A night on the Terrace

After over 15 years of drinking beer and listening to music on the Memorial Union Terrace, the shoe was finally on the other foot. Yup, this was a landmark show for me! I can’t think of a more idyllic place to be doing something that I love to do. You’ve got your friends, beverage, a stunning view and music.

This show was a rally put on by the Students for Tammy Baldwin (a very enthusiastic bunch). We showed up around 7pm to load in. I found the usual crowd of misfits, under the “big trees,” dressed for the weather. The temperature had reached a high in the low 60’s and was now starting to drop. I had warned everybody that, unless it rained or there was a tornado or a tsunami, we’d be playing outside (temperature was no excuse). Hats, gloves and layers, layers, layers!

After a while, a platoon of red T-shirted students for Tammy started to assemble near the lakeside café. At least five of them on cell phones at any given time. “Who’s got the posters?” “Where’s so and so with the what’s it?” Man! They were all stoked and ready to go!

We had signed on to the event in August along with three other bands (The Fingers, The Optimistic and Fake Fiction). The show was to start at 8pm with the Fingers. We were supposed to go at 9pm but switched to the 10pm slot so that Fake Fiction (from Chicago) could play to a bigger crowd. We were also supposed to be on stage when Ms. Baldwin arrived to give her stump speech.

After we’d been there for a while we learned that the drummer for the Fake Fictions was stuck in traffic in Janesville. They didn’t think he’d be here for their 9pm start. Let the “Charlie Foxtrot” begin!

Now let’s see. We could go on at 9pm but then, all the people I had informed of our 10pm time would miss our show. The Optimistic could go on at 9pm but their guitarist isn’t here yet and their lead singer isn’t feeling well. We don’t want too much “down time” between bands or the whole event will lose momentum. Damn, is it getting cold out here or what?!

Final solution: The organizers stall with a 15minute limbo competition (very strange). We went on at 9:15 and played a longer set. The longer set enables us to play until 10:20ish. That way we’re able to announce Ms. Baldwin as previously planned and some of our friends that arrived expecting a 10pm start would still get to hear one or too songs.

In the end, it all turned out well. I sincerely apologize to the folks that missed part or all of our set.

Kat nearly froze to death but did her best to put on a good face. Didn’t I say, “Cotton kills?” One thing I noticed was that, center stage had three additional stage lights. So I was staying fairly toasty (kinda like prime rib under a heat lamp).

The sound tech, Joe, made us sound good given the number of comments after the show. A number of people commented on the balance of the instruments and the clarity of the vocals. Thanks Joe!

The boys from Chad Hall were standing in front of the stage waving their Tammy signs. I almost lost it during one of the songs because their dancing was so darned…Unique. Our ever-faithful elbow dancers were almost given a run for their money.


At some point during our set, I commented that we were going to scavenge for abandoned beer pitchers ($1 deposit each) so that we could afford to buy some beer later. Big thanks to those who rose to the call and either bought us beer or found us empties!

We got to play outside on the Terrace (last weekend of the year before they move the music indoors). By Thursday, this week, snow is predicted!

Photos by Mike Barrett