Preamble: No great revelations. Just a story about a day in a working band. Intended to serve no other purpose than tell that story...
It's not a 'tour' if you all come back home after one show...
But it was a l-o-n-g trip (and day...)
Original plan: meet up with singergirls and drive to meet BL in his van full of PA, drummer, and drums, continue to gig, reassemble in reverse order.
Snag foreshadowing: Night before gig, BL posts that after loading PA into van, there "might not" be room for drums and everything else... Requests that instead of carpooling to meet in Singergirl #1's car, I drive us in my Titan 'in case we need to make another plan...'
Early bedtime (0030 gig morning, 0600 alarm).
Gig morning: Sure enough, drummer shows up not with promised "small kit" but regular 5-pc and non-small kick. And sure enough, there's no room for all the other needed stuff. BL had already downsized his amp to something the size of a lunchbox. I was down to a small head and 1 12 cab, which is my smallest. No real option for playing through the PA except in extremis because that had already been downsized to the vocal-only mains and 2 monitors...
We decide where to meet that's approximately on the way re-shuffling on the fly once it's realized we've picked two different meeting places (SNAFU).
Unload the PA and drummer's kit and play 3-D Tetris getting everything snuggled into the bed of the Titan and 5 people into the cab. (Sidebar -- yes, the van's 5 individual captain chairs would have been a lot more comfortable, especially for the 3 wedged in back, but it's my truck and I know where I'm sitting, you 4 work it out...)
Off we go -- Philadelphia -> Manchester, VT. 300 mi.
Long but uneventful drive, arrive on time, helpful venue staff, set up and soundcheck on time, start on time.
We were cleared to utilise the buffet, which was -really- good. Sorry, no food pictures, lucky to work the line and eat during breaktime in addition to fixing all the little setup gremlins that the first set shook out (teeny stuff - we actually are pretty good at this, but it was drummer's first gig with us, and we were all working with all our 'small setup' stuff).
Not our best show, some rocky parts, but customers didn't notice much (we are our own worst critics) and were very happy. Liked our song selection which is why we were hired in the first place.
Load out in the cold, dark, and rain (of course) and eventually re-discover how we'd got everything to fit the first time.
Uneventful drive back to the rendezvous point, unpack PA and kit, bid adieu to BL and drummer, head back to singergirls meeting point, unload them and their stuff, head home, in bed by 0330.
700 mi total round trip. BL paid for gas and tolls.
21-hr day. Almost double my regular gig rate...
TL;DR: Got paid to play music. It was a good day.
It's not a 'tour' if you all come back home after one show...
But it was a l-o-n-g trip (and day...)
Original plan: meet up with singergirls and drive to meet BL in his van full of PA, drummer, and drums, continue to gig, reassemble in reverse order.
Snag foreshadowing: Night before gig, BL posts that after loading PA into van, there "might not" be room for drums and everything else... Requests that instead of carpooling to meet in Singergirl #1's car, I drive us in my Titan 'in case we need to make another plan...'
Early bedtime (0030 gig morning, 0600 alarm).
Gig morning: Sure enough, drummer shows up not with promised "small kit" but regular 5-pc and non-small kick. And sure enough, there's no room for all the other needed stuff. BL had already downsized his amp to something the size of a lunchbox. I was down to a small head and 1 12 cab, which is my smallest. No real option for playing through the PA except in extremis because that had already been downsized to the vocal-only mains and 2 monitors...
We decide where to meet that's approximately on the way re-shuffling on the fly once it's realized we've picked two different meeting places (SNAFU).
Unload the PA and drummer's kit and play 3-D Tetris getting everything snuggled into the bed of the Titan and 5 people into the cab. (Sidebar -- yes, the van's 5 individual captain chairs would have been a lot more comfortable, especially for the 3 wedged in back, but it's my truck and I know where I'm sitting, you 4 work it out...)
Off we go -- Philadelphia -> Manchester, VT. 300 mi.
Long but uneventful drive, arrive on time, helpful venue staff, set up and soundcheck on time, start on time.
We were cleared to utilise the buffet, which was -really- good. Sorry, no food pictures, lucky to work the line and eat during breaktime in addition to fixing all the little setup gremlins that the first set shook out (teeny stuff - we actually are pretty good at this, but it was drummer's first gig with us, and we were all working with all our 'small setup' stuff).
Not our best show, some rocky parts, but customers didn't notice much (we are our own worst critics) and were very happy. Liked our song selection which is why we were hired in the first place.
Load out in the cold, dark, and rain (of course) and eventually re-discover how we'd got everything to fit the first time.
Uneventful drive back to the rendezvous point, unpack PA and kit, bid adieu to BL and drummer, head back to singergirls meeting point, unload them and their stuff, head home, in bed by 0330.
700 mi total round trip. BL paid for gas and tolls.
21-hr day. Almost double my regular gig rate...
TL;DR: Got paid to play music. It was a good day.
