The gig

[Ken Lang]

Friday night: 8:56
Everything is set up. Sound check done. All the guys on stage, ready.
Wait, where the hell is Christy. She’s a big part of the opening song.

Aw, crap. She’s still at the bar. Talking to some dork in a suit. She has an
average voice but a great body. A real fox. Keeps the horny cowboys coming in.
I call her name over the mike, raise my arm and with my fingers beckon her to the stage.
She gives me the finger in return, but hops off the stool and jumps on the stage.

We kick it and it goes well. People stop what they were doing and listen. Christy
hams it up and points her boobs at the guy in the suit, and then to every guy in the place.
We do a crash ending and she’s pointing them at Jessie, the bass player.

We transition to the rundown of “Crazy” and Jessie with his big voice intro’s Christy and the song. Folks jump to the dance floor and fill it up. Christy is a hit.

Third song. Up tempo. The drummer counts it off. The steel player shouts, “Wait, I broke my B string.” Crap. We can’t wait, people are standing there looking at us. Jessie rolls his eyes. I tell Billy on lead guitar, “Kick it, Billy, we can’t wait for Harlin to put on a string.” Billy kicks it pretty good and by the time for Harlins’ ride he’s got the string on and plays the ride, though the string is a little flat. He tunes it while he’s playing and we manage a killer ending. The rest of the set goes ok and we break.


Second Set. 10:15
Every ones up on time. The steel guy Harlin never left the stage. He spent the whole time tinkering and tuning. Jody, the drummer, brought him a drink but Harlin hardly touched it. We start with the big sound, kick in the light show, and Christy bounces on stage and the audience goes crazy. Jessie and Christy do the hip bounce perfectly. She moves to Billy for the bounce. He sticks out his ass and Christy almost knocks him over. She moves to me but thinks the better of it and hangs 10 off the front of the stage. People love it. The guy in the suit drifts up and Christy retreats next to Jody.

We continue the set. We give Jody an extended solo on the drums. He is soooo good. He gets a smattering of applause when he finishes. We feature the whole band on an instrumental and at the end Billy grabs his banjo and we do Foggy. We ham it up and it’s a hit.

Third Set. 11:25
The steel player finally gets up to take a pee. He is cornered by three people and a waitress who want to know what kind of a thing he is playing. He tells them and beats a retreat to the mens room. Billy intercedes and tries to explain. Christy gets into an argument with the guy in the suit. Jessie goes over and says a few words to the man. He leaves. Jody is shooting pool. He’s a magic man with the sticks but a klutz with the cue. Money changes hands.

I call every body up. They straggle one by one. Before the first tune a fight breaks out. We wait a half an hour before it clears. It’s now only a little past midnight. It’s the time to PARTY. We struggle for the first few tunes but get into a rythum that we strive for and makes the whole night worthwhile. People get tired and leave but we hardly notice.
We are grooving on each other and the music coming out. We don’t want to stop. The club owner sends the waitress up to tell us to take a break.

Forth set. 1:15
We are all beat. Most of the people have gone. Christy and Jessie are talking quietly at the bar. Billy and Jody are at the jukebox punching buttons and laughing. I talk to the bartender about sports. The owner says, “Lets finish it out,”

We do three songs and I call it a night. We pack up and get paid. As Jessie and Christy leave together Jessie says, “Hey, remember, we all went to breakfast together, right?” A few mumbles all around, ”Right.”

The rest of us go suck eggs.

[Gene Jones]

A big piece of my life just flashed before my eyes........A good reminder of why I stopped doing that years ago!
www.genejones.com

[Roy Ayres]

Ken:

Great set of minutes. As Gene said, brings back memories -- both good and bad.

[Herb Steiner]

Well, I knew Christy had big boobs, because EVERY woman in the greater Los Angeles area has big boobs, but I had no idea there were horny cowboys out there!!

Learn sumthin' ever' day, I guess.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

[Larry Bell]

ah . . . just another day at the office

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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

[Eric West]

Kinda makes time stand still for a while, don't it?

Funny when I remember every single gig I've done for 20 some years. I'm amazed.

"Playing out" doesn't mean that one does "play well", or "play significantly", as opposed to "playing in" by any means, but it certainly does't mean the opposite. I think it makes it more "real life", as a "witnessed event".

Another phenom that's interesting is the "Silence of the Band Wives".

"Who's she?"

"Oh, just a cousin....."



I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It seems to be where most of my "life" has happened.

Had a good weekend playing in Boise.

Tossed around a couple "possibilities"..

....nnaawww... Not at 50....

EJL

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Eric West on 13 July 2003 at 05:24 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Tony Prior]

well written...

the night and incident were correct....

but you had all the names wrong !!

tp

[John P. Phillips]

HAHA Tony, you crack me up

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JUST 'CAUSE I STEEL, DON'T MAKE ME A THIEF

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

<SMALL>Well, I knew Christy had big boobs, because EVERY woman in the greater Los Angeles area has big boobs...</SMALL>

I love L.A.

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<I>Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
I'm schizophrenic,
and so am I</I>

[Greg Vincent]

The words "Cowboy Palace" creep into my mind...

-GV