The Skellig show last night skated on the edge of disaster. Traffic endeavoured to make us late. Whitney came with us, and though she claims to be impressed with what we do, I’m often aware that most gigs we have with her in the audience can be… lack-lustre. She probably wonders why the HELL we play in Boston. Delhill NOT Dru Hill is the other band and they arrive as I’m working out how to turn the sound system on. Their guitarist, electric guitarist, OTHER electric guitarist, mandolin, three vocals, bass and drum kit are all set up before I figure out how to make the sound system make a CRACKLE. I’m freaking OUT because I’m sure I’m not going to be able to figure out ANYTHING and there’s going to be NO SHOW and it’s going to be MY FAULT and after a while, with my brain thinking in ALL CAPS I begin to sweat.
Fortunately, one of the Del Hillians comes over and points out a switch I’d managed to flip the wrong direction and we finally get a mic working… ONE mic working… We check the rest and… nothing. Still can’t get anything off the acoustic guitar, or the other two vocal mics. It mocks me for quite a while before I figure out that one mic, then another mic, then the THIRD mic (cable) then the guitar (DI) are ALL BAD! I swap a lot of the house equipment out for my own, and finally things are up and running, roughly on time – and then the owner comes in and yells at me because it’s all too loud.
Sigh.
Eventually, things smoothed out. Once I got the drummer to tone down a bit, DruHill really fell into their groove and I was pretty impressed. Excellent three-part man-harmony. Of course, once they got off stage, most of their crowd wandered off, but they stuck around… the band and the bartender Loved us, and though that doesn’t translate to massive amount of human flesh in the club, it does translate to good vibes and a good time and a nice feeling at the end of the night.
Exhausted, we come back to Whitney’s. There’s work to be done, and Molly the Mouse isn’t ready to sleep (squeak squeak squeak squeak) but it’s been a very full day, and slowly, to the sounds of the city, unconsciousness clutches at me.
