survived a bad set by just standing in it

Last night's crowd was dead on arrival — the kind where you can hear the AC hum between punchlines. Some nights you burn the room down or die fighting. Last night I just stood there in the silence until it stopped being scary, and by the end a woman in the back actually laughed at a throwaway line I've never gotten a response to. Nothing heroic. Just learning that the quiet is a room you can sit in, not a verdict.