Worst Gig

["Steven D. Levine" <drsoul@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

After reading all of the great worst gig stories I'll have to share one 
that's not so extreme but pretty good. (or pretty bad - whatever)

A couple of years ago I played with my cousin's band at the Baltimore 
Blues Society blues contest. My cousin's a very talented guitarist but he 
doesn't have the greatest common sense in the world. You see, he offered 
to drive all of the band (except the drummer who lives in Baltimore and 
would meet us there) since he had a truck and could fit all of the 
equipment. Unfortunately he was moving out of his apartment that day and 
he edned up doing it all by himelf. He showed up at the singer/guitarists 
house a few minutes before we were supposed to go on, and we still had a 
hal hour to forty five minute drive! Plus his arms and shoulders were 
completely sore from moving all day and he needed aspirin before he could 
play. So Mike (the singer, who's the oldest in the band and kind of a 
father figure and bandleader) spends the whole ride to Baltimore yelling 
at Danny (my cousin.) He's yelling sutff like "Goddammit Danny, you act 
like a goddamn two year old! You know that! You should have gotten 
someone to help you!" And occasionally he would turn around and crack 
some kind of joke to me (I think because he knew I just wanted to shut up 
and get to the gig!) and start laughing. Then he would go back into his 
tirad against Danny. 

When we got to the club the contest people weren't very happy about us 
showing up so late. We got organized as best as we could. Danny went on a 
search for some aspirin. While we were setting up some guy came up to me 
and asked if he could sit in! He said something like "hey man I can play 
anything!" I tried to explain to him nicely that this was a contest, not 
a regular gig or open mic and people don't sit in at contests. (normally 
I have nothing against people sitting in - but that's another topic and 
thread :). So we played three or four songs and left. The gig itself 
wasn't so bad, just the circumstances sorrounding it. We didn't even 
stick around to see who won and thre was more yelling on the ride home. 
And did I mention that I was playing through a Pignose? :)

   -Steve