Friday Night at The Bistro

It's been a long, long time since I was hit with a drink while playing music...more later.

In my band #2, we have 2 ladies who sing delightful harmony, a piano player and me on guitar. We play 50's & 60's music, mainly duets like the Everly Brothers.

Sing a long stuff...people love it. And they did last night too.

The Bistro has got to be the absolute worst place to play because the acoustics are terrible. Like playing in a metal drum.

We set up in the morning and did a sound check. All good. Not bad. I was shocked. They have remodeled and some of the sound problems have been fixed.

Or so I thought.

When I got home to rest up and change clothes, I told Yella. She said, "Don't get too excited...it still sucks...you will see."

We arrived a hour early and a few people were in the restaurant. It was LOUD. And only six people in the place.

Uh oh...

By the time it filled up, it was deafening...before we started playing music.

When we started, the crowd was louder than the band. Not good.

We go through the first set OK but frustrated. Then we turned up the PA a little for the second set and that effectively ruined the good sound we had in the first set...but it was louder...somewhat...the crowd was still louder than the band.

Between songs in the second set, I get hit with a plastic glass of fluid. Right on top of my guitar, over the electronics.

I look up to the balcony and see my wife and our friend laughing their asses off. I explode and scream obscenities at them...the kind that would make a drunken sailor on leave proud.

I have nothing to wipe down my guitar, so I use my hands, getting them sticky. Very difficult to play guitar with stickum on your hands.

I was furious. And that kind of destroyed the rest of the night for me. I couldn't shake the anger.

As I was playing, I am now mad at myself for still being pissed. That created a downward spiral of anger.

Too bad. It was a night to celebrate a job well done. And I couldn't. After the gig, I left in a pout, refusing my free meal, and went home and climbed into bed.

As it turned out, Yella had been throwing drink stir sticks at me and I didn't notice. She escalated to a plastic glass. She turned it over to make sure there was no fluid in it, but fluid adheres to plastic so there was enough left in the glass to make a mess on my guitar and shirt.

I don't think she will be doing that again. She was extremely apologetic for sure.

For a moment there, I flashed back to the drunken bars we played in during the 70's, where we did get hit with a drink from time to time.

I think we are regressing here.

It took me until about noon today to get over my anger hangover.

Thank God it's over. I am now doing nothing and reading a book, listening to the rain.

Ahhhhh.

Playing music takes it out of me. Am I getting old?

Don't answer.