The Day I Became A Rock Star...

Or was it a Country Music Star? I can't remember.

It has been a long day. I got the call from Dave at 2:00 pm. At his place is where our story begins. We packed up and loaded our equipment into his truck. Damn those road cases. Carrying all that stuff up a flight of stairs is definitely not my idea of a good time. Those things must weigh at least 200 pounds.

Somehow, we managed to pack all the equipment into his truck, avoiding injuries at the same time. I nearly broke my leg carrying that junk up the stairs. Luckily, I only managed to receive a couple scrapes and bruises though. We pulled up to the Alamo Saloon by 3:00.

So Dave and I set up the equipment in the afternoon. It took us longer than expected. While assembling this massive puzzle, I was apparently introduced to the owner of the "'Mo", although I never would have guessed that he'd own anything more than a beat-up trailer and a rusty old Impala. He looked more like a farmer or a bum with a drinking problem. He made some small talk with us between gulps of beer, and finally decided to let us get back to work within a few minutes. An hour or two had passed. We managed to set everything up, but we were still making a few adjustments to the PA, and making sure all the components were connected properly and not broken. Micing the drums turned out to be a little more tedious than we expected. There were feedback problems, and on top of that, we were having trouble obtaining a good drum sound.

You can probably imagine me, sitting behind my drumkit, incessantly hitting drums, while Dave is fooling around with a myriad of buttons and switches, trying to do some sound-engineering magic. While we were at this, and beginning to make some progress, the owner approaches us again and asks: "Could you guys cut that out? You're driving us crazy over there. If you guys wanna fool around, do it at 3:00 in the afternoon."

I was fuming. Thanks buddy. We were here at 3:00. When did you arrive? 10:00 am when the bar opened? I really wanted to give this ass-head a piece of my mind, but my better judgment told me to keep my mouth shut. Dave suggested we leave for the time being, and return at 9:30 to play the gig.

Wednesdays must be a lousy night at the 'Mo, since there weren't that many people there. My Mom & Dad showed up for a couple sets to show their support.

We played until the bar closed, and honestly, the night was uneventful. There were certain troubles with some songs, and a lot of the Country songs I'm not familiar with. Dave has assured me that things are going to change in the coming weeks. I certainly hope so. Right now, I have a headache the size of Gibraltar, and my ears are ringing incessantly. I am hoping that tomorrow's show will be better than today's.