Gig Journal

All Asia Cafe. Cambridge, MA. Jan. 12, 2003

I was on my last break at All Asia, about 2:30, sitting at the bar with my wife, Mal. The singer for the band that was going to perform next came in and started setting up her mic and stuff on the stage! I said to her, "I have one more set to do."

She said, "Oh, is that your guitar? I thought it was my guitar player's." As Mal said later, didn't she know what her guitar player's guitar looked like? So I went back to play, feeling like I was getting the bum's rush. Meanwhile, the rest of the band came in and started unpacking their equipment around the stage. They sat at the edge of the stage with their instruments, like vultures. I was so uncomfortable that I quit ten minutes early. They didn't even give me time to break down my equipment before they descended on the stage. Really rude. Amateurs! Then they sat on stage for ten minutes dicussing their first tune, so they ended up starting ten minutes late anyway. We stayed through the first set and no one came in to hear them, so it was not as if they had to hurry to be ready to play to their throngs of fans.

I've been doing this too long to have to deal with amateurs like that.