Post gig post

I am just recovering from yesterday's long distance gig. It was a 175 mile drive from house to venue, although I did get to share the car with Colin, who is an excellent traveling companion. We pulled in typically early and underwent the standard 'sitting around period' familiar to many musicians.

For this gig we had not time to soundcheck so when the time came we went from sitting around to playing very quickly. A mixed set, mostly played to a very high standard. I fumbled in a few places (started one song a perfect fifth too high on the bass and, most awful of all, totally forgot the riff to another song). I felt like an idiot, especially when one song had to be abandoned because of my failing memory (this is a song we have played many times and that I had practiced the night before). But as I was quietly beating myself up I made the decision that the best reaction was to accept my lack of perfection, practice more and concentrate on the positives. There were a lot of positives. A great audience all night, and some truly funky dancing. A nice venue too. One member of staff won the officious git award by blustering in to tell us to turn the music off after we had already done so. She looked upset that she had nothing to complain about.

The drive home involved a few wrong turns as well, but Colin kindly supplied me with coffee for the last few miles and I crawled into bed just before four.