First Gig
Last night, the band that I have been rehearsing with played its first gig at a local venue. My bandmembers have been balking at the idea of doing this due to our lack of tightness, but they finally swallowed their pride and accepted the offer that the clubowner presented to us. I am relieved that the clubowner no longer feels that we are ungrateful. Tell me, how many of you out there have had a clubowner ask you to perform at his club, rather that the other way around ? I realized from the beginning how fortunate we were to have a clubowner willing to support us, sight-unseen.
Despite our musical deficiencies, the crowd liked us. Our first set was comprised of classic rock songs that we knew fairly well. We, as a band, succeeded in transmitting our apprehension into energetic playing. The audience applauded politely. The second set was made up of tunes that we did not know really well and the audience was lukewarm. By the third set, we felt comfortable with the atmosphere of the club and gave a relaxed performance that the audience enthusiastically hooted and hollered over. They insisted that we play a couple of encores. One member of the audience seems to want to join the band. The club sold more beverages than they usually do on a Monday, which is, of course, the bottom line when it comes to having a band return.
Of course, there were some ridiculous moments. During “When The Levee Breaks” and ” Who Do You Love,” during the second set, all four bandmembers stayed out of sync with each other for the entire song. I have never experienced such rhythmic anarchy on a rock and roll stage ! It was so embarrising that I laughed out loud in the middle of the songs. Ironically, the club had better acoustics than our practice room and I was able to hear my bandmates better than usual. During at Love and Rockets song called… “Bound For Hell ?” I think, our drummer was playing at half time, which I had never noticed in the practice room. I forgot the words to ” Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, which is one of the three songs that I sing. Our harmonica player, Jerry Gordon, was his usual impecable self. This band is really his band. His stage fright causes him to play in the dark, behind a chair or table that is used to line up his collection of harmonicas.
This band needs a Myspace site.
With satisfaction,
I.C.