Sugar Buzz had taken a much-needed 7+week break to vacation, learn material, up our equipment game. The show at Mainstreet Bar and Grill would be our first outing since that break.

Guitarist Henry debuted his new guitar rig that Paul had worked with him to master. Brendan was fresh off a vacation in Italy. The others spent time with other projects, family fun – graduations and weddings.

We rehearsed once to dust off the cobwebs, but we were “hot to go”. The venue was busy during soundcheck. There happened to be a tent party at a local brewery down the street the same night. Would that help or hurt us? We were not sure.

By the downbeat of “renegade”, the first song of the night, we could tell this was going to be a high energy evening. By set 2, the dancefloor was packed like sardines in the can, and the choruses of MR. BRIGHTSIDE from the audience sing-a-long nearly drowned out the band.

Pete and Lorie from near Minot ND came by on their way to celebrate their 40th anniversary (in route to NY). Several other birthdays and anniversaries were shouted from the stage. And in our new song debut, the crowd displayed the H-O-T-T-O-G-O hand gestures made famous in the music video. We struck a chord. Whether Chappell Roan, or Metallica, Journey or Nirvana, the crowd danced and sang their way through the night.

At one point, one of our favorite local music photographers couldn’t get in until others left as the venue was “AT CAPACITY”. Once she was able to join us, we admitted the “AT CAPACITY” was music to our ears. Sugar Buzz kept them there all night, and after our encore, we plodded across sticky floors to pack up and breathe a sigh of relief. We did our job. We also helped a venue make their money, and…. Sugar Buzz was back.

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It was a long time coming as we meant to play it in May, but singer Beth was sick and couldn’t perform.  We made it up in November.  The club itself was spacious, and the interior had wonderful character.  The only issue – we were performing at 6pm on a Friday.  We played from 6-9:30, then the club turns over into a salsa evening.  Would our crowd still be able to make it? Would they appreciate it?

The answer: yes.  The place was nearly empty until about 5:45 when people started rolling in. We breathed a sign of relief when the brave souls stepped out onto the large dancefloor. We started with a blues tune “It Hurt So Bad” to give a nod to the venue and we were off to the races.  Nip, the sound engineer was on his toes and we sounded balanced and incredible.

People remarked about how the place made them feel.  Plenty of room for dancing, room to sit and watch, loud enough to enjoy music, but not so they couldn’t hear each other.  This place knew what they were doing. It’s always a gamble when we add a new venue that hasn’t had much of our type of pop/rock music, but we put our Sugar Buzz mark on it!

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