[Harp-L] What if the band is inbetween keys?

[Michael Rubin <rubinmichael@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Last night I experienced the Gig From Heck.
   
  The main question, before I go into details, is the band was all string players and myself.  Half way thru the gig the leader needed to replace a string.  When we started playing again, everyone was off key with each other.  The other band members tuned to  the leader even tho I repeatedly suggested they all tune to me.  The band wound up a quarter step higher than standard tuning.  OH MY GOODNESS!  I sounded SO out of tune!  The closest I could do was get a harp a half step higher and try and bend to pitch.  
  The toughest moment came during a tune I had to really practice on Chromatic (this is not a regular gig for me.  I was hired and given some very specific melodies to learn after one 2 hour practice)  This song had the chromatic playing a melody in 3 different keys.  I tried to transpose to 3 new keys, each 1 half step higher than I had practiced while still dealing with the fact the the band was a quarter step lower than the new keys.  
  I now believe I should have just scrapped the melodies and soloed, which still would have been off pitch, but at least I would not have been stressing about hitting the right notes and accidentally hitting clunkers.  Another choice would have been to figure the melody out on a diatonic and then switching harps.  The harps would still be off key, but I would have only had to make the transposition once.
   
  I will write a separate email on my total gig from heck in the interest of possibly starting a thread on heck gigs.  
   
  For this thread, the question becomes: what do you do when the band is "in between" keys?
  Thanks,
  Michael Rubin
  Michaelrubinharmonica.com