Happy Sunday. Third Sunday in a row to have my open mic rained out. So far it’s just not even going to get started, which is frustrating to say the least. Eyeballing the weather, NEXT Sunday looks like it’s supposed to rain as well. If we had a cover of some sort it’d be one thing, but as it is it’s just too risky to have a sudden storm and have to break down several thousand dollars worth of gear before it gets drowned and damaged.
On the other hand I’ve got to admit I’m kind of enjoying having the Sundays off.
Yesterday in Bethesda, though ABSOLUTELY satisfying, was far more exhausting than I felt it should’ve been. We were tasked with not just our own 2 hour set, but with the cancelation of another band we had an absolutely punishing 3 and a half hour set. We took breaks, but there’s no denying we’re more than a bit of out of shape, and though Live from the Lairs have at least kept us doing okay with 2 hour breakless setlists, it’s just not the same. I was feeling it by the end of the first set, and though I didn’t DRAG through set three, I must admit breaking down was like to kill me!
But Live performances – though they’re exhausting and though I stretch my bandwidth in order to cover lyrics and sound difficulties (we had more than our share of gremlins yesterday) at least have the advantage of being all-consuming. No part of my brain is left over for pondering the whys and the wherefores and the “but what about the war, pandemic and the unending evil that man visits upon his fellow man (altered as appropriate for gender)”. I treasure these moments of beautiful self-enforced mental bubble. Three and a half hours of the above is certainly worth the trade.
Today I just edge my mind forward in mental neutral. Not thinking much. Not thinking about the shootings in Buffalo. Not thinking about the war in Ukraine. Not even thinking about how a slow, dreary Sunday is still 24 hours off my Lifespan and I should be doing something productive at this moment lest I regret it later. (this is JUST enough angst to get me away from the computer, clean a desk, do a brief workout regimen… but here I am again an hour or so later with the cat sleeping at my feet and the sound of other peoples’ toil and yardwork drifting in from outside).
And in the time that it’s taken me to think through my non-thinking, it DOES look like the storms have shifted later in the evening and maybe I shouldn’t have canceled the open mic… but Jeni (the owner of the venue) didn’t want to miss the first one and is taking her kid to see Megadeth in any case…
(as of 7pm I officially could’ve held my open mic tonight and not had any rain, though the skies are beginning to glower, I hold out hope that the rain will just dramatically open up and POUR within the next half hour proving our decision to be sound… )
(It rained at 7.22pm. Coulda woulda shoulda)