We played for a fundraiser last night. Private college, pricey dinner, high production presentation, fancy dress-up, live and silent auctions, lots of money dripping all over the place. Typical of the sort of thing we usually play. But more on that in a minute.
The absolute highlight was meeting my 21st blogger! It was No One Special (not to be confused with No One In Particular)! She called just as we were getting to town. Told her to pick me up in two hours. The band sets up, we get checked in at the hotel, and I wait to hear from her again. Well, in the midst of a sound check, the phone rang, which I missed. The poor girl had been sitting outside waiting for me! Ack! Anyway, we meet, head to Old Chicago (Jess--you weren't kidding!), and have some appetizers and beer. She wanted to make sure that I told you that she isn't a crazy person! Far from it! I wish I had more time with her--we only had about two hours. She's a little shy, not crazy, quite attractive, has a wonderful smile, and I think this wasn't the last time I'll see her. Hope not, anyway...
The gig started out with great promise. Probably the biggest banquet that we've played for. The auctioneer was good, keeping things clicking along, and was only about 5 minutes behind. We were ready to go immediately afterwards. And then it went downhill. We had hoped that the typical dinner/auction/dancing crowds in Helena were an anomaly. Apparently not. By the time we took our first break, over half the crowd had left. By the time we ended, the only people dancing were some of the students that showed up to tear down. Why did we stay to the end? Because of the one table in the corner with about 10 people. And a contract is a contract. But man, is that a lousy way to end a night. Unless you're a performer, you have NO idea how deflating it is when you have no energy coming back from an audience/dance floor. Even though we played a pretty good gig, we ended the night on a low.
To put a cap on the evening, I wore the bad shoes, so that my knees were shot, and the back spasmed trying to take pressure off the knee, and as I went to bed, I tossed and turned trying to avoid leg cramps. And this morning I did the "old man shuffle" to get to the van to go home. I'm just getting old, I suppose. How do Mick, Keith and the boys do it??
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