The quiet between sets is the real show

I was standing in the back of a tiny club last night, waiting for my turn, and just… listening. Not to the crowd, not to the music — to the silence between songs. That moment when the lights dim and someone’s still adjusting their mic stand. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that the best moments aren’t the laughs, but the ones where nobody moves, like they’re holding their breath. I don’t even remember what I said after that. But I remember the feeling: like the room was full of something unspoken, and we were all pretending not to notice.