I only noticed how weak my arms were at Creationfest. I was out of breath carrying my guitars around on stage. They’ll get stronger as long as I exercise. I’m sure I’ll jump subjects right now and give you a collage of impressions of today in Taiwan. Either that or leave you thoroughly confused and in a lot of different places at once! Julianne can make it make sense!
I’ll take you back to this morning. We arrived in Kaoshung after 3 and a half hours of travelling to a big youth convention. We stepped outside the bus at 1:30pm ready to play at 3pm. However, I heard those fateful Chinese words “shenme shihou kaishi?” (what time do we start) - and the reply “liang dian” (2 O clock). So we piled inside and found that many dance teams were practising hard. We got nowhere near the stage until 1:55pm when the host said to me “I’ll keep talking until you’re ready to start”. Nothing was loaded onto stage or plugged in or anything! In these moments I don’t think there’s any point in getting stressed out. We’re a hard working band and we know how to improvise. Cue loading onto stage (now inhabited by a sweating tech who looked like a rabbit caught between headlights) and plugging in while it seemd like the announcers introduced us and the crowd cheered in response about 10 times! ha ha ha. It’s a bit like being in the doctors being told you have diabetes, it feels strangely numb, like it’s happening to someone else.
Anyway, we eventually got plugged in, no backing track, no sound check, no mic stands, only bass for Niall and a messed up video intro later I looked at Niall and we both realised. It’s up to us to make something good happen. We decide to start playing…
I play the first chords and… it goes like a dream. It’s chaos, it’s hot and in a big church, I don’t know how the crowd scream and jump up and down and dance and shout with that enthusiasm in this heat, but it felt great. They ran down to the front in the first song and propelled me along from there. My eyes welled up a bit in Openhanded. It’s so good to feel like all the hassles and difficulties are worth it. I think people are genuinely touched and excited as we walk offstage. My ears hurt from the crowd not from the over-eager foldback engineer, so that’s such a blessing. I would much rather have that. Julianne and Hannah are genuinely happy with the show. THat’s another nice surprise as they’ve seen us so many times before. I sometimes feel bad that they’ve seen so many shows - we’re putting them through a lot more this month!
Then another bus ride, almost unbelievably, back to Taipei, for another show. More high speed rail (I slept all the way which is important). I was reliably informed that a backstage room with Shaolon Bao - my favourite food is waiting for me. Another blessing… although I have a bit of a headache by now and am feeling a bit gumpy. We soundchecked (well we had 5 minutes to check our things worked while the worship team played songs for the meeting) and we were ushered into th Shaolon Bao room. Unfortunately a cell group was waiting there and they got kicked out. No problems they were kind to us. The church has been praying for me, so that’s really good. I think that the prayer has given me a confidence to continue. I’m feeling my way, not trying to be too crazy, but it’s good.
The last mouthful of dinner is just chewed and swallowed and then the dying chords of the worship echo in my ears. We walk out and it’s straight into the set. You just have to be ready for anything on tour. Again the crowd (this time smaller) but packing out the basement venue were exceptional. They were older and more ready to listen to the music, and they seemed to connect with us in a real way. There were emotional moments as we sang Light of Day together - they get the meaning about holding on to hope through difficult times. I feel like a walking example of that right now.
It seems like I’ve walked from hospital to plane to stage without much in between. It’s definitely hard to plan the perfect set when everything happens at such velocity! I suppose that’s why we’ve put a lifetime’s work in.
So - then more rushing before the event had finished, back on the metro and now onto the high speed rail and a hotel there tonight. I’m sure Danny would appreciate this!
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