In March 2013, we got to open for Jefferson Starship! WOW I was nervous. I had to get acupuncture the day before the show cuz I was totally freaking out. I found this old blog about the show! It was a magical evening for sure. Check it out…
Soooooo the photo does give away the ending…Jefferson Starship invited us on stage for their encore! It was pretty wild.
Whenever we open for national acts, they set up all their equipment on stage, and then we need to set up our stuff around theirs. There is no sharing of equipment. Cuz they don’t know us! We’re just some silly opener. They’d be crazy to trust us with their expensive equipment. But when we showed up at the Queen Theatre in Wilmington DE (at 3:30!), we got to meet some of the members right away. And they said “hey, why don’t you guys use our drums? It will just make everything easier.”
We scratched our heads, puzzled. “Wait, what just happened?? This can’t be right. I could swear that they just invited us to use their drums.”
But it was true! They were super sweet right from the start. We never know if the national act will even talk to us, be nice, or hear us play. They might be resting on their tour bus or at their hotel, and never hear us at all. (Which is fine! Being in a band is exhausting.) But they not only stuck around for our soundcheck; they even said “we’re looking forward to hearing your set!” Unbelievable!
They gave us a nice shout-out during their set. They played great!! There were two original members still in the band. A lovely woman named Cathy Richardson (the blonde in the photo) sang lead; she was terrific. And so sweet.
While we were selling CDs, their tour manager came over to us and said “the band was really impressed with you; I think some of them are gonna write about you in their blog!” Swoon.
We had lots of family, friends, and fans there to support us. So during the Starship set, I was bouncing around in the crowd, hanging with our peeps. I could tell it was near the end of their set. Our friend Jim comes over to me and said “Cathy wants you on stage for the encore. Hurry!”
Although I was skeptical (nah he is making this up), I ran backstage. Sure enough, Cathy was telling the whole band that she wanted us on stage for their last song, “Volunteers!” I didn’t know the song, but she said no problem, she’ll sing the chorus and I’ll catch on quick.
So they invited me up and invited the rest of us up too! It was just one big dance party. We danced, we sang, we shook percussion instruments. Cathy sang in the mic and held it close to us so Jaime and I could sing in it too. Ron played a great solo (of course). And then Cathy handed me the mic and just walked away! “Do your thing, girl.” So I did. It was just wild. Such a beautiful happy memory that we will never forget!!!!
And THANK YOU so much to the amazing photographers who caught this special moment! This photo is by our beloved Sherrie von Sternberg. Jim Jurena of Rockfish Photography also took some great shots. Kim got some good pics, and MJ caught a video of the encore song. So cool!!!
Being in a band is hard. It’s a lot of work. Shows can go well but many do not. This night? This night was good enough to bring us happiness for quite a while. Very thankful for this Leda family.
