Party at the Marquis: Paid to Wait it Out

Sometimes the corporate party is more about the awards ceremony and speeches than it is about the dancing.  It's too bad, but all we can do is try.  We get there early to set up and deal with last minute changes in available time to check our audio.  We wait it out in the green room.  The room is nice and the parking was comped.  We were fed a wonderful hot meal with salad and desserts, plus lots of drink options.  They even had Monster energy drinks.  I tried to read a little and tune out the conversations, but my concentration was waning.  Great joke from Dianna: "You know John, that works a whole lot better if you hold the book right-side-up!"  She got me!

Still, when a band has to sit around and let the night wear on, it's hard to just jump in and make it outstanding.  We played fine, but the crowd thinned out and we were left entertaining about 30 folks near the end of it.  Compared to previous years, we were told that we kept them hanging around.  Felt like a mid-week gig, as that's when we usually do this sort of thing here at the Marquis.  My phone camera settings got messed up and I didn't know it until after the fact, so the pics were not happening either.  Here is what I could salvage...

I hope it's okay to re-post some better pics taken by our fine audio and lighting tech Jason Chapman.  His iPhone captured some good moments.  In a massive ballroom such as this, everything feels far away.  Thank you Jason!

Above 4 photos courtesy of Jason Chapman.