OK, that got you a coffee geyser from me.
In the early 70s, some friends coerced me into attending a Santana concert. The place was packed. By the end of the third song, the place was probably 70% empty and the remainder was booing the band like you wouldn’t believe. I have never seen a band self-destruct so badly on stage. My guess was that there were wayyyyy too many pharmeceuticals consumed before going on.
Even to this day, I cringe thinking about how badly they sucked. And I’ll change the station if a Santana song comes on the radio.
I’m a performing songwriter. I won a songwriting contest at Maryhill Winery, and got to do a set in their brand new 3,000 seat amphitheater the next day. It was the middle of August, in the middle of the day, and the temperature was about 115 degrees in the amphitheater, which was 2,997 people under capacity during my set.
One summer in late high school, I went to several afternoon showings at an 8-screen theater where just two or three other people were in attendance. I’m sort of surprised that theater stayed open as long as it did, but it was always my favorite…it had a big orange-carpeted, curving ramp leading into a dimly lit lobby filled with arcade games.