At the age of 17, I formed a band with three classmates. After we won the first prize at our school's talent show, we decided to see if we could get some local performances. When we found out we'd gotten booked for a charitable event at a large hospital, we were excited. For two weeks, we practiced hard, getting together every day after school to sharpen our skills and learn enough songs to fill a one-hour show.
On the day of the concert, we showed up early to check out the stage. We set up and did a quick sound check, then went backstage to have a soda and rest. While we were back there, the hospital's entertainment director came over to talk to us.
"Okay, boys, I just want to fill you in on a couple of important details," she told us. "A lot of the people in the audience are suffering from severe physical or mental disabilities. Also, many of them are very old. Don't let that alarm you. They have very few chances to see live entertainment of any kind, so they enjoy any kind of musical talent. Just play your regular show, and you'll do fine." With that, she left, going to help the volunteers and staff that were assisting the patients to their seats.
Soon enough, it was show time. Everything was perfect, and we played probably the best show of our lives. We hardly missed a note on any of our songs. Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy our performance. As each song finished, there was a short pause. This was the time when the audience would normally applaud. Now, we were getting nothing. Zero. The deafening silence only made us more determined to win the audience over. We tried harder. Loud songs, soft songs, it made no difference. After forty-five minutes, we decided to end our set early. Why bother finishing when no one was appreciating us anyway? We unplugged(拔去)our instruments and went backstage.
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A moment later, the entertainment director ran back to us.
……
Returning to the stage, we played our final three songs.