FIT STATE
“TALK TO THE HAND”
The big question on the lips of the band today was who was in a fit state to play a show. The answer as we discovered when we met in the hotel lobby at 3:25 this afternoon was pretty much everyone. Thankfully yesterday’s chronic stomach bug claimed no more victims and those affected already were on the road to recovery, not quite ‘out of the woods’ but much, much better. We sped out of Vienna and headed towards a town that none of us could correctly pronounce wondering if our intrepid crew were so lucky. Thankfully, at the venue there were no more casualties and it was business as usual….almost. In catering, I met up with John and Ianto. John remarked that he was ‘hungry, and scared’. That summed it up really as none of us had been able to eat without repercussions and why tempt fate before a show. I opted for a VERY small bowl of soup but that was enough to fire off some internal rumblings. Nevertheless, by show time we were mostly recovered.
An interesting before and after shot…..
Römersteinbruch is in fact an open sandstone quarry mine near the town of Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland. The venue has been used for opera festivals or classical events over the past 19 years. Each year the stage architecture is redesigned and I’m led to believe that this year is the first time that it has been able to accommodate our production, albeit altered slightly. Kerry, our monitor man was actually on the stage, which was quite nice.
We played to what appeared to be a packed out audience which due to the design of the stage were seated a very long way away. Our production had to be squeezed into a smaller area than usual and because of where the PA was hung, our front line mics were a long way from the front. That didn’t deter one iota from the task at hand and we had ourselves a great show, the overall feeling was one of relief that we were healthy again.
An uneventful runner out of the venue and we were back in the hotel in 45 minutes. For me it was straight to bed to complete the recovery process and hopefully a day off consisting of, yes, you’ve guessed it..golf.
Haha
