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04/05/2005 Entry: "Gig Wrap Up!"

So this weekend, I played up at Joshua's Tavern in Brunswick. It was the usual scenario. Friday night was packed, and the people couldn't care less about the music. It's a weird sounding room, and it always takes us the first night to get the sound dialed in well. And of course, since I leave straight from work and head right to the gig, by the end of the night I'm spent. Saturday night, though, was a different story. The place was less crowded, but there were a dozen or so people there who were genuinely interested in the music. And of course when they get excited, others get excited. And, as the winners of the poll, I played the Dynasonic as my main snare, and the green Phattie snare as an auxiliary snare. (And, I bet there were 3-4 people who mentioned the green snare, Eben. Glen the bass player even mentioned how much he liked it.)

The last time we played there, we met this guy Sal from Trinidad. We hung out on the breaks, and he mentioned he was a conga player. Low and behold, he walks in again this time. Glen motions to him from the stage, making little conga-playing movements with his hands, in a sense asking Sal (without words) if he brought his congas. Sal headed for the car. He played the whole second set! It was nice. We played a rippin' version of Santana's "Black Magic Woman," which then somehow morphed into Santana's "Jingo." During the song, I thew the snare wires off on the Phattie snare, and played this Puente-esque timbale style solo, complete with Tito's stick around the head schtick. After that little interlude, everyone dropped out, and I took a "for-real" solo, which garnered applause from the audience. Same thing happened last time at Joshua's. I took a solo on the second night, and people liked it enough to applaud. That feels nice. Then during the break, someone told me they like the solo, especially the "Tito Puente head-thing."

(Also, last time we played Joshua's, we ended the night with the Who's "My Generation." In an homage to Keith Moon--who was pretty hard on his equipment--I kicked over my hi-hat stand.)

Posted by Maria @ 04/06/2005 10:27 AM EST