I find it very interesting that I am writing this just 2 days after Mark wrote his post about 'the bar being lowered' ...

Last night my buddy Sal (guitar player in NJ) and I played our 4th annual 50's gig for his town's Summer Concert Series - from 7PM to 9PM ... The forecast showed a 30% chance of rain and thunderstorms starting at about 8PM, and then increasing after that ... At about 4:30PM we get to the town center to begin setting up - we are meeting a stage guy and a sound guy at that time ... Well, we proceed to get everything set up, do a sound check, etc. and then at about 6PM or so, I start to feel rain drops ... 4 guys from the Knights of Columbus (who co-sponsor our concert with the town) get a 12x12 tent and put it over the stage to protect the gear (don't ask why this wasn't part of the initial setup plan) ... the rain lets up a bit, and people start showing up ... at about 6:45PM there is a fairly decent crowd and it starts to rain again ... Sal and I figure we should start and give these folks at least a little bit of music before it starts to pour ...we start playing and I look out at the crowd and can't believe there are so many people sitting under umbrellas listening to us ... fortunately the rain let up and we were able to do the full 2 hour show ... we ended up having about 125+ people there (last year there were about 300 people at our show) and I can't describe the feeling I had when I looked out from the stage and saw this view of one side of the audience ... apparently we are doing something right for people to not only show up in that weather, but to sit through it until it let up ...