Geek, Nerd, or Doofus?

Ok, It has happened. The official time is 1:42 pm Tuesday December 23rd and I am typing out this post when I actually have nothing to say except some trivial details from my life.

I switched my day off from work this week since I was playing tonight at the Vintage Bar which is located inside the loop from the Galleria. The problem with playing there on a Friday is Traffic. The 8:30 start time is early for that part of town but the Vintage Bar shuts down at midnight. It takes me about an hour to set up all my equipment and tune up and I like to take a break after that so I can be in the right frame of mind for the "show". If I leave my house and get stuck in rush hour traffic, The whole thing can turn pretty hectic. I find that it is better to just leave early and miss the worst of the traffic, Get set up, and then just hang out and relax until the start time.

Since it is right before Christmas, I am not really sure what kind of turn-out to expect. Last year I played out on Mason Road at Dukes Tavern on December 23rd and quite a few people showed up but it is a completely different kind of venue. Plus it was also "Dollar Beer" night.

I am kind of looking forward to tongiht since my nephew, Trevor, Called me yesterday and told me he is planning to be there. He is a working musician as the bass player in the "Levi Smith" band out of Big Spring Texas. He is also a guitar player, but most of all he is Trevor and I am hoping that he can make it out.

I also have had a few friends tell me they were going to try to show up also & I would enjoy that also.

The Vintage Bar is a very intimate setting and the tables are right around the stage. You can actually play a gig and at the same time catch up with old friends between (& sometimes during) songs.

One thing that I have learned over the past two years is that you can never predict what the gig turn-out will be & you just have to focus on playing 100% either way.

I did a gig at an Ice House last year. The place had just opened up and didn't really have much of a customer base so it was about 18 or 20 people at the busiest point of the night. I played 4 hours and it was a weeknight & everybody pretty much left around 11:30 except for this one dude who only spoke spanish & he was only hanging around because he wanted to pick up the bartender (who happened to be married)

He was sitting at a table close to the bar and was facing the bartender. I asked him from the stage if he would prefer to hear blues, country, or classic rock? but he never even looked up at me.

Being and Icehouse and an open air venue, I just tried to focus on playing to Nature or the Universe. I played for the remaining 30 minutes until midnight and then started loading up my equipment.

Right next to this particular Ice House on the other side of a wood fence is a three story motel. The doors open to the outside and they have the metal fence along the balcony/hallways.

As I was loading some stuff into my truck, This dude came walking up to me in the parking lot and told me he was in from out of town and him and his wife had listened to me playing from thier balcony. He hit me with some kind words and handed me a tip also.

The reason I had got this gig in the first place is because I was doing a full band gig down the street about a month before that and had gotten into a disagreement with the drummer. I felt like he was kind of slacking off & he said he was tired but I was mad because I thought he should have shown up ready to play or just fake it and look happy. I told him that if someone walked in for 10 or 30 minutes or what ever amount of time, That would be the only opinion they would probably ever have of our band.

When we finished playing, a lady (the Ice House owner) walked up and spoke to the drummer and asked him how much we charged for a gig. He told her to talk to me about it. It turned out that it was out of her budget but she did hire me to do my "One Man Electric Band" show. I ended up doing about 8 gigs there and she ended up selling the place.


I have to go now so you will have to figure out the moral to this story on your own.


Take Care