The Intergalactic Cowboy

Yesterday, I was able to tear myself away from my stock market analysis long enough to drive to Atlanta and perform. The day began badly with my Mom and I having an argument about the unresolved issues of my childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and future. This did not help my voice at all …..

So, I packed up the car and drove to Duluth, Georgia, north of Atlanta and found the recording studio where I will be working today. I then checked into the motel and began preparing for the show. In addition to being emotionally upset, I was experiencing a new pain in my right hip, making it painful to walk. I hope that this is just a pulled muscle and not a new tendon problem down there ! Anyway, I warmed up my hands and voice and even checked my loop device through a small practice amp to confirm that it had remained undamaged during the trip. At 4:30 I left for the club and was greeted by the M.C. of the show named Warren. The headlining band was surprisingly already soundchecking at this early hour. This band is called Bishop Don, and they are a heavy, grungy, tight and powerful band a’la’ Seattle circa 1995. I was looking forward to seeing their set. Also surprisingly, I was allowed to soundcheck immediately afterward. I plug everything up and hardly any signal was going into the soundboard ! The soundman, Dylan, asked me to plug directly into the direct in box, without effects, and the signal became perfectly strong. We then added effect boxes, one by one, and discovered that the loop device was the problem. As some of you know, the loop is an instrument that I play, not just an extraneous effect. Before anyone could ask me not to use the loop during my set, I told them that during cold weather, the loop sometimes behaves this way until it warms up. We then discovered that when the loop was switched over to battery power, that the signal problem improved. I then plugged it back into the a.c. power and it continued to work o.k. Whew !!!!  

This club has a couple of small dressing rooms backstage with buckets of beer and bottled water for the musicians. As I went back to my dressing room I found the door shut, with the smell of a burning herbal substance coming from behind the door. A few minutes later I was able to go in there and warm up my fingers and voice. The dressing room was rather cold and the tendons on the top of my left hand started to stiffen and ache whenever I performed a warmup exercise that involved a stretch. I put on my gloves at my next break so as to maintain the blood  circulation to the tendons. At 5:45 pm a couple of you tried to get into the club, which was not yet open. For this I do apologize. 

 At five minutes before showtime I walked onto the curtained stage to check my tuning and to make sure the equipment was still working. The loop would not come on !  I unplugged it from the a.c. power and it would then function, but I really didn’t know how many minutes of battery life were left, considering that the cables had been hooked up to the unit for about and hour. I told the monitor mixer, Jason, that I wasn’t able to get and a.c. power and he said “o.k. just a minute.” He went to the back of the stage, lifted up some heavy coats off of the floor, flicked a switch, and the power came back on !  I tipped both him and the soundman after the show for their knowledge, good attitude and patience.

The show began at 7:15 with properly working loop and stage monitors. The guitar playing was good with no noticeable tendon pain. The vocals were shaky during the first three songs and then they improved. The small audience was responsive in a positive way, with moments of musical inspiration happening a few times during the set. Not bad for an event with so much potential for mental, physical and equipmental disability ! Even the bartenders enjoyed the show enough to want to shake my hand at the end of the performance.

I was unfortunately unable to attend Bishop Don’s set. I had reached my two beer limit and did not have the stamina to stay. I hope to attend one of their shows in the future.

Feeling alright,

I.C.