I Was Playing With A Massive Indie Band When I Collapsed Mid-Show. I Couldn't Believe The Cause.

In May of 2023, I played bass for the indie rock band Bright Eyes. During our sold-out show in Chicago, we were about a quarter of the way through the 20-song set when I started feeling queasy. The nausea quickly segued into an overwhelming urge to vomit, which I fought with everything I had while playing and singing backup for Conor Oberst, the band’s founder and lead singer, in front of 3,000 adoring fans.

By the time things started feeling uneasy on the bottom end, I was sweating under the stage lights. I can make it, I told myself. Just a few more songs left. But then the lights started to dim — not the ones onstage, the ones that lit my consciousness.

I could feel my legs buckling and moved to sit on guitarist Mike Mogis’ amp. “Do you mind?” I asked, while he looked up from his pedal steel at me like I was insane. The world was fading and I realized I had to get offstage before I passed out. I had no choice but to leave.

After the song was over, I calmly set my bass on its stand, and walked offstage, pausing only to tell Conor that I was sick and had to leave. I gathered my strength and forced my legs to carry me to the side stage where the tour manager, Katy, looked at me with concern while I slid down the wall. “Orenda, are you OK? Your face is blue,” she said. I muttered something like “trash can,” and the next thing I knew, I was projectile vomiting into broken glass and crushed beer cans with a force I did not know was possible for my body to produce.

A medic appeared from the darkness, his sympathetic face filling my narrow field of vision. He tried to corral me to a stretcher, but there was no time. As the band played on without me, Katy chased me to the bathroom, lifting my dress to rip my thousand-dollar