There was a LOT of build up to this show, then some panic, then it was probably off and then it was on. The mayor got involved but then we didn’t accept what the mayor was offering and we sort of went with the original plan instead with a whole lotta “hope for the best” kinda action.
But it was a good time, and that should be the majority of the story. As I sit in the exhausted afterglow of having played one of our tightest shows ever it continues to amaze me that that should be the case DESPITE the fact that we haven’t seen Sharif since February and we’re missing Heather and Joey.
So – the gig was supposed to go off pretty much like the Fourth of July, except this time around, 8 days before the gig we get an email that says basically “hey, don’t worry about it – but just a reminder that the noise ordinance IS in effect for this event which means nothing over 65db at the property line aaaand btw the new COVID restrictions in College Park are like the square footage of Living space in your home divided by 200 kay thanks!”
I mean. But like. In legalese. Soooo we had to write back and explain that my laugh pegs 70db and is probably louder than taiko and that’s limiting us to 11 people (or technically family groups) and so with the performers alone including the ones that are lying about being brother and sister that only leaves space for like 5 people and really, how the Hell do you expect us to stick to that? There was a whole lot of back and forth with the mayor saying “well, it’s really about college parties” and the organizer saying “just do your best” but no-one quite saying “so the exemptions made for city events will apply to THIS event” and then it turned out that the College Park Arts Exchange is just an Arts Exchange IN College Park and not actually associated with the city so that’s why we don’t have any city exemptions and council peeps just reply “well, here’s the law” and it just sort of seems like maybe, just maybe, get a permit next time…
In any case, Mark and Kristen (that’s Mark’s Kristen not my Kristen, not that ownership is being ascribed, you understand, this is merely for the purposes of association and identification) decided that they’ll take the risk and we all agree that probably the worst that can happen is we get shut down by the police and that’s always kinda cool anywho so we just stopped advertising and I told my mom she could come but we pretty much told everyone else they COULDN’T come and we had a good time.
Ahem.
A great time actually. I’ll remix the video eventually since the webcast wasn’t so hawt.
A very great time though. I’ll HAPPILY remix the video since it’s SORT of like Living through it again.
