The Saga of Orbert's Band (now with A New Development)

[Orbert]

Yeah, the Sunday mornings usually aren't particularly challenging musically.  There's still some prep involved, and a quick rehearsal before the service, but it's still a gig.

[Orbert]

Gig day, start of a crazy weekend.  Party in the park at 6:30 tonight, one-hour gig.  I gotta start getting ready.  The brewery tomorrow night, 2.5 hours, so we're doing three 40-minute sets plus two 15-minute breaks.  Then Sunday morning, my regular church "gig" but the chimes are also playing, and I'm shuffling four chimes.  I'll be at least half conscious though, so it should be okay.

Then next Sunday afternoon, we're back to the winery for what's starting to become a regular thing, the three-hour gig (2-5 PM).  Then we're back there again three weeks later.  They like us.

Time to go shave.  Bleah.

[hefdaddy42]

How did the brewery gig go?

[Orbert]

It went really well.  The place is small, maybe a dozen tables around the outside walls, with a U-shaped bar in the middle.  They said we'd get $150, maybe as much as $200 depending on how many people we brought in.  So I didn't know if they were counting the door or what, but Patty brought her usual fan club of around 20 people and they were there eating and drinking the whole night (well, until 11'ish, since we only played 8:00-10:30).  The place was packed the whole time.  Patty texted me later saying that she had two crisp $100 bills, one of which is mine.  Between that and my share of the tip jar ($114, so $57 each) it turned out to be the highest-paid gig I've ever played, which is crazy.

We played well, although we each got lost a couple of times throughout the evening.  When I play a bad chord, I recover within a bar or two and the song goes on.  But if Patty skips a line or goes to the wrong verse, then as far as I'm concerned, that's where we are in the song, unless she makes some kind of correction (which she usually does not), so I have to know the song well enough to jump to wherever she is.  But whatever.  The great thing about playing in drinking establishments is that the people are drinking and even if they catch the mistakes (which probably happens less than I'd think) they don't care.  Apparently we sounded good, and put on a good show.  Patty put "Hold the Line" by Toto on the list, which we'd only rehearsed twice, but it went pretty well.  Damn, that's a hard one.  I play that classic 12/8 piano riff, bang out the bass/guitar part with my left hand, and sing harmonies when it comes back every chorus.  Oh well, by then people were pretty drunk and dug it anyway.

Usually we skip rehearsal the week following a gig, but we have the winery coming up on Sunday, and there are a few songs on the set list that we haven't done in a while, plus we still have newish songs that could use some more polish.  She wants to do "American Girl" by Tom Petty.  I've done the song before, but as usual, playing it on keyboards in a full band isn't the same as being the whole band, plus there are a lot of vocal harmonies and Patty can only sing melody, so I have to pick a harmony that works, evoking the original feel with only one line.  Fun stuff.  Patty did it in a previous band, too, and is so confident that she put it on the list for Sunday and we haven't even rehearsed it yet.  I think we (that is, she) may be getting a bit cocky.  So we'll rehearse tomorrow night as usual, and I have to be ready with a Tom Petty song.

[hefdaddy42]

You've got this.

[Orbert]

I love your optimism.    I mean, you're probably right; it'll be fine.  But putting a song in the set list for less than a week away, when you haven't even run through it yet, is ballsy.

Side note:  "cocky" and "ballsy" kinda mean the same thing.  I've never thought about that. 

[Evermind]

I mean, I love all the band stuff and the gig stuff—always ever so fascinating to read—but honestly if it wasn't for the band/gig thing, I would still read the thread just for these kind of insights:

Side note:  "cocky" and "ballsy" kinda mean the same thing.  I've never thought about that. 

[Orbert]

In preparing "American Girl" I did a few critical listens, and there's not as much going on vocally as I'd thought.  I was thinking that all those "Ahhs" were in harmony, full chorus style, but it's really just a single note ("A" for those who are interested).  The more challenging thing is how the chords change while the bass stays firmly on D, kinda the opposite of how it works in the intro, where the chord stays on D but the bass moves around.

Anyway, we ran through it a few times, figured out how we're gonna start and end the song (which may or may not be how it actually goes on Sunday, but whatever) and we'll be doing it on Sunday.  Her friend Lin really likes Tom Petty and wanted to hear some Petty, so we'll give it to her.

[Orbert]

Wow, so that was a gig.  Sunday afternoon, outdoors for the local Strawberry Festival, beautiful weather, on the front porch of the winery.  When we got there at 1:00 for a 2:00 show, there were already people all over the place, as the street was closed off to traffic.  So people on the street, people on the lawn, people seated at the tables before us (four in a patio-like area).  I recognized some of Patty's friends at two of the tables, so our "fan club" had some representation, but this was the first gig in a while (other than the backyard party thing) that wasn't stacked with people there specifically to see us.  It was a "general audience", which I'd half-forgotten can be much more challenging to win over.

To make things more interesting, the manager Karen (that's her real name) told us while we were setting up that she wanted us to focus more on upbeat stuff, get people dancing, draw in people from the street.  Patty didn't go into full panic mode, but there was some, as we had some scrambling to do.  Mellow songs still make up around 1/3 of our songs, and Patty had cooked up set lists that favored the mellow stuff early, building to a mostly uptempo third set.  So after things were set up, we had about 20 minutes to do some re-working.  We had access to the side room where they host private events; it was roped off so we ducked in there.  I'm still reading from charts, even though I've gotten maybe half of the songs memorized (mostly so I can look around, make eye contact and stuff while playing, which looks infinitely better than a guy reading sheet music on stage) and my charts are in order, grouped into three sets.  Similarly, Patty has the lyrics on her iPad and a nifty foot switch to move forward or backward through the songs.  Now we have to do some quick yet extensive editing.

We briefly considered just starting with Set 3, then doing Set 2, then Set 3 again.  Maybe people won't hang around more than two hours.  But that seemed risky, and is kinduva cop out.  We started culling the existing sets.  If we get halfway into Set 2 by the first break, then we do.  We continue from there, probably get well into Set 3 before the second break, and when we get to the end of the original 3rd set, we start repeating.  Not a bad plan.  But we also moved a few things around, and kept a couple of mellow songs anyway because we sorta needed to, and we figured it's okay to take a breather once in a while.  We figured it was cool to pull out a mellow song, especially one that people like anyway and suits our format, after three upbeat ones in a row.  But this meant we had to do the dreaded check before every song to make sure we both have the same song.  Fortunately, with only the two of us, it's quick and nearly imperceptible.

Patty always gets her one gin and tonic before the show, nurses it throughout the first set, and switches to water.  Except it was warm and sunny and she was just over a mini-panic, plus she said it was really strong.  Anyway, halfway through the first set, she's kinda tipsy, which made it fun.  Whatever.  Live music in the great outdoors!

We only ended up repeating two songs, the two newest ones.  "Bad Moon Rising" because it's upbeat and fun, and "American Girl" because Linda likes Tom Petty so we learned a Tom Petty song this week.  When Patty told me that Lin liked Tom Petty, I thought she meant her sister Lynn, but she meant Linda, one of our regular fans.  I've never heard of someone named Linda who goes by Lin for short, but hey, there's a first time for everything.  Also, neither time was how we'd rehearsed it, but no one cared.

The place was nuts for three hours.  We probably fucked up a few times more than average, but only had one actual train wreck (first set when Patty's gin and tonic hit her hard), and Karen is also a server and it seemed like every time she came by, we were doing a mellow song, and she didn't look happy.  But it was a busy, stressful day, and maybe she just looks like that anyway.  End of the day, she gave Patty a check for $200 when we usually get (and thought the agreed-upon price was) $150.  There was $75 in the tip jar, and Patty gave me the extra dollar 'cause she said I deserved it more, or something.  Rock and Roll.  ♫♫!!

[Orbert]

Some pictures from the Strawberry Festival gig.



We were on the "porch" which is floored with uneven boards for that awesome rustic look.  This made it nearly impossible to find a place to set up a keyboard stand so that it didn't wobble.  Also, because of the layout of the "stage" Patty wanted to set up on stage right this time.  We always perform, and rehearse, with her to my left.  So that threw me off a bit, too.  And you can't see it, but there's another pillar immediately to my left, which limited where I could set up my amp.  I didn't want to encroach on Patty's space, so I originally had it right in front of me, mostly covered by our banner, which I figured wasn't a huge deal; sound travels through fabric.  Except that it's actually vinyl, and during our first break, Lenny said it was definitely affecting the sound.  I moved it to right behind the P.A. speaker for the 2nd and 3rd sets.




Generic crowd shot.  In the background, the street is full of vendors and people.  I'm talking to a girl who said she loved the Led Zeppelin (we do a cover of the Amy Lee cover of "Going to California" from some Zep tribute album) and asked if we did any other Zeppelin.  She starts naming songs, and her husband/boyfriend/whatever says that that's crazy, we couldn't do that with our format.  She says what about "That's the Way"?  That one's acoustic, like "Going to California" so it's the same thing.  It was actually kinda different and cool talking with people who actually knew something about the music.  I told them that we're still just kinduv starting out, and we only know the one Zeppelin song so far.  But I'll mention it to Patty, which I did.




Lenny and Orbert.




One of the things I love about live music is the danger involved.  The couple above, and their dogs, sat at the table just in front of me and a little to the left.  That pretty yellow top is sleeveless, and when she faced her husband/boyfriend/whatever (which was most of the time) she faced about 3/4 away from me, and the view was quite clear and unobstructed.  It was distracting, but also... well... very clear and unobstructed, thus the danger.  I had mixed emotions when she they left during the 2nd break.




Another generic crowd shot.  All I can say about this one is that, in any given relationship between a guy and a girl, the guy should never be the one wearing more hair product.  Never.




More friends of Patty's.  They're at a lot of our gigs, and I was introduced to them but don't remember their names, and at this point it would be awkward to ask them.  He's really cool, though, and she always wants to catch me and talk to me for some reason.  I try not to read anything into it, but you do have to keep your fans happy.  It's a hard life being a rock star.

[Stadler]

So I have this ailment, disease, whatever, that makes me see other people in certain faces. It drives my wife crazy; "that looks like <insert celebrity>!"  "Sweetie, no."   

So to me, you've had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (first picture), my ex-wife (red shirt) and James Woods (last picture) at your show.  Cool, cool. 

[Evermind]

Another generic crowd shot.  All I can say about this one is that, in any given relationship between a guy and a girl, the guy should never be the one wearing more hair product.  Never.

I'm usually in line with all your opinions Bob, but as a balding guy in my 30s, I disagree with this. Whatever makes that guy happy/confident really.

Awesome photos

[Orbert]

So to me, you've had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (first picture), my ex-wife (red shirt) and James Woods (last picture) at your show.  Cool, cool. 

I tend to do the same thing.  Everyone I meet reminds me of someone else, and sometimes I feel like there are only a finite number of physical types, and everyone you meet kinda fits into one of them.  I can see James Woods in that last picture.  I'm not familiar with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or your ex-wife for that matter, so I can't really say there.

Whatever makes that guy happy/confident really.

Okay, that's fair.  There's a guy in my office who wears his hair styled up to a peak, like a mohawk except trimmed down to maybe three inches in height, shiny and full of product.  I think it looks completely stupid, but you're right; if he likes it, it's not my place to say otherwise.  But I am allowed to think it looks stupid.

[Stadler]

Taylor Tomlinson, comedian, has this recurring bit along the lines of "so that's your best, huh?"     One gag is her at a weeding and seeing the bride:  "So, that's it, huh? That's your best?"   Another one involves her being a bad driver and getting pulled over for DUI despite not having had anything to drink for days.

And it is amazing to me how often I now look at some people and think, "So, that's your best, huh?"   

[Orbert]

We played the winery again on July 14th, and I never did a write-up because I left the next morning for a week in Michigan with the guys (they call it "Mancation" - a word I've never warmed up to but have learned to accept).  Actually, I was supposed to head over on the 14th, Sunday afternoon, same as everyone else, but the gig came up and I figured I could leave a day later.  It was a fair trade.

Anyway, the gig was inside this time, which was nice.  After playing the same place only three weeks earlier, it felt comfortable, and once again Patty put a brand-new song on the set list that we'd only rehearsed the week before, but what the hell.  "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters, if you're curious.  It went over well.

This was the fourth time we'd played the winery, each one was a Sunday afternoon, but the manager Karen wasn't there this time.  The assistant manager, also named Karen, said that (manager) Karen never works on Sundays.  Liar!  She's been there the previous three times we've played, each of them a Sunday.  Whatever, but it still seemed an odd thing to say since we knew otherwise.  At the end of the gig, she went to write the check to Patty and asked how much it was supposed to be for.  Patty told her $200, since that's what we got last time, and that check was written by one of the owners.  So as far as we're concerned, this is a $200 gig now.

We've only got one more gig on the books right now, August 2nd back at the brewery on the lake.  They seemed to really like us last time, so we're thinking it should go well.  It's a Friday night this time (last time was a Saturday) and we don't start until 9:00 PM because there's "Bands by the Beach" (live music basically right across the street) which is sponsored by the town and goes until 9:00 PM.  So the gig is 9:00 to 11:30, on a Friday, so that's gonna be a long day.  I took the day off from work because I'm old and have a shitload of vacation days to take anyway.  I can sleep in, relax, practice a bit, and still head up there after dinner for the gig.  To me, that makes a lot more sense than working all day, then rushing through dinner to head up to a gig an hour away.

Yesterday at rehearsal, I asked Patty if we should work up some of the other new songs we'd talked about, and she said we could just take it easy, and brush up the newer songs we've added recently.  There are four or five songs which fit that category.  So we did that.  We've actually played quite a bit this summer, and Patty suggested that after this gig on the 2nd, we take a break.  We don't actually have anything else scheduled anyway, and that sounded good to me.  She said something about getting together later and working up some new songs.  We have songs we've been playing the entire three years we've been doing this, and she'd like to start retiring some of them because she feels kinda dumb going back to the same venues (the winery and the brewery) and playing the same songs over and over.  We do need some new material.  I've suggested some songs in the past, but they never seem to work out, partly because I have very different musical taste from her, and partly because I don't have a really good idea of what songs will work for her voice.  I just know what I like.  In the band, I quickly learned to stop even suggesting songs because there just wasn't any point.

Anyway, one gig to go, then we take a break.  I'm looking forward to both.

[Stadler]

How long is your break?  Five years?  I kid, I kid. I'm happy for you that you are getting regular, paying gigs.

[Orbert]

It's a nice change, for sure, playing regular, paying gigs.  But even if we can turn these two venues into regular stops, there's the danger of getting stale because realistically, our set list doesn't change that much.  We don't want to be known as an act that's pretty good but does the same songs every time.  That's part of why Patty's been pushing so hard to get new songs into the set lists.  But that too requires work, and half the songs we've tried lately we've had to drop because they just weren't working.  That happens.  Sometimes you don't know how well a song is going to work until you try it.

I was feeling some of the sameness, too, and the thought of taking a break had crossed my mind, so when Patty brought it up, I didn't object.  If we can work up another half a dozen new tunes in the coming months, we'll have some new material and can justify a return to either of the winery or the brewery.  There's another local winery that Patty has been in contact with, but they haven't returned her calls or emails at this point.  So we'll see.

[Orbert]

So tonight's the last gig for a while, or so it would seem.  I just ran through the set list, played at least a little bit of each song, so that I don't get to any of them tonight and realized I haven't played them in a month.

Monday, Patty PM'd me and wanted to try a new song, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".  It's an old Motown tune, and has been recorded by many different artists, but she was on something of a CCR kick due to us adding "Bad Moon Rising" recently, so she said the CCR version.  Cool.  We put it together Wednesday and will debut it tonight.

At the last gig were a number of folks that Patty invited who'd she played with in previous bands, and their significant others.  Interestingly, both of them were keyboard players named Bob.  Apparently Patty has a thing for playing with keyboard players named Bob (she says that I'm the best one of the three, so there is that).  Anyway, one was very complimentary, saying he loved the way I played the Elton John material.  I thanked him, and mentioned that Elton is actually harder to play than people realize because of the unusual way he syncopates and voices his chords, which Other Bob quickly agreed with, and he reiterated that I did it really well.  So that was nice to hear.  It was kinda funny, actually, because during the whole first set, he seemed to be watching me, with a completely blank face.  No smiling, but no frowning or anything; no reaction.  I hoped that it was because he was doing the same thing I tend to do, which is study the player and make mental notes.  So when he had nothing but good things to say about my playing, I was glad that I seemed to be correct about that.

Bob III came up to me during the second break and wanted to check out my rig.  He was especially interested in how I'd set up my pedal, because I play standing up, so the pedal has to be taped down in a specific spot.  I spend a lot of time with my weight on my left foot so I can pedal.  He said he used to do it that way, but eventually switched to playing seated because his back was killing him by the end of the night.  I told him that my back is killing me by the end of the night, too.  But there will come a time when I can't play standing up at all.  Since that day hasn't come yet, I do it while I can.

When playing keyboards a band, there's some piano, but also a lot of organ and synthesizer, so you can stand with both feet planted most of the time.  With some songs with Patty, I'm mostly pounding without pedal, so I make it a point to plant both feet and give my back a break, but those songs are few and far between.  When I get home from a gig, I ice my back.  I also have a Shiatsu massage machine that I lay on for a while before I go to sleep.  Actually, I've fallen asleep on it a number of times; I wake up at 1:00 AM or whatever and it's all quiet (the machine automatically switches off after 10 minutes).  So between the ice and the machine, I'm pretty good the next day.  Packing up and driving home from the gig is always the worst part, but I'm usually still pretty wired from the gig so I don't really feel it til I get home, which reminds me to grab the ice pack, and all is well.  Like I said, I'm gonna keep doing it while I can.  I turn 62 in a couple of days.  I don't know how many playing days/years I still have ahead of me, but players gotta play.

Anyway, I thought of that because I'm leaning on ice right now after practicing for a couple hours.  Starting the night sore would suck, and I'd probably be a cripple by the end of the night.  This should help.

[Orbert]

Not a whole lot happening on The Patty & Bob Show front.  We're back at the winery at the end of September, then back to the brewery on October 12th.  Those seem to be the two venues that we can count on for gigs, and if we do every other month at each of them, then we're playing once a month, which is what we're comfortable with.

Meanwhile, we're working up some more new songs.  If we're going to keep playing the same places, we have to keep coming up with new songs; we can't keep going back and just doing the same songs over and over.  Patty keeps saying that by adding new songs, we can drop some of our older ones.  I don't think of that as the goal.  I think it's fine to have a list of 30 or so songs that are on the "A" list, but there's nothing wrong with keeping another dozen or more around.  We don't have to "drop" songs just because we have newer ones.  In fact, we pulled out "Love Hurts" by Nazareth and played it at the brewery last time.  First time we'd played that one in a while, and I'd thought we'd dropped it from the active list.  But Patty wanted to do it.  It went fine; we do the song well (it works better than you might think as a voice/piano duo) and afterward, Patty remarked that okay, now we can really drop it.  Again, I don't see why.  And if we're going to pull out songs that we "dropped" a year or more ago, then what does it really mean to "drop" a song?  Maybe she just means dropping it from the "main" 30 songs, but it's still on the active list.  But it wasn't on the active list before.  I thought we dropped it like a year ago.

Hell, I don't know.  And I suppose I'm not sure how much I care.  At some point you stop trying to figure out the logic behind whoever's calling the shots and just go with it.  I'm still having fun.  I like learning new songs, and playing them, so what the heck.

[WilliamMunny]

Not a whole lot happening on The Patty & Bob Show front.  We're back at the winery at the end of September, then back to the brewery on October 12th.  Those seem to be the two venues that we can count on for gigs, and if we do every other month at each of them, then we're playing once a month, which is what we're comfortable with.

Meanwhile, we're working up some more new songs.  If we're going to keep playing the same places, we have to keep coming up with new songs; we can't keep going back and just doing the same songs over and over.  Patty keeps saying that by adding new songs, we can drop some of our older ones.  I don't think of that as the goal.  I think it's fine to have a list of 30 or so songs that are on the "A" list, but there's nothing wrong with keeping another dozen or more around.  We don't have to "drop" songs just because we have newer ones.  In fact, we pulled out "Love Hurts" by Nazareth and played it at the brewery last time.  First time we'd played that one in a while, and I'd thought we'd dropped it from the active list.  But Patty wanted to do it.  It went fine; we do the song well (it works better than you might think as a voice/piano duo) and afterward, Patty remarked that okay, now we can really drop it.  Again, I don't see why.  And if we're going to pull out songs that we "dropped" a year or more ago, then what does it really mean to "drop" a song?  Maybe she just means dropping it from the "main" 30 songs, but it's still on the active list.  But it wasn't on the active list before.  I thought we dropped it like a year ago.

Hell, I don't know.  And I suppose I'm not sure how much I care.  At some point you stop trying to figure out the logic behind whoever's calling the shots and just go with it.  I'm still having fun.  I like learning new songs, and playing them, so what the heck.

Boy, if only I'd learned that lesson twenty years ago, I would've been a lot happier in some of my bands!

[Orbert]

It took me a while, too.  In my last band (the Covid casualty that prompted the creation of this thread so many years ago), I eventually learned to stop suggesting songs.  I know what songs I like, and I could possibly turn on the radio and try to figure out what songs other people like, but there's almost no overlap.  Even within our original focus of "classic rock" most of my suggestions fell on deaf ears.  So it only led to frustration on my part.

Most songs we played, I would've changed the station if they came on the radio.  But most were at least reasonably fun to play.  I enjoy the challenge of learning songs and using my limited talents to reproduce my parts the best I can, and I'll admit to some ego-feeding when the others marvelled at how great the keyboards (and in the early days, saxaphone) sounded.  Rehearsals are a necessary pain, but the payoff of playing a song live, playing it well, and getting that audience reaction is a rush.  So fine, I couldn't pick a "good" song to save my life, but if someone else picks them, and they work, and I get the rush, then I guess I don't really care what songs they are.  We're all getting something out of it.

[Stadler]

I know not everyone is like this, but in the band I was in in Philly, we played exactly zero songs that I had in my collection, or that I would listen to on my own. Zero.  But when we did play, the reactions we got were so special.  I'd carry a bag of picks with me and give them out to the kids, they loved it.  We did a lot of weddings/special occassions, and the joy that people got from the songs we played... it was a really eye-opening experience. I understood "Kiss" and several other bands at that moment. I get why Deep Purple had the same set for 10 years.  I get why Maiden plays the same four or five songs at the end of each set.

I think a band - or at least each player in each band - has to assess what they're in this for and be honest about that.  I wasn't in that Philly band to be the next Bruce Springsteen; I was in it to have some fun and bring some joy to other people. I didn't need to be playing "Octavarium" or "The Lamb" in it's entirety to do that.

[WilliamMunny]

I know not everyone is like this, but in the band I was in in Philly, we played exactly zero songs that I had in my collection, or that I would listen to on my own. Zero.  But when we did play, the reactions we got were so special.  I'd carry a bag of picks with me and give them out to the kids, they loved it.  We did a lot of weddings/special occassions, and the joy that people got from the songs we played... it was a really eye-opening experience. I understood "Kiss" and several other bands at that moment. I get why Deep Purple had the same set for 10 years.  I get why Maiden plays the same four or five songs at the end of each set.

I think a band - or at least each player in each band - has to assess what they're in this for and be honest about that.  I wasn't in that Philly band to be the next Bruce Springsteen; I was in it to have some fun and bring some joy to other people. I didn't need to be playing "Octavarium" or "The Lamb" in it's entirety to do that.

Hear! Hear!

I've definitely had to do this at various points over my playing career.

Most recently, the dynamic in my long-time (but 'very' part-time) band began to shift, and I found myself miserable. It took a fair bit of soul-searching to get myself to a place where I could finally acquiesce to the moment.

And, for as unhappy as I was with specific decisions (where I found myself on the losing, minority side of the coin), a few recent, very well-attended shows have enabled me to appreciate the end result. It might not have been my way, but the results have been positive nonetheless.

From here on out, my motto: go along to get along.

[Orbert]

It would be cool as hell to be able to get up there and play some prog for people, and have them really dig it.  But since the audiences for live prog don't have a lot of choices, and I'm nowhere near the level required to play those venues/events, it's just never gonna happen.  The best I can hope for is playing my own arrangements and foisting them upon my unsuspecting church audience (I hit 'em with some "One for the Vine" yesterday, ha ha) and pat myself on the back for my cleverness.

Meanwhile, I'll play songs people like to hear and dance to, and if places want to pay me and tell me how great I am, well, that's cool, too.  Everyone's gotta have a hobby.

[Stadler]

Hear! Hear!

I've definitely had to do this at various points over my playing career.

Most recently, the dynamic in my long-time (but 'very' part-time) band began to shift, and I found myself miserable. It took a fair bit of soul-searching to get myself to a place where I could finally acquiesce to the moment.

And, for as unhappy as I was with specific decisions (where I found myself on the losing, minority side of the coin), a few recent, very well-attended shows have enabled me to appreciate the end result. It might not have been my way, but the results have been positive nonetheless.

From here on out, my motto: go along to get along.

Well, to throw you a bone, if you're not into it JUST for the reaction, it could be a problem. If you are into it to make a statement of some kind - perfectly reasonably if you are - or to create something, then that's fine.  But it's the same advice; be honest about it.  I write my own music, but precisely zero people other than me have - or will, likely - ever hear it. That's not what I'm in it for.  I'm in it - to the extent I'm in it at all anymore - to please people. It's what THEY want to hear, not what I want to play.  I can see a Bono, or a Bruce, or Dream Theater, frankly, not being in it for those reasons.

[Orbert]

So we played the winery on Sunday, and have the upcoming gig at the Brewery on the 12th.  We worked up four new songs this month, and they mostly went pretty well.  Patty made the mistake of skipping lunch, and it was a 2:00 Sunday afternoon gig, so that single gin and tonic she always has hit her pretty hard.  Plus, she suspected that they made it a bit on the strong side because they like her.  Anyway, let's just say that the effects did not go unnoticed... by me, anyways.  Whatever.  It's live music.  Most of the time, there are maybe two people in the place that notice any mistakes, and we're both on stage.

As I was in the basement tearing down my rig to load the car and go to the gig, it occurred to me that the piano is getting heavier.  And there's the amp, and the P.A., and all the stands.  Four trips up and down the stairs, four trips out to the car.  And I'm already thinking ahead to when I get home that evening and do all those steps in reverse.  And it kinda felt like maybe the shine is wearing off a bit.  And I'm wondering how much longer I can keep doing this, or if maybe we could/should take a break.

When I got there, we found out that because the sky had cleared up (it was raining earlier) and the Weather Channel app called for blue skies the rest of the day, we were playing outside on the porch.  I hate that fucking porch.  It's deep enough, though barely, and wide enough if Patty and I stand with one of the pillars between us (which isn't a huge deal but looks a bit weird visually), but the killer is that the floor is "rustic".  It's like log-cabin or something; individual planks that are rounded, round side up, and not particularly even.  It was a pain finding a level spot to set up the piano within the space I had, and it put my left foot (the one I put my weight on so I can pedal with my right foot) across two beams with about a half-inch height difference.  I already knew that my foot would be cramping up and I'd be extra sore that evening because my leg muscles would be compensating in all kinds of subconscious ways that I wouldn't realize but would feel later.  (Spoiler: I was right.)

And as I'm processing all this, while setting up my rig, Patty mentions what a bummer it is that we're out on the porch again.  She was really looking forward to playing inside with the air conditioning.  Then she asks me what I'd think of maybe taking a break.  This kinda surprised me; at the last rehearsal, she was (as far as I knew) still quite enthusiastic about new songs, maybe even finding new venues to play.  But she said she'd been thinking about it, and maybe the thrill is gone.  We tabled it, since we had to focus on finishing set-up, doing a sound check, and getting through the gig.

That evening and into Monday, we texted back and forth, as we do after every gig, and I brought up what she'd said.  I didn't say that I was thinking the same thing; I wanted to hear what she had to say.  She said the novelty has worn off, and she was looking forward to the brewery, then maybe taking a nice, long break.  She said it's hard to think that, because she does love what we're doing, and I've been a great musical partner, and we don't *have* to take a break if I don't want to.  She was clearly giving me an out; she didn't want it to seem like a directive, like she's calling the shots and it's not open for discussion.  I said I didn't know what constitutes a "nice, long break" but I would be okay with a break.  Besides, with the holidays approaching, I get busier with the church music and other stuff, so there are upsides.  I told her all that, just skipped the part where I was having the same thoughts.  I don't know if that's good or bad.

It has definitely been fun.  We did it.  We put together three sets of music, went out and played them a dozen or so times (I haven't actually counted, but I probably will at some point), had some fun, and even made a little pocket change.  I don't know if the break will turn into something more permanent, but right now there's a feeling on both sides that we've done it, had fun, and have something we can look back on proudly.

But first, we have one more gig to get through.  Don't count them chickens quite yet.