Chris Byars

One kind of challenge that worked out to be more fun than it should have been was we were in a basement auditorium in Oman playing for middle and high school students, like 13 to 17. They were very, very orderly, and about 300 of them.

And they were early and we were on time, so when we got there, they were already all seated like with their hands folded and kinda watching us getting set up.

So finally when we were ready, we start with their program and hit em with this, hit em with that. And right about at the end of our presentation, maybe one more tune left and the lights go out and the lights go out for the whole city, like the whole region, pretty much something you could see from outer space. And we're in the basement, and I mean it's really dark.

So the headmaster gets in front, and I tell him, I said, "We can still play, we don't use electricity, so—we're an acoustic band. And he asked the students, "Do you want to hear one more song?" Yeah.

So we played this song and it was kind of a strange—here's what that looks like from my viewpoint on stage. First of all, I can't see anybody. I can't see the musicians, I can kinda hear em. But after a little while – of course, everyone has cell phones now. And there are little lights with your cell phone, as it turns out.

They held up the lights like a Grateful Dead concert or something, and they didn't—they were like fireflies because they wouldn't last that long. So you'd see this one go out and then that one over there would start and the other one would stop, and I'll never forget that.

I snuck down and got my flash camera and took some pictures during the drum solo, and we gave em a good five minutes to just go berserk on the drums, and these are fairly well-controlled Omani kids that don't get to let loose. They were jumping up and down, I mean it was like a serious party.

And I have pictures to prove it, these kids are just—like the biggest smiles you'd ever see in your life. They're all jumping up and down, clapping, having a ball. So that was our challenge in Omar and it kinda worked out pretty well.

I'm Chris Byars of the Chris Byars Quartet. Please join me on the Rhythm Road, American Music Abroad.