First less than perfect gig. I guess it was about time.

[joeturbodiesel@]

Had a busy weekend. Two gigs, one weekend, after a dry spell of about a month and a half. aside from sore fingers and no sleep. The last of the two gigs was a real doozie. It was in a "bar and grill" that the nice person that answered the phone said was family friendly. Oh, did I mention thast my 7 yr old boy was with me? Sometimes he tags along with me to our restaurant gigs. When we arrive the buffet is spread out on a table that is in the space that is available for us to play. We wait for an hour before he finally decides to remove the food and what I thought was the table. Turns out that the table is actually the stage. It is 5x10 and three feet off the ground with no steps in front of a shuffle board table and right next to what was a diassembled booth, which actually solved one of the ensuing problems. It was just me and the singer/guitar player but both our equipment wouldn't fit up there much less both of us. So he got up there and and I set up next to the shuffle board table and booth. By this time we had 15 minutes to set up and just barely finish in the alotted time. Now what I am about to say may seem stupid to you but I don't feel comfortable unless I am to the right of the singer/ rhythm player. So now my head is about where this knees are and I am to the left and off in a corner with my rig, the shuffle board table and my son. So here we go. First song is o.k. the second song I blank and proceed to play the song flat a half step. It got so bad me trying to figure out what was wrong we had to start the song over. We blame it on a technical difficulty and get going again.
Now the owner of the place askes us after a few songs to turn it down a little but the juke box before us was twice as loud. After the first set the owner tells us they are playing an offers dice game (Players roll dice and get 10 bar tabs and such)and he would tell us when he wanted us to start again. After 45 minutes of break in a 3 hour show we take off with out the o.k. and finish the night. I load my equipment and my boy that was fast asleep on the half a booth which made a real nice bed. And when I get home I lost my keys to get in my house and it starts to rain on my equipment in back of my truck. I run my son and equipment to the front door hoping my keys are in my truck somewhere and after about 15 minutes of looking finally find them. Yay! All said and done. We finally laid our heads down on the pillow at 3:17 this morning. Probably not as bad as others but most of the gigs I have played have been fantastic. I hope it doesnt get any worse but at some piont it is bound to happen. By the way, has any one ever had their fingers go to sleep while they are playing? Another first on this one.

[lindseyp]

Your son is guaranteed to have at least ONE fond memory of bonding with Dad!