Chapter 78 [Bonus ] 78 - Convincing the guests

    ??When I looked back and saw that it was just me on stage with Jason recording all around me and Selena sitting backstage, I began to realize that performing alone wasn''t so good.

    Even though I had performed alone in bars, the atmosphere was completely different and people were already used to it, but at a wedding it was different, the audience was very diverse, ranging from children to older people, people who liked my style of music and people who didn''t. If I had a backing band, I would have had a variety of bands.

    If I had a backing band, the variety of instruments on the night would probably help me win over even more of the audience with the richness of the music.

    But thinking that there was nothing else to do now, I decided to keep this in mind for other events I would do in the future.

    This wedding would serve as an experience for me to learn what to do and what not to do.

    I''ve already learned one thing about what not to do, which is to come up on stage alone.

    From Selena''s thoughtful expression, I think she was thinking something similar, because the sound of my guitar in a bar was completely different from the sound of the guitar in an open place like this.

    The closed environment of the bar created a more welcoming acoustic for the guitar, but an open wedding stage like this made the guitar feel a little lonely.

    Suddenly I saw the guests arriving and shook my head.

    Whatever, if the guitar isn''t enough for something like this, now that I''m here I have to make do with it as best I can.

    If the guitar isn''t enough, I''ll try to use my charisma to make it even better and make people not notice this problem!

    While people were arriving, I played a well-known song that was relaxing.

    You had to be able to read the mood in a situation like that.

    People had just left a wedding ceremony, a very calm, relaxed and emotional situation, if they came here with super upbeat music playing, it would be very strange!

    So I just followed the mood and let people organize themselves as they sat down at the tables.

    When I was on the third song, I still hadn''t interacted with the audience and just kept playing and singing quiet songs to keep the mood pleasant for the guests.

    But when the third song was over, I noticed that the guests were already holding glasses of beer and starting to really celebrate the wedding, which made the mood even more lively and conducive for me to liven it up even more.

    So, with a smile on my face, I turned up the volume on the guitar and started to sing the next song louder.

    This next song would be the song before I played The Lazy Song, so it was just another famous song from this world, but while I was singing this song, I noticed that the audience''s attention was now more focused on me.

    Some people had gotten up from the table and were chatting standing up with their bodies turned towards me, which was already a big improvement from how they were before, just sitting there chatting and not paying attention.

    So to take advantage of these people who were already paying a little attention, I would finally sing my song that got the crowd going.

    From a distance, I could even see the bride and groom dancing a little while they took pictures with the guests, which made my smile even bigger.

    With each new lyric, I saw people laughing and enjoying the music as the dance floor became more lively.

    By the time "The Lazy Song" was finished, the number of people on the dance floor was large enough for the clapping to get quite loud.

    "I guess the women''s husbands identified a bit with this song? Or is it just my dad who acts like this at home?" I asked, laughing as I watched people''s reactions.

    Since the party had just started, no one was drunk, so even though they were excited, everyone was much more reserved.

    So to keep the mood up, I chose another song that they liked in this world and started singing.

    In situations like this, encouraging people to sing along with a song they already know was just as effective, or in some situations even more effective, than me singing an original song of mine that''s really good but nobody knows how to sing.

    So my plan was to balance that out over the two hours of show I was guaranteed to have ahead of me, keeping the audience on their toes while occasionally singing one of my original songs.

    After an hour into the show, even the bride and groom had finished taking pictures and had come out on the dance floor to enjoy their moment.

    Knowing that the bride loved music, I decided to pick some popular songs that I knew she could sing and called her and her husband up on stage to sing along with me, further engaging the audience and getting more people to pay attention to the stage to keep the crowd''s spirits up the whole time.

    And it worked very well, the bride and groom loved being able to sing on stage for their guests while I played the accompanying guitar, while I also loved being able to rest my already tired voice.

    Several times Selena came on stage to bring me a bottle of water, but it wasn''t enough.

    But at some point my salvation arrived.

    "Hey Black, take this glass, it''ll help your throat!" An older man, whom I recognized as the father of the groom, handed me a glass with a big smile on his face.

    Wondering what could be in that glass, my eyes lit up and I took it with a smile and took a big sip.

    "Whiskey neat!" I shouted excitedly as I felt the delicious taste of the warm, wood-aged drink trickle down my throat, healing the dryness that had appeared.

    Seeing my reaction, the groom''s father smiled even wider as he held the glass out to me, and I quickly bent down with my glass and toasted with it.

    "What is your name, sir?" I asked politely from the microphone.

    "Thomas!" He smiled back.

    Picking up the microphone again, I smiled and replied, "Okay, thanks to Mr. Thomas, this next song I''m going to sing is my most challenging song for my voice, I didn''t even think about singing it today, but now I''m so invigorated I''m going to sing it! I hope you like it!"

    Hearing this introduction, the guests were curious what song I would sing that would be so demanding on my voice, so I started singing Numb!