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Applause ? You people dont know what applause is...
Again, Before you go making your generalizations that you've done so much more than others in a given area, make sure nobody here has opened for Earth, Wind, and Fire, and God knows how many other big ticket acts, sat in with a few large acts, and frequently played in front of 25,000-40,000+ (mid-70's Saratoga Performing Arts Center), The Spectrum -Philly (lesser by about half that capacity at the time, I think), Carnegie Hall (just plain frightening, because places don't have to have many many thousands to be scary as all hell, in fact the indoor AND outdoor seating venues that hold loads more than the indoor stadium/ arena venues (IMO) aren't nearly as scary as those smaller indoor stadiums in terms of sensory flooding, the depth perspective is MUCH more evident and I hate large open areas), But I've been on stage in LOADS of University arenas, Octoberfests, Spring-Flings outdoors, Eastern Coast Coliseums etc, sat in with a few biggies, opened for many more, and I don't name-drop btw.... quite a few venues had considerably more than 35K, I didn't count most of the time, large is large, in fact some of the Coliseum Arenas/ Stadiums are so friggin vast I puked a few times during soundcheck from the visual sensory flooding given ceiling height, and seating layouts and just that weird feeling you get when you're an ant in a vast area. Anticipating there would soon be people in MOST of those friggin seats caused me to sometimes puke twice for good measure ! I got dizzy and scared at the beginning, to this day I won't even sit in a coliseum to watch an event, I just feel really uncomfortable in that type venue, and ALWAYS did.. I loved playing outdoor rock concerts however, felt more in control and less paranoid, didn't matter the crowd size.
At 4 I played in front of more than that 5K you mentioned, just as a kid enrolled in the New Jersey Music Federation during a Seton Hall piano recital event, I have no idea what the friggin purpose in that was, but I suppose it was a thrill for the parents to have we little S&its on-stage in 1960, I think it was a recital, might've been called a Concert, I don't recall much, but I do recall learning how young I was when first stuck in front of a large crowd, not even knowing it, they showed me the crowd afterwards and I cried. I don't recall much but I know I got scared after I found out what I had just done. Good thing they told me it was just mommy and daddy watching initially (knowing damn well that the flood lighting and my size prevented me from knowing there were a lot of people out there watching, when you are really young it's still scary), I freaked when I received applause, I don't even recall if I knew what it was at that time.. It was a Simple Song I performed solo called "March of the Mighty", that just starts kids off on chord inversions, there were MANY kids scheduled to play several minute solos, don't think it was a competition but I don't even know that.. That was when the performing started. In fact I NEVER got a kick out've playing formal stuff in front of a crowd, or having to sit still, standstill while I was reeling onstage in front of a formal seated audience, I ALWAYS HATED that ! freaked me out , Rock got to be more fun, MUCH easier for me and I felt less trapped since I could move around, equipment as bigger, and I could move around burning off adrenaline..but that wore old really quickly. The worst IMHO, was actually playing in front of only around 4-7 thousand seated in mid-orchestra feeling trapped. One of the reasons I quite 2nd violin and switched to string bass. I need to be close to the wing, I panicked in a formal orchestral and even band setting feeling trapped and stuck sitting still for longer periods of time. Rock, blues and that type performing in front of large crowds TO ME was much easier than the smaller auditoriums where I felt trapped inside a formal setting, I had quite a few anxiety attacks in that type setting, acting too.
Towards the end of my activity in the performing arts I didn't even here applause because like all else after time, it means NOTHING, novelty wears off. ALL that mattered was that I gave it my best, and when I no longer cared to do that, and nothing mattered it was time to throw in the towel in the 80's. I've played some scary huge venues, and the TOUGHEST for me were the vast INDOOR venues, The outdoor venues I didn't feel quite as trapped for some reason. Best thing about applause at the end is that it meant I was done and could sleep for abit.
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). Everyone has a blast and now Karaoke With Laurie The Guy is the official karaoke for Trooper. Whoo Hoo!