We did an open mike up at a little place like half a mile from Patty's house. So, an hour's drive for me. The short version is: it could have sucked but went well and probably saved the band.
After basically doing nothing all summer except practicing, skipping practices for various reasons, and learning another dozen or so songs, I was getting pretty discouraged. I like making music, and getting together every other week to play while Patty sings is great. What sucks is having rehearsals on the calendar every week and cancelling half of them. Hey, life happens, but what I hate is the idea that something didn't happen that was supposed to. I worked on the songs, and I was (mostly) ready for rehearsal, then it didn't happen. That's annoying. I didn't want to practice every week in the first place, so if the choices are reschedule or just blow off until next week, I vote to cancel, but it's still annoying. And by the way, still no gigs because there's only two of us and the one who said she'd call places and check places out and scope out opportunities hasn't really done much of that.
So fine, Patty talked me into trying this combination restaurant, bar, smokehouse, and car modding shop (all in like a couple thousand square feet) that has open mike on Friday nights and live music on Saturday. Patty checked the place out last Friday, and it was hopping. This week, she was working until 6:00, so she wouldn't be there until 7:00 or so and open mike actually starts at 6:00, which means sign-ups are before that. Patty called and someone said that if we get there later, we can probably still play. Well, shit. Pack my gear, drive an hour each way to do four songs, and maybe not even get to play? Shit.
After practice on Wednesday, I didn't even set my stuff back up, just piled it in the corner. Friday afternoon I packed up the car and drove up there, haven't played the songs or anything else since Wednesday. Instead, I grabbed my iPod so I could listen to the songs a few more times on the way up, although I would have done that anyway. I also ate half a gummy. Strawberry, my favorite. I usually don't do that before gigs with Patty, but WTF.
Got there, and the place is pretty empty. A double row of booths, half a dozen on each side, nice wide aisle between, some tables way over there, then in the corner some guy has a guitar and a microphone. There's a boom mike over to one side, and a Yamaha keyboard sitting on a milk crate, looks all plugged in but not powered up or set up. His name is Phil, I'm Bob, and I'm meeting someone here and we were hoping to play some songs. He says right now it's just him, and if we want to play, the sign-up sheet's on that table over there. I go over and there's a sheet of paper that says:
1. Phil
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
He says sometimes the place is packed, especially later, and not everyone gets their 15 minutes, sometimes only 12. And sometimes it's more like this, though things will get busier later. Okay. I wrote us in for spot #2 in case things get busier later.
At this point it's about 6:30 and Phil says he's gonna play for like half an hour, then we'll see who else is signed up. We can go next if my friend shows up and right at that moment, Patty walks up and I introduce her. So Phil plays a while, then Patty and I do our four songs, and during this time a few more customers came in but no more musicians. So Phil asks us if we want to do some more. It's super low-key, the exact opposite of the other places we've played and the exact opposite of what I was expecting, and we were having a great time and singing/playing well. So we did one more song and took a break to have some dinner. Phil said I could leave the piano up and maybe we could do some more songs later. I looked at Patty and we both said Sure. So we split a pulled pork platter (two sides plus banana pudding), listened to Phil some more, then did five more songs.
A few more customers came in but no more musicians, again. But it was okay, Phil said it varies a lot. He says we were great, gives Patty his card, and says to call him. Like tomorrow. He's gonna talk to the manager, but he loved us.
Saturday (yesterday) Patty forwards me an email from Phil, which is a reply to an email she sent him at his request. The manager "Murph" loved us, too. He was there, and there wasn't a lot happening so he caught most of our songs. They have a Saturday 2-hour lunch gig that's picking up, and think we'd be perfect for that. And if that goes well, we'll look at a Saturday night. Also, he gave us two other places in the area that have open mikes.
And suddenly, I've gone from almost ready to suggest taking a break from The Patty & Bob Show to kinda fired up again. Things might actually start happening, and all we had to do was get off out butts and make them happen. Imagine that.