Few people are afforded the great honor and privilege of playing outdoors at a car show on the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival, but we can proudly stand out among the crowd as a band who can lay an indisputable claim to that fame! And on a day where it was 94 degrees in the shade, we can proudly say that we were among the fewer to remain standing in the oppressive heat that scorched the land at Five Forks, PA on the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival.
The sweat pouring out of our pores, we set up our equipment on the back of two flatbed trucks overlooking a sea of muscle cars glistening in the afternoon sun as waves of humidity rose visibly above the gathering of mechanical nomads. When finally the time came to play, we set ourselves to playing with all of our melting hearts. And mightily (or meltily) we played for all who drew near to hear! However, there was no crowd to be seen. For a total of 45 minutes we played, and not a soul materialized.
We later theorized that with the powerful combination of a 120 degree heat wave and a fantastic Stereoreel performance, the overwhelming sonic-heat caused anyone within 30 yards of the stage to be instantly vaporized. Another possibility that we’re floating around is that we were playing to a sell-out crowd of human beings who discovered the secret to turning themselves into pure energy. Regardless, we knew that people of some sort were present since we received an incredible amount of verbal praise through the word of mouth trickling down the shriveling grape-vine.
They may have been invisible, but they were as real as the sunburns on our faces.
The sun then demonstrated its power over music by causing Caleb’s laptop to overheat, tripping the thermal protection unit and causing his computer to shut down, rendering his piano useless for the remainder of Same God. The irony was that Lord, Help Me was the next song on our list. Quite fitting for a band on their way to losing a collective total of 30 lbs in water weight. It was during this lull that we noticed several people scramble out of the shade and run to the lemonade stand. This gives credence to our Vaporization Theory, since they quickly dove back under their cars before we began playing again.
So let it be known that Stereoreel holds one half of the key to the most destructive thermomusical weapon on the planet, but we prefer playing with air conditioning. That way we won’t be tempted to roll around in ice cream afterwards.