Ada (onechordsong) wrote in tiberiusswann, @ 2010-07-16 19:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | ada, tiger |
Sunday, June 29
Who: Ada and Tiger and the band (NPC)
What: South of the border funtimes with music and tequila and lots of drinks no one will remember
Where: Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Rating/Status: R for language probably/Incomplete
Sunday night was the third and final evening of concerts at the music festival, and Ada's voice was already on the verge of a strain from the two other shows they'd played. The after-effects of some cigarettes and a lot of booze hadn't helped the scratchiness any, but she had sung with worse vocal conditions before, and she knew she could push past for another set of songs. Headlining the final night was going to be a major rush, and if she lost her voice completely by the end of the show, no problem. She didn't have another show scheduled for awhile.
That night, the beach in front of the stage was packed with an audience that numbered in the thousands. Some had come to Playa for the music festival, and others had been staying at resorts along the beach and just come over for the music. The atmosphere was one of drunken energy. In other words, it was one big party. She took a swig of her Corona (extra lime), downing the rest of the glass when the stage manager came to the tent they were hanging out in for the five minute warning. A look around at the band and Tiger, who was an honorary band member for the weekend, showed that everyone looked ready for a good night.
She went all out vocally, pushing it to the limit because she didn't know how long it would be before she played to an audience like that one again. It wasn't often you got that kind of energy and excitement from the crowd, not when your name, though it had hit the charts once or twice, wasn't one normally heard on radio stations. Rhett, her bassist, kept telling her their music was more popular these days, but she was hesitant to believe it. After nearly a decade of working so hard, pouring her life and soul into the music, she couldn't afford to get her hopes up too high. No, she was just going to enjoy the ride.
That night, the band played old songs, new songs, and songs that weren't their own. Ada pulled in her personal favorite song of all time, Fire and Rain by James Taylor toward the end of the set. At the drummer's request, they threw in "If You Want Blood" by AC/DC, just for fun. Someone requested some Jimmy Buffet, but she pretended not to hear that one, not in the mood to play Margaritaville again. She had passed the days of playing Margaritaville in seedy clubs for tips in a jar when she was about nineteen years old, and while the memories weren't bad, she didn't necessarily want to relive them. Front row audience members were forthcoming with buying the band drinks, and at one point during the concert, Ada leaned down to accept another tequila shot, downed it, and then laughed into the microphone, speaking a little hoarsely, throat well on the way to being sore though her singing was still ringing clear out of sheer effort. "Y'all have gotta stop buying me tequila, or I'm never gonna make it through the whole set!"
After two encores, it was over. Good thing, too, because Ada was certain that her voice could not take another note without cracking. The stage crew started taking down equipment, and Ada and the band filed offstage and back to the tent, where they would presumably make their plans for the evening. "Okay, what's the game plan?" she asked, clearing her throat to try and get rid of the hoarseness. The drummer, still a little under the weather from partying yesterday, yawned. Ada smacked his arm playfully. "No going to sleep on us, Jake! This is our last night at Tequilapalooza and we can't waste it sleeping!" Okay, so that wasn't the music festival's official name, but it might as well have been.