OK, we’re four dates in, and having lots of fun and adventures! Tonight’s gig was a real odd treat, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
Wednesday was the first date, a bass clinic organised by Low Down Sound in Detroit, which was great fun. A lovely audience who asked lots of really great questions. Got to do three or four songs with Lobelia too, which was fab, sold lots of CDs. All good.
Thursday – Toledo, at a pub/venue called Mickey Finn’s. Great room, fab sound-man, small crowd, but much fun. A mixture of solo stuff and duo songs, well received and CDs sold.
Friday up to Grand Rapids to stay with Sarda and Kari, and for the first of our two gigs here, at Quinn and Tuites, another Irish pub (this one for some completely mental reason had great big posters imploring the visitors to ‘Vote Gerry Adams’ and ‘Vote Martin McGuinness’, big ole Sinn Fein posters… riiiight) – this was an hour-long in-the-round set with Lo. and Ralston Bowles, which was much fun, and well received. All good this far.
Saturday (today) we head down to the venue at lunchtime to check it out for PA etc. All looking good. Go out, come back to the venue at 7 to set up, and it’s closed. Yup, not a person in sight, sign on the door saying ‘closed early today’… huh? WTF? we’ve got a gig booked here! Tense moment as Ralston calls venue owner and manager with no answers…
Sounds pretty bad, but with Ralston, there’s always another way – this dude’s like the Johnny Cash of Grand Rapids, knows everyone and can organise all kinds of craziness at the drop of a hat. So he says ‘I wonder if anyone’s playing at the Pony’, meaning the One Trick Pony – a rather cool lil’ restaurant venue three blocks away. We turn up there, Ralston works some Ralstony magique and we’ve got ourselves a gig. Once again, very well received, Cds sold and another gig in St Louis all-but-confirmed, with a possible return date to One Trick Pony within the month… watch this space.
muchos fun and games so far, serious black mark against the coffee-shop we were supposed to be playing at for fucking up on our gig, but full marks to the magical Ralston for conjuring a gig from nowhere. He rules…