What’s in it? — a gig story.
I parked up a dark street — they think I’m gonna pay the $20 for parking? No, no. I high-tailed it up and down back alleys, through neighborhoods, and down one way streets going the wrong way. Finally a spot appeared from no where. I said my prayer of thanks and got to stepping — throw the big bag with the speaker over the shoulder and grip the broken grip of the guitar case, you’re gonna be late.
I ripped and roared through the darkness of Atlanta, dodging shadows and doing a hop-skip-and-a-jump when I thought something moved that shouldn’t have. I flung open the door to the venue and said my now trademarked line — “I’m the music for this evening” said with an air of victorian era entitlement. A fella named Cliff (Keith? Kevin?) led me upstairs — “We’re gonna put you up here for tonight, we’ve got a rave DJ on the first floor.” Not what you want to hear at the start of a chill acoustic guitar gig, let me tell yuh. I started plugging in my gear and taking in the coolness of the “vibes” in the room. The space was ready, with a capital R, for whatever it is that people came there to do. Neon lights, palm trees, WWE on the projector TV — yep.
The bar tender, went by the name Gasket (Gerald? Gabe?). “We‘re a non alcoholic bar, so I can offer you a kava cocktail on the house, if you want.” Having too many dietary restrictions as it is, I didn’t want to add whatever kava was to the list, so I tried to politely decline. “Nah man, it’s great! It’ll make your mouth numb, so don’t freak out.” he said. Before I could say “but I don’t want my mouth numb, I’m about to sing for 3 hours” there was a pineapple-kava-thing in my hand. Sure enough, it did make my mouth numb, and I did freak out. But turns out the mouth numbing thing came at a good time, because only one poor soul came out to the neon, palm tree, WWE, kava bar that night. So me and Randy (Ricky? Rusty?) talked for about an hour about who knows what. I learned all about his job, and his brother, and about his deepest fears. And every now and then, whenever there was a lull in the conversation, I sang a song…So anyway, enough about me what’d you do last Tuesday night?
Watch the “I’ll Go With It” sketched lyric video HERE
