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October 12, 2008
ugh, ugh, ugh
Sometimes I think I'm just too old for this kind of thing.
Our band played this evening at a bar downtown. We are brand-spankin' new, and we opened for some friends of ours who don't play all that often, so fan base for both bands consisted of ourselves and our spouses. There were about 4 other very popular shows in the area tonight, plus a hockey game, plus the damn Devil Rays playing the Red Sox in the ALCS. As far as drawing a crowd went, we were absolutely doomed.
Our drummer couldn't make it, so we played as a duo. We played electric instruments as loudly as we felt was appropriate, but without a drummer we looked like 2 very fit 40-something women playing electric instruments without a drummer. Every TV in the place was tuned to the Devil Rays game, and every pair of eyes in the place was fixed on a TV. We started playing during the 5th inning and finished before the bottom of the 6th. At some point the hockey game let out and people streamed up the sidewalk in front of the bar, which I could see from my vantage point at the back wall because the bar was so empty. Oh, you hockey-goers! You took up so many parking spaces that our few friends with no other plans declined to come out because they felt they'd never find a place to park; the very least you could do is come in and have a beer and provide some organic material for our noise to bounce up against. But no; you zombied up the street to get in your cars and drive to some other bar. Damn you.
After our set, we agreed that our last couple of practices trumped our set by, um, 75% or more. We were so ready to knock peoples' socks off, and we ended up playing in the dark, to our husbands, through borrowed equipment (thanks) that didn't sound right (sorry). I wore my glasses at first, but in the gloom my eyes couldn't adjust between 2" and 2', and I couldn't see any of the dots on either the neck or the fingerboard of my bass, oops. We screwed up some arrangements in a major way. The borrowed amp made garbage sounds out of my distortion pedal. During one song, the Devil Rays did something good, drawing cheers from people undistracted by our noise.
I am convinced that the guitar player has written some great songs, and I'm sure that the world would agree if they would only listen, but tonight was not the night.
Now it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm home and the Devil Rays have finally won the damn game and I'm trying to drink enough water to counteract the 2 beers I drank at the bar to pass the time while my friends were playing. I can't remember the last time I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning.
Posted by joe positive at October 12, 2008 12:58 AM
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Comments
I would not have watched the TV!
Posted by: Martin at October 12, 2008 9:20 AM
I would not have watched the TV either. Sorry the drummer didn't make it. Could you get a drum machine or is that anathema?
Posted by: SDC at October 12, 2008 10:19 AM
drum machine isn't anathema, just a pain in the ass - more wires and cords, plus you need to amplify it so that you can hear it and the room can hear it.
For this show we did rehearse as a duo, and we arranged the songs a little differently so they wouldn't sound full of holes. But it just didn't come together last night.
Posted by: joe positive at October 12, 2008 1:49 PM