Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A cheery good morning.

I remember this. You wake up in a motel bed, clean up, grab some coffee and ask yourself the important questions: where's the gig today and, more importantly, what did I do last night.

The gig today starts with 0900 rehearsal, right here in the hotel, of course. Because this is the first day of the reunion, we'll have to set up first: fronts, drums, piano, amps, cords, bari saxes, cases. All this accomplished by half-asleep MUs bitching about the hour, complaining about the room, the lights, the rug and the state of the Brazilian economy. Sound familiar?

As far as last night is concerned: we rocked the lounge. Lee Hudson, my former arch-enemy, now NMA buddy, brought his tuba and joined us in a few rounds of dixieland. We did swing tunes and a bumping-grinding version of "Girl Talk" that almost made me start stripping behind the piano.

Because there are no admirals looking over our shoulders, we took rather long breaks. When the MU audience wanted more music, they banged on the tables until the next set started.

I've played a few gigs in my life and I have to say--that was the first time the table-banging was a request for more music.

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