out of Chattanooga at 6:40 am the next day. I only got 3 hours of sleep and Clair got closer to 45 mins. We wake Sage up and she is PISSED. We arrive at the Chattanooga airport at 6 am and see a sign that says “Bag checking ends 45 mins prior to departure. Hold tight and someone will return to help you with your rebooking.” Not happening! We carry an ungodly amount of luggage (pack n play, stroller, multiple suitcases) to security and try to explain that there isn’t anyone to assist us. They ask for our boarding passes and due to some glitch in their system, Clair’s boarding pass is scanning as “Sage Lutsko.” Since that’s not the name on her ID, they tell her she’s not getting through. Clair explains that Sage is our daughter and she’ll be holding her in her lap. The dude’s attitude is essentially “Not my problem, you’re holding up the line.” At this point, I’m 100% certain we’re not getting on this flight. Luckily, an angel woman sees how badly we’re struggling and offers to help figure out what’s going on. They recognized the boarding pass thing was a glitch in their system, checked our bags, and got us on the plane with minutes to spare. Off to Chicago! We arrive in Chicago at 9 am but can’t check into our Air BnB until 3 pm. I text Greg to see how he’s feeling. Feeling great! Very assuring but I’m not celebrating until I’m able to get into a room with him and see where the songs are at. We rented a room at this incredible place called ‘The Music Garage’ where bands can rent rehearsal space filled with equipment by the hour. Incredible resource! Nothing like this in Chattanooga. I’m meeting Greg at 5 pm. Greezy is driving from Chatt with all of our equipment and will meet us around the same time. Clair and I kill time at Lincoln Park Zoo. Finally head to the car to check in to our Air BnB and discover we have lost the key to our rental car! Thank the lord someone turned it in at the front desk. We head to the Air BnB and I’m scrambling to get Brielle’s incredible visuals organized and ready to go before rehearsal.

I meet Greg at the rehearsal space at 5. We play Where Did The Gremlins Go. I can breathe! This guy is a PRO. He has each song charted out with extensive notes.

He feels confident about all 27 songs. Greezy shows up and since Greg is already flawlessly executing these songs, I mention that we have loops for most of them and we brought the loop station just in case, but recognize it’s a huge long shot to integrate them at this point. We bust it out, call Adam for some initial troubleshooting, and Greg masters it in no time. Miraculously, I’m now feeling confident that we’re going to deliver a top notch show and I’m feeling as optimistic as ever. We rehearse for 3.5 hours. We could have gone all night but my wife and daughter needed to eat. So we leave and grab dinner. We have another 3.5 rehearsal with Jon and Asa at noon the next day (Friday). In addition to being a mind-blowingly phenomenal musician, Greg is one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met. He keeps thanking US for LETTING him play. He was a much needed adrenaline shot of positivity in this chaotic fever dream of a trip. We ran all 27 songs at Friday’s rehearsal and there wasn’t a weak one in the bunch. The only song we didn’t end up doing at one of the shows was Morning Star and that’s just because we had a hard time placing it in the set.

We head to sound check in a rainstorm. We get to Lincoln Hall and the crew there was terrific. We get checked and things are sounding great. We have about 10 minutes left before it’s time for the opener’s check and we test out the visual element of the show. For some reason, Eric’s laptop isn’t responding to the venue’s HDMI cable. We don’t have time to troubleshoot so we sadly accept defeat. I was a big ball of stress and nervous energy as we attempted to write out the setlist in the green room. I give myself a bit of a pep talk. We’ve already overcome one massive obstacle today. We have a great show. We can troubleshoot the video stuff tomorrow and have it ready for the livestream.

We hit the stage and all of the chaos and negativity of the previous 48 hours immediately leaves the room. I’ve never had more fun onstage. The crowd was incredible. We had some flubs here and there but it didn’t matter. Truly a magical evening! And it was so nice to meet everyone after the show.

Here is the house mix for Friday night’s show: 4.22 Lincoln Hall House Mix

I woke up Saturday to a new hurdle. Yay, no voice! I think the combination of no sleep the three previous nights (Sage was NOT sleeping well in Chicago) and the 7 hours of rehearsals immediately preceding Friday night’s 2 hour set didn’t do me any favors. So there are two big objectives for Saturday.

1. Get my voice back

2. Get Greezy’s laptop working so we can use Brielle’s visuals

We take a band trip to the apple store. They test the HDMI and tell us we need an adapter that they don’t have. So we go to Best Buy, and they do! Success. Then we head to Whole Foods to try and find some voice remedies. I got some tea, honey, juice, and throat spray. Sadly as the day progressed I could only feel my voice getting worse. We show up to the venue for sound check and Greezy’s laptop still isn’t working. We get help from the staff and FINALLY get it working. But we were still having trouble. We try to run a couple songs and we aren’t syncing up well. What we needed was time that we didn’t have. So sadly I had to make the call to save them for the next shows. I was especially bummed leading up to Saturday night’s set. Not just because the visuals didn’t work, but because my voice was now worse than ever. I’m pissed that we overcame these massive hurdles and now I’m gonna blow it because I didn’t take care of my voice. So I’m downing Hot Toddies in the green room and praying for a miracle.

We play Saturday night, and I’ll be honest, I was feeling a bit distressed. I let the voice thing really get in my head and it affected my mood for most of the show. The funny thing is, after watching the livestream, I think Saturday night might have been the better performance of the two nights (aside from my voice). But I was definitely much looser and had a lot more fun Friday night. I was very relieved when folks like Melissa and Dan told me that Saturday was just as good as Friday, if not better. And of course it was so lovely seeing everyone after the show again.

We flew out of Chicago at 6 am that same night, so me, Cowboy Jon and Gen Z Asa decided not to go to bed. We grabbed some food at a 24 hour diner and had a delusional good time. I asked the waitress if she liked country music and informed her that Cowboy Jon was a country artist who just performed a sold out show right down the street. Of course we almost missed our flight again. But we finally made it home Sunday in time to go to one of my oldest friend’s weddings.

In summation, the shows were heaven and the trip was hell. I’m so excited for the future. I’m so excited for rest. I’m so excited Greg Fundis exists and I already miss him. I’m so sorry Adam wasn’t able to join us. I’m so sorry we weren’t able to use Brielle’s fantastic visuals. Which by the way, she put together this compilation in case you guys would like to see what she had in store (don’t watch if you would like to be surprised at a future show): Brielle’s visuals

We also had to cut a fantastic zoom call with Desmond. Oh well!

Audiotree’s Livestream expires tonight at 8 pm EST. Thank you to everyone who came out, streamed and/or plans on coming to a future show.

I know I spent a lot of this complaining, but it was all so worth it. Such an incredible, moving experience. Overwhelmingly life affirming. Love you all.

Nick