Last Saturday, my band Goodnight Annabelle had the unique opportunity to play at a benefit show in Richfield, Utah. The show was to assist Jaren Barney, a young man who was recently diagnosed with a rare liver disease very shortly after receiving an LDS mission call.
This show was a very neat experience, as it allowed the band to revisit its roots, with Richfield being only minutes away from Annabelle, the small town from which the band got its name. Although I didn't know anybody down there, it was still nice to be a part of the reunion.
The band met up around 1pm to pack up to leave for the show. This show was to be different from others that we have played, namely because we would essentially be constructing the stage using our own PA equipment. We packed up everything that we had, including a tiny PA system that I had purchased over six years ago, which we were able to use as monitors for the stage.
It took several vehicles for us to make it down there, and I rode down with Jason--the band's keyboardist--and his wife Aubrey. It was a fun ride, with Jason and I being able to discuss several musical ideas and concepts along the way. Byron and Sam, who also rode together, had an equally productive journey, having brainstormed quite a bit about different logo and band image concepts that we were able to discuss after the show.
It took much longer than expected to prepare the stage, but had a lot of help from the other band that shared the stage with us, Chasing Chance. We combined equipment and were able to daisy-chain the amps to create a very full, dual-channel sound to fill the area...which was a good thing because we had to compete against a pretty strong wind.
First on the stage was Shay Markham, a seventeen-year-old musician from Provo. This was her first large gig, but she did amazing and everyone was extremely impressed. Even with the wind blowing in her face, she was able to do a wonderful job on all of her songs.
Next on stage was Chasing Chance, a band whose members were friends with members from my band. This band was just recently formed, all of its members having recently returned from LDS missions, but they blew me away at how talented they were. They put on a spectacular show and I was sad to see it end.
Finally our time had come and we were able to take the stage. We played a full set of about eight songs, beginning--as has been the recent tradition--with our new song "How To Control Me," which is always a fun song with which to begin a show, as it brings a lot of energy with it.
We also had the chance to invite Shay back on stage to sing our original "Fight What They Say" with us, which turned out great, as you can see in the currently-unreleased video below:
We ended our set with tow of our most popular songs, "Stay" and "Memorable," which can both be found on our newest EP called "Just a Memory" and had some great crowd participation. We love ending our sets with "Memorable," which has become another GNA tradition, and it definitely did not disappoint that night either.
Even though it was such a long drive to and from the event, and despite all of the heavy lifting and time that it took to set up and tear down the stage, it was still a very fun show and it was great to know that we were helping out and contributing to the best of our abilities to such a wonderful cause.
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