12/18/09 York Coffee
(Acoustic 12 String Guitar)
01) Long Black Veil
02) Dire Wolf
03) Workin' At The Carwash Blues
04) The Wind (req)
05) The Whistler (+inst) Banish Misfortune
06) Wondrous Stories
07) Soon
08) Java Jive (debut)
(Electric 12 String Guitar)
09) Mister Tambourine Man
10) Sugar Magnolia
11) Me & Bobby McGee
12) The Joker
13) Wish You Were Here
14) Late In The Evening
(Acoustic 12 String Guitar)
15) Smellin' Bad And Dressed Funny (req. for original)
(Banjo)
16) Old Man (req for some banjo)
(Acoustic 12 String Guitar)
17) I Believe In Father Christams
18) It's Only A Paper Moon
This adventurous gig started yesterday at about 3:30, when I left my house. I wanted what I *thought* would be a quick stop to grab some food. But Nothing was quick yesterday.
Not
A
Single
Damn
Thing.
By sometime after 4, I'd found my way onto the highway, where we slogged and slogged and slogged.
If there's no major obstructions, the trip to York can take as little as 90 minutes.
But even 83 was clogged and sloggy. The DC Trafficular suckhole had expanded to 70 miles of stop and go traffic from my house to just north of Timonium. Methinks that there was a panic of travellers all trying to get somewhere before the storm hit.
Nice try kids.
As gig time loomed closer and closer I got worried and tried to call ahead. Silly me, I don't have that number in my phone, and didn't think to check my notebook, as our contacts had been all by email for this. Get this: Verizon 411 has no listing for York Coffee at 100 S Beaver St in York PA. I've run into this before where cell phone 411 has lists only for what *they* care to give you.
Screw them. I'm mostly happy with Verizon, but SCREW them and their bad attitude. It's only a fucking phone number and a complete listing of telephone numbers is not a big deal to obtain or maintain. Your operators *can* be allowed to access Google, you know...or even physical phone books. Sheesh!
Anyway, the gig was scheduled for 7. And..... That's when I arrived.
Fortunately, the place is teensy weensy, and I didn't need any amplification. So my setup was analogous to my current Constellation Books setup, with the laptop, acoustic and electric 12 string, and recording rig taking about 15 minutes to throw together.
So I got started about 1/2 hour late. Suboptimal, but okay.
As you can see, the set rocked!
Massive doses of generic(Afrin), B12, throat lozenges, CocaCola, Water, and an hour of in-van vocal warmups made the head cold very nearly transparent. I might have the upper hand on this one. My voice was in very good shape, and I got nothing but great revues from the very (unfortunately)) sparse crowd.
But Steve and Andrea were both pleased, and we're going to try a couple more dates and see if:
1) We can find a better time with more people there already
2) We can browbeat more of our friends to show up.
As it stands, it was not a complete loss, as I did sell a couple of CDs.
And then, dum dum dummmmmmm- the drive home.
Which started out very pleasant. A couple of flakes of snow were visible by the time I hit the Beltimore Baltway. Snow started to pick up as I circled B'more, and then it started to stick about halfway round, and then the van started to plane a little bit and I had to slow down. I need new wiper blades, and maybe a defroster that makes real heat.
But I pushed on, and made it to 295, which was actually in better shape than the B'more Beltway- and had less traffic, I'm sure, than 95 would have had (plus 295 goes almost right to my house).
But the snow thickened, and we all had to slow down some more. About 35 was my upper limit.
And
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patche023 called and we traded traffic sucks stories, and were all set to meet up at home, when....
I ran out of gas.
All that stop and go traffic, and the pedal to the metal once traffic was gone, and more stop n go traffic, plus dash lights that aren't so bright, left me not really realising how low the tank was.
Yes, go right ahead and play those five diminished chords in a descending chromatic progression.
Fortunately, it was not game over.
patche023 came to the rescue. But first she had to stop by the house, get a gas can, fill the gas can and get up to where I was, in all of the worsening storm and thickening traffic. Two friendly park authority cops seemed to be relieved that I wasn't freezing to death and in need of an ambulance and a tow truck. The latter stuck around until
patche023 arrived and helped us get back into traffic once Mama Tiger was re-started. Fortunately, out of gas was the problem, and not something more sinister.
I gotta tell you, it's a lonely feeling to see a car coming up behind you with flashers on, slowing down, but then turn out not to be
patche023 as it goes around you and drives off. Far too many of those...
But eventually it *was* her, and so the "Go Home Scene- take two" was shot with the new revisions. The only real sucky thing was that because of the delay, our final push home was in weather that had MUCH degraded from where we were 90 minutes prior.
I really need new wiper blades!
Nonetheless, about 45 minutes later I was happily spinning drive wheels on the snow as I plowed into the driveway.
But for some reason, yesterday, my spirit didn't sag as it could in these situations where it seems like someone's got out their Maugie doll and a box of pins.
And I'm not too bummed about being cancelled today.
I think it's because I know that there will, in fact, be plenty more gigs to play, and if it takes THIS much to give me a hard day, and I'm still intact at the end, it bodes very well for my future.
And it gives me a couple more days to actually deal with the cold, and not just work around it.
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