A Tsunami of Support Heads Our Way

Part Four of Buffalo and Little Bean's Big Music Adventure

To be clear, I’ve worked in PR and marketing enough to know that when you have fans, you do everything you can to make them happy. But there’s a difference between simple fan service and actually being authentically grateful that they listen, or look, or read your work.

I don’t say this with any amount of hyperbole: to this day, after writing books for more than ten years, I’m still honestly shocked when someone tells me one of my books meant something, or made them laugh, or they learned something.

How does the old saying go? What do you say when someone gives you a compliment? You say thank you. But I must admit, that my response is often incoherent babbling, or some silly self-depreciating joke. I’m grateful for my wife, because if she’s around she’ll always remind me - just say thank you dummy.

Where am I going with this? Two places.

First, much to my surprise, Sam Arion of Mute Choir reached out to me to ask if I’d be ok with the band mentioning Little Bean at the show when they play their latest song, “New God.” Mute Choir is opening for The Warning and Little Bean loves that song. My guess is that she’ll be lose-her-mind thrilled for that to happen. Sam and I ended up chatting for a while and he seems like a pretty grateful, authentic musician. We talked about how tough it’s been during the pandemic to get art out in front of people and how thrilled the band was to be selected to open for The Warning. They aren’t doing an official Meet and Greet like The Warning, but he said we’d look for each other so my daughter can get a picture with his band.

I mean…. fan service vs. being grateful to have fans, right?

And second, I’ve been floored by the tsunami of support directed toward my taking my daughter to this show after mentioning it on one of the band’s fan pages. Many dads sent me pictures of their daughters at previous shows. One fan sent Little Bean a whole package of band pins and stickers. Some sent me advice on how to handle the show with kids, bathroom breaks, snacks, how the Meet and Greets work.

No weirdness, just basically a bunch of parents who’ve experienced what we’re getting ourselves into, reaching out to give some advice to make things easier and better for us.

In one case, a long time super fan, sent me a note, not about the details of going to a show, but of how finding this band’s music changed his life, helped him turn his life around, he said.

Music, like any art at the highest levels, can and should connect like this with you. Intimately. Personally. It can be THAT powerful. Maybe it SHOULD be that powerful.

For her part, Little Bean is building a More Box to give as a gift to the band. This is the curious device the band made in their latest music video. You can check that out here: More by The Warning.

My suggestion was that instead of giving it to them, she gets them to sign it for her. But see, that’s me being selfish. Little Bean wanted nothing to do with that - she has insisted on gifting this to them.

An exchange of art. A craft from an eight year old. And in return, they’ll rock our faces off.

Little Bean working on her More Box. It looks like a cake!

I’m grateful for all of this. Live shows, especially at small venues, can be unpredictable. Being anywhere with a little kid is always unpredictable. So this level of interest and support has helped take some of the edge off.

I have three goals tomorrow: 1) Keep her safe 2) Be flexible 3) Rock out.

It’s nearly time to go my friends. Thanks for sticking with us. Thanks for humoring us.

The kid and I? We have some business to attend to - loud, rowdy, business of the soul. Let’s go!

Tomorrow: I’m going to hedge my bets here my friends. We still have some logistics to attend to and I have no idea if I’ll be able to post something on Friday or not. I’ll make an effort at least to upload something from the concert itself, but again no promises! In either case, we’ll be back over the weekend to tell you how it went, and prepare for the next one.

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Housekeeping: Well, my friends, we’re almost there!

But while we get ready to go, we’re curious - Have you ever fan’ed out over a band? Become consumed by them? Followed them around on a tour? We’re curious what extent you went to over your favorite music?

This is Day Five by the way and you can read the prologue and day one through four in the archives.

And if you’ve enjoyed this little musical side trip, please share with band sites, or you’re own social media. We love growing our community!

Finally, if you’re new to Day By Day, you can find out more about me and my books at my bookstore here: Dan’s Bookstore.

Day By Day is a free journal of essays, expressions and story-telling, but if you’d like to buy me a cup of joe to keep me awake - much to my joy - you can do so here: Buy Dan a Cup of Coffee.

One last thing - I encourage you all to visit the bands and artists we’re writing about. Making music is hard work. Give them some love!

Horns in the air my friends, let’ go!