DOUBLE VISION
The third and final gig at Boomerz should have been a disaster...you see I had a penchant for screwdrivers(the liquid ones) and had consumed several over the course of the day starting at brunch...hey,it was sunday,ok?
After unloading at the club,there was the wait through the first set and more screwdrivers,only this time the bartender was trying to kill me with his mixing skills.
By the time we went on there was 2 of everything...two guitars,two mic stands,two drummers and the ceiling had an odd slant to it. I was toast and I knew it,I was also committed, so we launched (lurched?) into our first song and midway through the second I was fine and by some miracle we pulled it off.At the end of the night we were fired...too loud and not what the customers could relate too (more high praise).
So ended our first foray into clubs.
Getting a gig in this town used to be almost impossible unless you were connected,we knew some folks on the perifery of the scene and I was invited to host an open mic at a Jamaican restaurant called Shaggy's... by this time I had written a few decent songs (I quit trying so hard) and had worked up some acoustic versions of our band songs.
This was fun while it lasted (I only hosted once,but we returned several times just to play) but soon the roster filled up with working musicians who didn't have a gig that monday and half the time we couldn't get on the list,and when we did it was limited to 2 or 3 songs. It was a great experience for me personally...I got to share my "other side" with people and got some great advice and support from musicians much more experienced (and talented) than myself.
We abandoned the club thing and re focused our attention on our monthly jams, now held at our guitarists car shop in far east austin,away from any possible complainers,we could play as long and as loud as we wanted...it was great fun and we got hooked up with a band called Last Tango.
Last Tango would lure us back into the club thing one more time.