Saturday, August 23, 2008

Leaving Cherry


...dodging raindrops on the road out of Cherry, Az.


...played music for an annual gathering of friends (our fifth or sixth year in a row of doing so) and today was the first time we had to deal with rainy weather...got in about half our show before wetness and electrical storms forced a halt to the procedings...some folks were curious as to why i was so adamant about stopping, when it looked as if things might clear up...


i related to them the tale of one of my most bizarre (and embarrassing) moments on stage...many moons ago, whilst a senior in high school, my band Climbfree (mentioned in an earlier post) was contracted to play an after-the-football-game sort of gig in the one of the two auditoriums in the school at which i was enrolled...this venue was referred to as "the old gym" and had been relegated to gym classes, team practices and music and theater productions since a new facility had been constructed for the high profile jock-o-cratic functions of athletic prowess...the old gym had wonderful acoustics for rock & roll and we always relished the chance to play there...

...it was an early November night and a moderate snow was falling as we loaded our gear into the building and we eagerly rolled everything into place and plugged in...amps were switched on and that wonderful, comforting hum filled my head...i strapped on my bass and stepped up to the mic to say "testing...testing...one, two three..."

...before i uttered the first "t" of "testing", a blinding blue flash leapt from the microphone to my face and the next thing i remember was the emergency medical personel injecting me with something to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest...and i was lying there onstage in a puddle of piss, drooling like a mad dog...needless to say, the show did not go on that evening, as i was not able to find my ass with both hands...

...the wet soles of my spanish boots of spanish leather (thanks Bob) were the perfect conducting medium for a poorly grounded electrical system...


...been sporting Converse All Stars onstage ever since...

2 comments:

Miss B said...

buahahaha... and i luv the all stars!!! i'll look for you in November, pumpky. it was a crazy time when you were out here... forgive me for not calling.

Unknown said...

no worries, Miss B....see you at Turkeytime...