During a show where nearly 80 percent of the seats were filled and fans danced in the aisles and rushed the stage, there was probably no one happier than Tre Fromal.

The band performs.

Just when he thought he wasn’t going to be able to see a show by Old Crow Medicine Show, a band he has followed for about two years, he received a personal invitation from the group’s guitjo player, Kevin Hayes.

It was set up by Fromal’s friend, Brandon Williams, whose father was one of the volunteer stagehands for the Thursday night performance at the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.

“I was outside with Kevin and I asked him if he could do me favor and call my best friend,” Williams said following the performance.

Hayes obliged and Williams told Fromal he had an OCMS member waiting to talk to him.

“I got a call and was hesitant,” said Fromal. “I though he (Williams) was calling to rub it in he was at Old Crow Medicine Show.”

When Williams handed the phone to Hayes, the band member asked him why he wasn’t at the show.

Ticket prices and the fact it was a school night were the reason, said Fromal, who said he was excited and surprised to hear from one of the band members. “I think God just wanted me to be here.”

One of the band’s top songs, Wagon Wheel, was playing in his MP3 player about 5 minutes after sitting down for dinner, Fromal said.

Joked OCMS member Ketch Secor, “I think he inhaled his dinner in 10 seconds.”

“He called me and asked me to come to the show,” said Fromal.

Hayes said he was glad to do it. “If you can’t afford to come to the show, all you have to do is show up. It’s a good thing that we can help the youth out so they don’t get their heads corrupted by the popular music of today.”

During the show, which Secor mentioned Roanoke Rapids and Weldon several times, including places they toured with members of the city’s police department, the band played many songs which had not been released.

They included two Veterans Day tributes, including an unreleased number about a man from Galax, Virginia.

Near the end of the two part performance, Secor bid the audience members to get up and many came to the front of the theater to dance, take photos and sing along with the band.

Ketch Secor bids the audience farewell.

For Fromal, the show not only met his expectations, “It passed my expectations.”