My fist gig with Lizardfish was two nights ago.  How did it go?

Well, I’m typing this right now so that must mean I survived.  That’s a good thing, right?  Right?

I punched out of work at 5:30 and had the car loaded up by 6:00.  When I got t Mike’s I loaded my amp, board, and gig bag into the car, and helped him load some things too.  Greg was there and he helped us both.  Kevin had already picked up his drums earlier in the day.  Mike’s cellar looked a little strange without our tons of stuff everywhere.  

We were planning on getting to the bar around 7:30 or so.  Being 4th of July weekend I included traffic into my schedule, but ended up going back roads from Mike’s house and was super early.  I actually watched some Netflix in the car to kill time.

The bar itself is on the second floor, so lots of carrying heavy stuff up stairs.  Let’s just say the big fat, totally out of shape guy was feeling it.  I was covered in sweat and we hadn’t even set up yet.  Oh yeah, and it was HOT in there.  We set up all of our equipment okay.  I thought there would be someone there who knew their way around the house PA.  There wasn’t.  Greg figured it out, but some of their gear… I’m not saying it looked like a fire hazard, but I think they’ve probably been lucky.  The audio stuff was ok though and we got a sort of decent mix.  We had to tweak it as the night went on.

The crowd was much bigger than I expected, which was a very happy surprise.  When the first set started I think we were pretty tense as a group.  There were some mistakes.  I screwed up on Greg’s mother’s favorite song.  I bet she hates me now.  Sorry.  I also kicked off the Eddie Money song in the wrong key.  Effin’ train wreck there, Robbie.  Still, everyone said we sounded good.  I thought we were okay, but we could have been better.

The second set though.  I’m not sure what happened, but we were confident, we played tight as a unit.  I was relaxed and played as well as I’ve played in a long time.  Every song went over better than we had hoped.  It was a really good set, and it was fun.  I was feeling pretty proud of us when the set came to an end.

The third set is where we hide the clunky songs as most of the crowd is either nicely drunk by then, or has already left.  Still, the good vibes continued.  We actually played a request.  As we got near the end though, I think we were starting to run out of gas.  The adrenaline was running low.  I had managed two and a half sets without any pain in my hands at all, but with four songs left, or so, it started creeping in.  When it was over I was feeling a little relieved.  I don’t know that I had another song in me.

As for all my new gear, it held up well.  My amp was on the floor right behind me and I couldn’t hear it very well.  I learned that a few of the new pedals are a little more sensitive in the knobs department than I expected, and I was moving the volume controls around a little as I was stepping on the switches.  I need to watch that in the future as it messed a couple of things up.

I think the people who saw us who had also seen the band play with their original guitar player were pleased enough that they won’t turn on us (at least they seemed that way outwardly, who knows what they were really thinking), and I know for a fact that we won over some new fans too.  We played a good show, we had a lot of fun, we helped a few people enjoy their Friday night.  All in all I’m very pleased, and looking forward to the next show in October.

One last note.  We didn’t get paid much, but what we got we split between us before we left.  What did I do with my share?  Did I spend it on new gear?  Nope.  Did I buy my beloved wife (who stayed for the whole show!  Thank you, sweety!) a nice meal?  Nope.  What did I do with that money?  I used it to open a new bank account!  Yeah!  Responsible rock and roll for the win!