I'm not going to say that any of my recent ones were "bad". ( repeated 100 times..)

I've had hundreds of 'em so bad that if I were offered the chance to wrestle a group of wild Pygmies for a half hour, hog tied and blindfolded, for 50-150 bucks, I'd take it, sight unseen. (Outnumbering the "good ones" but about 33.45%)

There is a point where you steel yourself for the gig, with getting your sound "just right" or having a new change or lick that you're going to try on "Truck Drivin Man", some Travis picking you're going to play over "That's Alright", or a dozen other things to "get through it".

Ususally *it* "lasts" about a set and a half.

Then trying to play any kind of solo over a rushing drummer, ( or a dragging one, I guess though they're the "exception"..), Playing against a rythym guitar that makes the out of tune lead guitar sound in tune an a bass player that hasn't learned the three chord songs that are being trashed in a year or so, so the initial silence of the bass part is actually one of the high points. Then the vocals, though they're mercifully out of the range that would loosen teeth, let alone fillings should they be in the range of your instrument ( or your monitor which you've unplugged).

At a certain point, whatever demons or imps of Heck find a crack in your musical armor, and stream into your soul, with their chaotic scalpels and miniature meat axes and skull saws ripping away your cerebral cortex, and attack the very fiber of your musical soul. The morning of the next day finds you wondering why you aren't coughing up blood.

Then, the Next night.

Somehow it SEEMS that all involved have had a mild awakening. The intros are there. the tuning is better, the thought that it "really wasn't that bad last night" threatens to fill your mind, or what's left of it.

That lasts through about a set and a half. Then the demons and imps come out in full force for a full assault. Pictures of the crucifiction in the first person take hold and replace clock watching. To "regular people" the club is empty. To you, it is just filled with scenes and denizens from Dante's Inferno on some hitherto undocumented substrata, well below the pools of fecal slush, and hordes of stinging gnats.

Well, then the bartender "lets you go" 15 minutes early, you start thinking of jokes to tell, tell them while you're ripping your chords and plugs out cooly but sharply, somtimes ripping the jacks off and not bothering to wind them up, load up your rig, and go back in and stand by the bar feeling like Lee Harvey Oswald must have felt waiting for his ticket to the theatre, to get yourself paid. Though your etherical being is already miles away in total flight, your entertainer's body is there waiting for ehough money to pay your months' electric bill. When it gets there, the "car accident eternity" happens while you thank them. beg off the "after work" free drink, tell them you'll see them at the next gig, thank them profusely.

And SPLIT.

The ride home is a mixture of glee, rage, and remembrance of too many broken resolutions not to "do it again". The two fifties are on the dashboard as a visual reference point and mile post markers remind you that "nobody saw it".

Then comes the Day After.

You know that you'd BETTER set up your guitar and plug it in. You're sitting hoping some inanity on the Bulletin Boards you frequent will draw your attention into some controversy that will help dull your memory.

THEN. As if by magic, you play your "excersizes", your "mentor" appears and smiles at you after your thumb gets working again. You're OK. Pretty much..

Your Next gig is one where you KNOW that it will all be reversed. It is one where the "imps and demons" are replaced by friendly spirits and cherubim, your music and practice are rewarded with magical gaining of ability.

You're playing those Paul Franlkin and Emmons licks like you wrote 'em. "Brokenheartsville" come off just like the record.

The "load out, and payout" doesn't take long enough. There is a "basking".

You're Reborn.

At least until you find out that "there aren't any more new bookings"...

The next week?

Heaven, or Hell, just like the Waylon Jennings song...

Flip a coin.

Well, here's my observation. From a Bush League standpoint:

Playing live music with ANY band is like a total rearangement of the psyche. Like a Cold Water swim. Probably like electroshock treatments (though I've not as yet experienced them). Like Chinese Water Torture™ Body Piercing,or Marathon Running.

For better or worse, I and many here and elsewhere, live lives where a regular "wringing out" is needed, expected, built up for, and is the "drug" to which many of us are seriously addicted to. Those that have "broken this addiction" I sometimes envy. Often it "denial to the death" (and lives filled with co-dependents).

"The Money" is an artful dodge to be able to rationalise playing the "bad ones" and a slightly egotistical topping on the "good ones". You can claim that "it's just the money" on the former, and that "money doesn't mean anything compared to the 'Joy of Playing®' " on the latter.

I can imagine a "top shelf guy" (or gal) going through this, and as a matter of fact I've seen and heard it on 'live feeds', though few of them can be public about their observations.

No theorum, no solution except to "plug it back in".

Just a couple observations.

My Sho~Bud awaits..

( after I reattach a couple plug ends...)

EJL

©2003

[This message was edited by Eric West on 09 November 2003 at 01:31 PM.]

Addiction is hell. With just enough good feeling moments to keep you addicted.

There's always Bette Ford.

(hello...my name is Eric and I'm a Shobud addict...)

I always try to leave anough mispellings and poor sentense stricture, showing that it wasn't ritten by my staph of riters.

EJL

TE

I can stop any time I want to, just not today. Maybe after the Next Good Gig.

I don't hide my guitar. I can't find anyplace that hasn't got harley parts stuffed away.

It doesn't make me miss work. There isn't any.

And I'm NOT in DENIAL. I'm NOT, I'M NOT, I'M NOT!!!

At "Interventions" I just play so loud that I don't here their well intentioned testimonials. They just put money in my tip jar and go home.

[This message was edited by Eric West on 09 November 2003 at 02:05 PM.]

I do have a forum posting division. They pretty much work night and day. Then there's the "Substance Division". They make sure that none leaks out.

Sometimes it's not what you are looking at, but how you see it that makes a person's perspective entertaining, if not inspirational.

I try to overcome the urge to cut an ear off.

Mental stability is highly over rated. A calm herd of buffalo invites wolves.

The Lows are kind of rough to navigate, but I for one wouldn't want to trade them in for the highs. The can be GREAT.

By no means should you or anybody get off amy mood leveling medication on my account.

The doctor knows what he's doing in most cases I'm sure..

Besides..

Somebody has got to keep b0b glued to the computer screen...

Poor guy... I think he's read too much..

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 09 November 2003 at 06:19 PM.]

When I gazed into them I was stunned. It was like looking over a cliff. There was the absolute nothingness that eastern religions strive so hard for. Perfect and Pristine Non Rythym.

It remains there to this day. Punching him would be like knocking over a statue of Bodhisatva. I'm resolved that inner semi-righteous rage will conquer ignorant inner peace. It always has.

There are three types of drummers. One that preferably has the best and most subtle rythym sense of the band. They are mostly gone working with top name bands or working the family landscape business.

#2 does everything he can think of to drive you and the band crazy, and they do it on purpose.

#3 doesn't have a clue why people are so hard for him to follow, and hopes they don't hate him for not being able to... But then he feels inwardly that since everybody is in such a state of frustration in the bands he works with, that having no rythym sense makes him no worse than people that are puking up blood trying to solo.

Punching #3 doesn't do anything but make you feel like a mean person.

#2 you can take him in the back room at break and ususlly straighten him out. I'm usually not the one that has to do it in my case, I just go get a coke and it's handled b4 the next set..

Beating people up as a management or communication tool only works well in the short term, when there is a high turnover.

I already thought of it..

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 09 November 2003 at 06:21 PM.]

------------------
Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 09 November 2003 at 08:00 PM.]

You described my experience of late. Were YOU there watching from the sidelines? I nearly packed up the gear in the second set to head home. All of the pre-gig packing, anticipation and prep, including the long long drive, was trashed by a few ugle remarks by the leader.

Ray Ray ( I was writing after you posted, and this is an Edit... I can probably guess. (tee hee )

Nobody should think that I don't "pass" on gigs, or that I don't "pass on" gigs. Either way you've seen me "in combat" and I think you can attest that when you have, it's not Me that these "bad attitudes" come from. You've known me for 25 years and seen damn near all of the bands I've been with, and still play with. I thank you for your kind words, jibes,and even the [i[cold[/i] french fries.

Some of the gigs I've been on "because of the fight", found me and the band I was in opening, closing for or accompanying national acts. In the last month. They were Good Gigs. The Good was well worth The Bad, that's for sure.

*****

Mr's Hinson and Quasar.

Well I'll certainly not dispute the wisdom that comes with age. Even at 50.

I do envy those that can cherry pick, and have certainly earned the priveledge. Before getting a hundred bucks for a months worth of electricity again became a little more than a slight inconvenience, I cherry picked too. Believe me, I will again.

Similarly those that choose the path with the least adversity. They have their rewards verily. I've never seemed to be one of them, so I wouldn't know.

It might be noted that the good gigs I find are just as strenuous or moreso, and I don't get "called down" too much for stating my enjoyment of them. I've had fulfillment way beyond what many experienced that I wouldn't have gotten if I'd stayed at home enjoying "the good attitudes" of those close to me or a "good old easy critter club gig". Maybe the "downs" do make me more appreciative of the "ups".

Kind of like my other job, the enjoyment is not as much in the doing, as in the being able to do.

Has it "hurt my playing"? I dunno. Ask around.

We all know above all those that "can", "do", and those that "can't" well.. they do all kinds of things.

I have to admit that this morning I woke up and showed a side of my life that isn't what I would choose. I also noted the way that I get "out of it". Today after going over "buddy's therapy" (aptly named) "almost to tulsa", and playing along with Larry Bell's version of Ashoken Farewell, ( sorry LG ) for a couple of hours, and doing some recording, I found I was right back to my old smiley self

Maybe it'll register to the guy that either hasn't been "onstage" before, and gets swamped by this "stuff" after a coupleto a dozen years or the guy that is ready to hang it up because of a couple lousy gigs, or a couple years' string of them.

That's probably why I don't go back and edit them into a row of happy faces. I easily could I guess...

Life should be so easy..

Thanks guys.

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 09 November 2003 at 09:39 PM.]

but have you heard.....?

Q.How do you get a musician to complain?

A.Get 'em a gig

Now I know why you left our band.....

To me, the worst gigs are the ones where the other musicians are bitching about something. I just hate that. The crowd usually can't bring me down, and if some of the players aren't all that good, well, at least they're trying. But when another musicians gets a bug up his butt, it pretty much ruins the gig for me.

The people I play with nowadays all have real good attitudes.

I've watched the finest musicians I worked with run each gig down to the end, and at this point most are staying at other peoples' houses, and it's wearing thin. They never "got what they deserved" Musically anyhow. Early on, I got a "Real Job".

I just rechecked my "personal profile". I don't see "Musician", or "Pedal Steel Player" listed anywhere. Strangely enough, it's not even listed as one of my "Hobbies". I look at it as something I "have to do" as mentioned in my initial post, for the reasons I listed.

While the "other guys" were sleeping til 2pm, starting about 85 when construction re-emerged, after "playing full time for a sole source of income for 6 or 7 years" I was waiting under an asphalt plant with a dump truck, or loading up a trac hoe at 6 am. Sometimes right after the 200am gig. Until this last year I was working three music jobs and doing 40-60 hours every week. That's probably why I have a nice house, and can see a whole year out in front of myself before I have to start "selling things".

My recent reluctant renaissance was brought about due to economic conditions in my state, which is the Worst economically in the Union. Lots of people are doing things they never thought they'd have to do again. I get a kick out of people, especially those that haven't been through a number of recessions (or a depression) opining how not having a "proper car" or a "suitable house" or "a good entertainment center" let alone full medical and dental, and college funds for the kids in "appropriate universities" is a "personal choice". I know a whole city full of them that don't even have half the things that I have, let alone part time work skills to fall back on. Now they're having a hard time selling their jet skis, power strokes, and new harleys to make their house payments. MOst of them are just going broke quietly hoping that the bankrupcy court will be to clogged to deal with them.

Due to the choices I made, I'm in a better spot than most of the people I know.

I do get a kick out of these "horrible" jobs, listening to the bickering that I hear. They're fighting about "who's singing the worst harmony" or "who never loads equipment", or who isn't paying who back for the couple hundred bucks they borrow.

I tend to save mine at least until after the gig.

Incidentally, the people that I play with can at ANY time read my asessments, and they often do. If I considered any of them wrong, or was told that they were "off base" I'd be doing the "smiley edit" thing. Among the many things I am here, a "tourist" is not one of them.

Certainly my fellow players. Most of them know exactly what I mean, including one I can think of that recently lost his "day career", and a couple that are "having to look at their "joyful pursuits" in a little different light. Ray too, at 60,is fighting to keep his day pursuit options open while driving the biggest trucks with younger competetive guys, and like most everybody I know in Oregon, hoping ( and we REALLY hate to have to "hope") that things get better.

I certainly am.

Others that have made "better decisions" too, I appreciate.

I suppose people with arthritis shouldn't have eaten the way they did..

I too don't think "luck" has a lot to do with how you make it in this world. Keeping in mind that nobody leaves alive..

Those that don't have struggles, aren't really doing much of anything. Those that pretend that they aren't having them, and actually are, I suppose they have their reward. Stoicism is certainly still a manly value. So it seems, is Illiteracy.

I certainly have plans when either the economy gets better, or I move temporarily to a place where it is. I've never been one to "hope in one hand and wish in the other".

I've lived here since the Centennial in 1958 and have seen 3 or 4 of these economic downturns. It's no surprise.

Yesterday's QA Exec is today's Oil Can Henry attendant.

Todays Hi Tech employee is tomorrow's Pizza Guy.

If I'd have started off at a McDonalds 20 year ago I'd be hiring musicians to wash my Beemer. ( I'd be too fat to..)

Either way. I'll weather it. I've seen worse.

Just a little "slice of life" here in the Big Poodle..

Anybody feels like they need to "pile on".

The Fairway's open.

Tee Up.

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 10 November 2003 at 02:27 PM.]

wow Oregon must be the land of milk and honey

that was hilarious eric.

[This message was edited by Jesse Harris on 10 November 2003 at 04:53 PM.]

After you've been here 6 months you can be considered an "old timer".

Up here you can turn Arnold off if you want..

That was at the top of the list as super bad,which was one of the reasons I gave it up in 79 for a day job......

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Bill Ford

[This message was edited by Bill Ford on 10 November 2003 at 05:45 PM.]

I think of the red faced band teacher that sent myself and Jon Koonce, a local rock guy packing out of band class telling us that we just "weren't fit" to play music in 1966.

Both of us played more after that than he ever thought of. All he did was bitc# at and discourage young people..

Some play music out of love of the art. Some for money. Mine has been a mixture or the two, but in addition, sometimes out of sheer Spite . The Best of it I think..

So shoot me...

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 10 November 2003 at 05:54 PM.]

It's one thing to come home from a "bad" gig and it takes two or three days to get over it....and it's another thing when it begins to take longer to get over the bad job before it's time to start over.

Whether the fault is with the band or with our motivation......or when the bad gigs consistently outnumber the good and it's no longer any fun to go play, then it's time to hang it up....either temporarily or permanently!

Been there and done that!

quote:

---

my willingness to whore out what Ive worked so dilligently to refine

---

Boy Mike, I'm sure glad I've never done THAT ( BBBWWWAAHAHhahaha)

Yeah things are different I think for all of us. In my case it was the first time I played "Lookin for Love" in an Odd Fellows Hall for a 75$ wedding gig. Now I'm wondering if they're still booking, though I don't think there are any bands around that can play the song..

quote:

---

It is sometimes acceptable to hold a horse's head underwater to get him to drink If he's dead, and you've already beat him to try and bring him back to life to feed him some more oats. (-EJL-)

---

I've thought of it in a couple different ways. It's not the sheer number or percentage, but more like other occupations. Say a Vice Cop. MOst of the days are filled with removing gum from shoe soles, collaring low level musician types, and eating cold donuts on stakeouts, and when the BIG Bust comes around, it makes it all worth while.

Teaching kids in a school similarly. Inbetween all the spitwads, cutups, and In Service days, there's ONE kid, One day a week or so that makes it all worth it. ( for a while).

Then there's the Criminal I suppose that does a pick pocket or car jacking here and there, playing gigs inbetween, and then finds a whole street full of parking meters to cut the heads off of...

Too often it reminds me of Me, sitting in front of a nickel slot machine waiting for that 50 dollar jackpot, so I can play the quarters....

There IS a time to "stay home". For me it's when wages get below 50$, the people have shorted or crossed me before, or I'm just too tired to go out and do it, thought I gotta admit the latter two rarely keep me home.

Funny how things go..

Time to cruise the Vegas Sun Want ads for Dump Truck/Lowboy jobs.....

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 11 November 2003 at 01:43 PM.]

Man, reading all these bad experiences really takes me back. Luckily it's been years since most of them happened to me, so far....

One of the more unusual ones for me, was once when I lived in Las Vegas and a guitar-player friend asked me to fill-in on guitar for him at a Ski Lodge gig, he was doing a country-music duo with a piano-player girl.

He said it was all stuff I either already knew or would have no problem following and I said sure, why not. The room was pretty large but the area for the instruments (no real stage) was very small and there was not much room for my amp. Out of habit I set it on a chair, and had to put it between the piano player and me, and with us sitting on a bench and a chair, that made it almost ear level. That was my second mistake (the first being taking the gig). It was just your average twin-type amp and believe it or not, most people tell me I don't play loud enough, I'm very aware of the in-your-face too loud guitar player and don't want to be him...

So, very first song, the girl says this song starts with her alone on piano, for the first 8 bars I think it was, then the guitar comes in. She starts it out softly on the piano, then comes to the part where I come in, it was easy to hear but of course she gives me an exaggerated nod to cue me anyway. I very lightly and softly strum the first chord, an F, and the very second I hit it she put her finger to her lips and very loudly went SHHHHHH!!!! I almost fell off my chair. I thought "what th--!" Then she hisses at me, "YOU'RE TOO LOUD!!!" I knew I wasn't, but OK, I turned it down and she nodded approval. It was so soft that sitting right in front of my amp, I could barely hear it. People in the audience said "turn up the guitar, we can't even hear him!" so I got the OK to turn up a bit. I explained to her it just seemed loud because of where the amp was sitting, I set it on the floor and that helped.

Next, after doing Rose of San Antone, she turns to me and nastily says "OK, you showed me you know how to play the guitar, yeah you're real good and all that, now stop all the improvising, they don't like that here!".

I said "Huh? You want me to not do any improvising?

"Right".

"None?"

"None".

"Just play the melody every time it's my solo?"

"Yes!".

I did that for maybe the next song, then started sneaking in dress notes here and there, she didn't seem to notice. Then I started really getting mad. I decided on the break I'd just tell her this is just the wrong place for me to be, thanks but no thanks, I'm sure you'd be happier if I just packed it up right now. I started playing any improvisations I felt, at least tried to keep them tasteful - and by the way, several people came up to me and complimented my playing while she sat there.

Funny but when it was break time she said something, I don't remember what at the moment but it was something nice and we talked a little bit and sorta worked things out, the rest of the gig went OK. I was still glad to get my money and get OUT. When I left she was all "really great job, love to use you again" but I never heard from her again and was glad of it.

Another guy in Vegas...I'm playing steel and he, the leader is a guitar player. One night in a quiet ballad in the part where he's playing fills and I'm just laying out anyway, I decided to pick up my kleenex and dab at my allergy-stricken schnoz. You'd have thought I'd done something terrible, cuz after the song, right on stage, guitar-player-man starts yelling at me, "When you're playing with me, don't you EVER put your bar down and stop playing!!!"

I said, "You want me to play ALL THE TIME?"

"YES!"

In my usual "let me see if I really understand this" style, I again asked,

"You want me to play nonstop, from beginning to end of the song?"

He yelled "YES, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!!!"

"Ohhh-kaaay, if that's what you want..."

I quit that band not long after...

(For any beginners out there, DON'T play all the time, this guy is just NUTS!)

This same guy later actually punched my replacement in the face over something, guess I was lucky.

And then there was the country band I played with in Petaluma, California... At some point I played a C9th chord and the bass player starts yelling "C! C! C!" at me.

Or maybe he was just really digging it and was actually yelling, "¡Si, Si, Si!" ???

Never thought of that.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 12 November 2003 at 02:55 AM.]

I have'nt ever unplugged, but the closest I came to it was about ten years ago at a 75$ Elks job. It was a three piece with a Way too fat young keyboard player, a midi rythym section and a lead singer with the personality of a cocker spaniel and a music stand. He couldn't play ONE Hank Williams song without reading the words. I think most of us know the type. Sang and played like hell too.. You know the gig.. I "hid" there for a year working every weekend, ( and other bands sometimes with 5 niters), as the "day thing" was netting me a good house down payment.

Anyhow. I had had to fight in wage negos for no less than 75$ on "regular" 300$ gigs, and 25% on anything over that. It was because "I used is pa, didn't haul his equip... etc etc.. no need for a thread on that bs..

Suffice it to say, I was barely there..

Soo. I was always fighting getting out of my 8 axle paving truck in time for work on a meat grinder season. I was "required" to help unload, load up etc. It was a real bear to get there at 6 when I worked til 5:30. I alwys did it though even if I had to change in the car or the hallway.

One night I was stuck with a paver to haul, and was "late" for the load in. I was onstage 15 minutes before the gig, and was in the back taking off my reflective vest and cleaning my fingernails when the bandleader told me that I was going to get "docked" for being "late".

I promptly told him that I was going to go over and unplug my stuff, and go home. About that time, he said to wait, and that it was OK, but we were going to have to "talk about it.. I said that that was fine but to keep in mind that this was my 2 week notice. Well we never did "talk about it", and before the next gig he'd forgotten about the two week notice. I lined up another local player, that quit him soon after that.. He called me wanting me to "sell him my "band shirts". (red black and white matching levi western store boughts.) at less than what I paid for them. I think I laughed and said no..

I think what gets me more than anything is that around here, the wages are about twice the dirt level that good players are willing to work for in the "hot spots", and we seem to have about half the musicianship you'd find in your average "$30/night" "big name venue". That's too, another can of bugs.

It's a lot harder to "quit" some of these horrible jobs, and it does take a toll on players that have inner motivation, and a "need" to "keep playing", whether it's for the "art" or for the "money".

Still, and I think the point of my post and input into the string, with those that are "discouraged" at ANY level is that "plugging it back in" is the only way I've found to "beat it". Some of the "vibes" you get from the "situations" and damaged " group psyches" can really wreck a persons spirit otherwise.

Thank God for my Dr Rythym™, worn out as it is. And the people here that share similar experiences..

And my faithful old Sho~Bud. The one thing I'd like to be able to "take with me".

EJL

I am convinced you have some speech recognition software, I cannot imagine having the patience to type the posts you do. Or the time.

Time, well, until this year I haven't.. and it's not been a year I want to repeat.

EJL

"Pablo, go sit in the corner until you can paint a tree and a dog like all the other children."- Unknown Schoolteacher-

[This message was edited by Eric West on 13 November 2003 at 02:56 PM.]

The period I posted the original post was one of my favorite times, and like many others, I wouldn't trade the experiences for the world, good or bad..

Myself? It's gone very well, getting back full time into my equipment hauling "day job", a New Marrs, and after getting fired from one band, outlived a couple more, I've been able to work steadily in Club/Lodge settings with a bunch of guys I really like to play with, and filling in the "holes" with a couple others.

Even got a bunch of cheap ChinaCasters to spark some further branching out..

Other than the guys that have long ago quit and "gone home", is anybody else sticking with it long enough to find rewards for hanging in there playing paid public gigs?

I noted Jim Phelps' keeping at it in Mexico paid off for him a while back, and wondered how that has been going.

TIAFAR.

EJL

In my day job, I have a saying, "With only one or two exceptions, my Worst Day working outdoors in the muck, mud, cold, and other inclemency has been better than my 'Best Day' working in a 'factory' or 'office'".

I have always thought similarly about money gigs as opposed to sitting home.

I indeed hope that the NOLA scene and spirit has branched out. It's certainly welcome here in "Big Poodle".

EJL

PS, JS.

Recently a musician I've been workign with resolved to "quit drinking" maybe with my 26 yer abstinence in mind. I told him that he could do it on his own time. We threatened to have an "intervention" in which all those that loved him would greet him, tell him to sit down and each hand him a drink..

Some people seem to drive themselves nuts without a little chemical stabilization..

* Where the lead guitarist thinks he's being paid by the note
* Where you get paid by cheque and it bounces
* When a bar room brawl breaks out and the participants are so drunk they can't hit each other
* When someone in the audience comes up to you half way through a number and asks you to play something they know
*any gigs where there are uncontrolled children running around.

So I was tuning my steel with my TU-12, and I was unplugged from the amp, which was on. So although the red power light was glowing, there was of course no sound.

This older gentleman came up to me and in a very contentious voice said, "we're not gonna have any trouble with you blasting us outta here are we? 'Cause if we are, I'm going to the manager right now."

I assured him that we'd play really softly, me in particular, and that I wasn't even plugged into the amp yet. He said "well, I saw that red light on there, and I thought you were overdriving that thing."

Good grief!! Another example of someone following his eyes, not his ears.

It wasn't a bad gig, just a humorous note to show you can get volume complaints even when you're producing ZERO volume!

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