Performer, Lights’ Epic Adventure Leading Up to the Filming of her Episode of “Rockville CA”
I think it was somewhere in the middle of Connecticut on a month-long tour with Copeland, stuffed in the van, that I got the Rockville CA call. My manager told me there was a new web series coming up (which is a selling point on its own – in my humble opinion, everything is cooler on the Internet) featuring lots of live music (Ding! Another selling point. Shows don’t feature live music enough. It’s usually just the band pretending to be plugged in, lip-synching along with their CD … or MP3) and that the show is created by Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl, Chuck, The O.C.). Apparently dropping the “Josh Schwartz” title goes far beyond any selling point mark; it’s like touching an idea bulb and then suddenly everything in your house with electricity turns into gold and diamonds. That didn’t really make sense, but I think you get the idea; he kind of makes good things happen.
ANYWAY, thus began the epic journey to film my episode of Rockville CA somewhere in L.A., CA.
After picking my songs, nailing down some back-line keyboard stands, and organizing the flights, we somehow tucked and timed a trip to Hollywood safely between the San Francisco and Los Angeles shows on the tour. As long as everything went according to plan, we just might make this work. Hmmm…
Slim’s in San Francisco was a sold-out show, definitely fun but a little nerve-racking. (At that point – fall ‘08 – we were still a little new on the touring scene, especially in the States.) Immediately after finishing our sweaty little set, we began packing our gear at lightning speed and bolted from the venue. We loaded all the instrument cases into the van (Wonder how I have such “intimidatingly” massive pipes? Try moving keyboards twice a day, everyday.) and set off for the San Francisco airport. We got our gear checked in, printed boarding passes, rocked the security like pros and sat down at our gate. Things seemed way too smooth. As Adam, Maurie and I chit-chatted about what we were gonna wear for the show and mused over the irony of the massive “Sci-Fi in Popular Culture Through the Ages” exhibit on display through the main hall of the airport (sci-fi influences my image/music/artwork/videos a lot), we got ourselves excited. The gate across the hall was boarding, our time was coming near! A few minutes later our gate did some pre-boarding calls, we waited until the end when the long, futile boarding lines dissipated to make our way to the counter and check into the plane. The screen said “Philadelphia 10:30 p.m.” All of our stomachs dropped as we looked back to the screen at the gate across the way. It read “Los Angeles 10:00 p.m.”
It was too late. We couldn’t believe that we sat and watched from across the hall as the last flight out to L.A. that night boarded its faithful passengers, possibly squawked our names a few times, taxied around the tarmac most likely, and then took wing for OUR destination. And I wasn’t really in the mood for Philly cheesesteak. After some freaking out and weighing options, we decided to book the earliest flight out the next morning – production time the next day was 1:00 p.m. We were utterly embarrassed when explaining to the woman at the counter how we missed our flight from 20 feet away. We shamefully accepted overnight packs since our luggage was en route to L.A., and assumed our posts on airport benches.
The next morning, extremely short on rest, feeling grody from head to toe, we made our way to where we would finally be catching our elusive plane to L.A., CA. It was delayed. At this point, we didn’t even care. It was as though some supernatural force was battling around the San Francisco airport with massive scimitars and light sabers to prevent us from being on Rockville CA. I looked at the bright side and took the spare time to peruse the sci-fi exhibit. I don’t know what it is about tales of fiction and science; maybe it’s the immense imagination or its ability to take you to another world where anything is possible. But for a good 20 minutes, I forgot about the intensity of my situation and lost myself in Buck Rogers’ puzzles from the ’60s – and weapon walls of cap guns modeled as laser rifles. I was inspired and refreshed when I returned to the boys just in time for boarding call.
In the end, we wound up arriving right where we were supposed to be, with five minutes to spare. There were 20 awesome fans acting as the audience. (The contest question I gave them was something to the effect of “What would be the best concert ever?,” and these 20 were the masterminds of pandas and zombies on volcanoes with keytars on planets and pyramids, etc … let’s just say it would put a Korn show to shame!). I buffed my face so that I didn’t look as tired as I was, set up my gear, did a few rehearsal rounds, and before we knew it, we had finished our moment in the Josh Schwartz spotlight. Afterwards we headed to the sound-check at the El Rey Theatre for the sold-out Copeland show we opened that night.
Finally, I breathed in for the first time in 48 hours, feeling half like shit, and half very accomplished. I’m a firm believer that chaotic things always happen for a reason, especially when the end result is as great as this one was. The real question is: What was the reason? Was it the fact that I still use the overnight bag I received at the airport as my makeup bag? Was it that I snagged the perfect snapshot in the sci-fi display that spawned the artwork for my new album? Or was it that I showed up at the Rockville CA shoot (albeit tired) a little bit more determined and eager than I would have had nothing gotten in our way? Would The Lord of the Rings have become a hit trilogy had Mordor been a ring’s toss down the way from Frodo’s place?
My episode of Rockville CA hits the web-waves today.
LIGHTS
For more of LIGHTS, including video blogging and tour info, visit her at:
Website: http://www.iamlights.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/lights
Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/lights
