Blues Rox At The Bohemian

 I had reservations about this gig, since I haven't played alongside these guys, never mind that I had a flu shot and Covid Booster to boot.  So I was dead tired when we got in to play on a chilly and freezing night. We didn't need the freaking drizzle shit.  With the write up that we got when The Bohemian announced us playing, we had to rise above the chaos that was the bizarre Checker's gig and the Artisan with Mike playing drums in my absence.  At least play the songs that won't get us into trouble. 

While other bands had issues, Blues Rox didn't.  Owner Mike Richards treated us with respect.  The guys had to set up on the floor, the stage was way too small, even for my drums I had to employ half the set and a couple cymbals to boot..  I didn't set the bass drum legs, and it moved most of the songs and the gig.  Plus there was a vent that went down to the basement and another room,  I damn near dropped a drum stick between the rails, thankfully it didn't fall through.

My biggest complaint about my so called musician friends is how many bitch and whine that nobody goes to their shows, or they promise that they'll be at yours and never show up.  It's a Saturday Night and of course there are bands playing down the road and elsewhere and I know people had to pick and choose, plus the weather never helps either in the winter.  It's either a snowstorm or blizzard or freezing drizzle or rain or below zero.  One was complaining that there was no bands playing (I guess he doesn't bother to read my updates, while feeling for himself) but did pop in at North Port to see Past Curfew. Fair-weather friends, got plenty of them.   Only Julie and Guitar Dave managed to show up and Julie took plenty of pictures.   Mike Richards also took a few videos to document.   He might have taken this one photo.

We were surprisingly good tonight. There were a few lapses on songs. but despite me trying to get over the shots of Friday at Unity Point, and despite the drum stick almost going down stairs did better than usual.  I haven't practiced all that much.  Having the smallest stage and not big enough to have a full drum set, I had to go with the basics.  One bass drum, one hi hat, snare and two cymbals and cajole for a stool.   The Bohemian is interesting place, the basement has rooms down there and a bar and some private rooms for conversation.  It's an old business place that Mr. Richards has been putting together and originally this was supposed to open in 2020 before the COVID epidemic broke out and messed things up.   I haven't been upstairs, but the basement is super cool.

I don't think any one moment stood out, which is fine.  It was a workmanlike performance, and Kristopher doing some outstanding guitar leads and the blues shuffle went well as well as the tired favorites of Brown Eye Girl or Johnny B Goode.  We did drop Stuck In The Middle for Further Up The Road before concluding with Free Bird, probably the best version of that song that we did.  We still cannot get people to dance to that. 

It was a 2 hour event, so breaks were taken.  We did not do Wipe Out.  My decision.

There were some issues about payment but we all did get our money for playing.  I'm not sure if we will be back there but if we do play, we will be playing upstairs outdoors in the patio area.  By then I can find all of my drums into one space.  The stage inside is for acoustic people only.