The morning after: The Stagger is always a rough gig – but I always have to put it in perspective. We just played for four hours… plus an hour of set up and break down… it’s equivalent to me working a day at the House of Musical Traditions. Certainly it’s a Hell of a lot more strenuous, but it’s that amount of time.
Now, during that time there are moment’s of triumph (cute girl in hat comes up and says “you’re hot. You’d be hotter if you knew any Paul Simon”. Alas… we’re not prepped to play 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover) and moments of failure and abuse (“Yeah, so I GET it you’re a ‘badass guitar player’ but really, it’s like we’ve been listening to the same damned song for 3 hours.”) but I would get that in the store (“yay I sold a guitar!” “really? you’re asking me directions for Chuck Levin’s?”) and in every job before I’ve received similar highs and lows… though I’d argue that nothing quite gets me as high as playing – and even the abuse is something I can channel.
And so it’s important to remember after such a long gig that I’m walking away after one night what I’d make after 3 days at HMT. I could go further back and think about Glovia… but that’s not a very good thing to do because I’d have made last night’s wage in about 3 hours working for my previous corporate benefactors.
And so I wouldn’t trade it – but perhaps it’s time to ask for a bit more money. Seth Horan was horrified when he realized that we’d actually agreed to play a four hour gig. Of course, he also felt I should’ve fired Sharif for the “I just ate McDonalds and have locked the power windows to my vehicle… suffer my smelly wrath” incident.
Well, theoretically this should allow me into the F.O.O.T. club – “Friends of ole Toyfare”, because I’ve now had a famous friend get his picture taken with the magazine. However, Seth Horan probably isn’t as famous as they’d like and also I think that that part of the magazine is defunct. Still, it’s good to see someone ELSE geek it up for a change. Not that it’s not MY magazine… hrm.
We’re just very different people, I suppose. Which is a good thing – it takes all sorts.
Thoughts while driving to see Watchmen: breast pump rental? Really? I understand that it’s not something you’ll need after a given period of time but that seems a little bit funky. Also – Bibles, books and hot tubs. I approve! Soapy spiritual sensual arousal… whoa. Good Bible.
The real high points last night involved jamming with Seth. He’s such an amazing bass player – he really added a great flavour to tunes like Drown and LooseN, Hands and Locomotive Breath and Oklahoma Revival. Unfortunately I didn’t click the “record” button on the video, but the audio is great and I’ll be able to mine that for ideas for weeks to come. He’s even offered to add some tracks to recordings, which could be a lot of fun. I admire him muchly.
If memory serves, the first time we encountered the City Museum in Saint Louis, MO – it was after a LOT of Susan telling us “this is the coolest place in the world” and us putting her off because EVERY town has someone telling us “this is the coolest place in the world” – and we didn’t end up hitting it up till we had a gig booked there… and then we went back the next day to TRULY see it… so I THINK these are photographs from the night’s visit, where we couldn’t really wander… but who really knows… – rob 8/19/19
