It's the Audience, Stupid!

I play guitar. I suppose I could claim semi-pro status, as I have been in a band that got paid for gigs, but that was the exception more than the rule.

I'm good enough that sometimes people will tell me they like what I do. I'm lousy enough that I've thrown the guitar in the corner in frustration.

But over the years I've been through enough cycles of rehearsals and gigs with a few bands that I finally figured out what used to be a mystery to me: why are some of the rehearsals - especially, always, the last rehearsal before a gig - so goddamn horrible, while the gigs go well?

After nearly 20 years - my hobbies go into hibernation at times - I finally figured it out: It's adrenaline - induced by the presence of a crowd.

It makes all the difference. Fewer mistakes are made, they are recovered from faster, and sometimes when the band loosens up in a jam, some bit of musical magic can happen.

The last rehearsal before the gig has all the downside - nerves, desire to work out all the bugs, "it's about time to do this right, dammit!" - but not the crowd. The gig has the crowd, and for me and at least some of the other folks I played with, that makes all the difference.

And it appears that this is the case with Sarah Palin. In a room with Katie Couric and a camera, it's dress rehearsal time - all nerves and no buzz.

Put her in front of a crowd - even opposing a guy with 35+ years of experience having the night of his life - and she is a force to be reckoned with.

Get this woman onto "The View" post-haste - she will make mince-meat of Whoopie and the other lefties.

Yes there was a really jarring change of subject. (But they all do that.) Yes there was a brief echo of the "what other Supreme Court decisions" horror - but she pulled out of it and kept on trucking.

And let her do one-on-one interviews again - but only in front of a live audience.

My name is Bob N. and I am an adrenaline addict!
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