The Debut Show
Saturday October 13th, it started like many do in the North of England, cold and wet, the day was grey but the energy in the band was high, all saying hello to each other on our facebook group chat, asking how each other were and the majority of answers being "Shitting myself". Today was the point that the last year of hard work, practice, organising, writing, rehearsing etc all came to a point, our debut gig, on stage with the already accomplished Tomorrow is Lost and Digital Criminals, supporting a fantastic band on tour.......the mighty "Bigfoot", at Carlisles Brickyard, a popular haven for local and touring musicians and bands.
When we arrived at The Brickyard, it was still raining and due to cross wires the load in time had changed by an hour but, it was a great opportunity for the band to meet and say hello to the headline act Bigfoot, who arrived shortly after ourselves, what a great bunch of lads they are and made us feel very welcome. We also got to meet up with the event organiser, Raz who's a sound fella!!
Once we had set up, it was time for our first "outing", our soundcheck, this was almost as nerve wracking as the show itself as nobody, with the exception of the lads who run the rehearsal rooms, had heard our material. We played what is our intro song, "Forgotten Memories", the drums started and we were away, WOW!!!! Having never heard our material ourselves through a P.A, we weren't disappointed, the song sounded huge!!! knowing that AND getting a round of applause from everyone after soundcheck helped put the nerves at bay...for a little while.
Fast forward to the show, 2 minutes before we go on stage we make our toast and shake hands wishing each other luck and using what i believe to become our live show motto "Leave everything you have on the stage", meaning our energy (rather than our mobiles and keys ha ha). We stood on the stage, the audience immediately taking an interest and within 30 seconds, the empty space that had been in front of the stage was now a huge group of people, all ready to hear this new project on the local music scene, the intro music started and BOOM!!! This was it, everything we had worked for for the last year, WE WE'RE LIVE, Lords of Ruin lives!!! We wouldn't know what the crowd felt about us until the end of the second track as their is no gap between the first 2 songs, but about halfway through the first song, mobile phones were everywhere, taking an interest in us.....it was amazing. By the end of Bulldozer (the 2nd track) the audience was already cheering and screaming, it was the solidification that the Lords were here and people loved our stuff!!! As the gig went on, there was no lack of cheering and singing and just when we thought it couldn't get any better, when the acoustic, softer song "Walk the Line" finished there was a rapturous applause that none of us could have anticipated, needless to say the nerves were all well and truly gone by then. We ended the night with what is to be our single "In From The Cold", its one of our personal favourites but it was also a great way to see if it would be well received, the crowd were going nuts, the phones were out and it seemed that every set of eyes in the room were on us, the last note rang out, the usual thank yous were being said over the mic and the audience was going crazy, later we'd find out that social media had lit up with word about the new boys in the arena. We had arrived.
All in all, the show couldn't have gone any better, yes there were a few slip ups due to nerves, but the reception we received was fantastic and better than we could have asked for, the support we had after the show by way of T-Shirt sales, autograph cards being signed and congratulations from the audience and members of the other bands was unreal, to us it was the perfect birth for Lords of Ruin and we will forever be grateful for getting the chance to play on that bill, alongside some awesome bands, and to a phenomenal crowd. What had started as a gloomy, wet day in the North of England had turned into an electric night full of energy, new friends and relief that we had the first show out the way. Heres to many more.
Glass Bach
