The Night Shift

[WildcatOne]

Sometimes I scare myself. I did that yesterday. I played 3 sets with 3 bands at the Cindy Peterson benefit at 5th Street in Kemah. There were 12 bands; the last one didn't show up, so we put one together and played the last set behind Toree Montgomery. The Citykings played at 4 and we did great considering we haven't played in a while, live. I was lit-up and I did the best-ever "Meet Your Maker" that I've ever done. I was proud of the CKs. They really played excellently. What got spooky was I switched over to keyboards for Shakedown's set, which followed the Hourglass' set between the CKs and Shakedown. After Shakedown came the dreaded Blue Agave. I mentioned in a previous post that I had helped Grady set up his stuff and let him use my amp Friday night, and he proceeded to play the worst set of music and vocals I've ever heard. He played every song off-key with wretched ineptitude, and he sang each song he did in a different key than he was playing in, which was also different from the key the rest of the band was in...get the picture? He SUCKED. Well, there he was, waiting for Shakedown to finish. The last song had not yet ended and he was dragging his stuff up on stage, making it impossible for me to tear down my stuff to get out of his way. Before we had ended the song, he was in my face, drunk, making winces and using his fingers in my face to tell me something. The song ended. I turned to him. I said what do you want. He said "Leave your amp set just as it is. The way you had it set the other night had WAY too much treble in it and it made me sound bad! You know what I'm saying? Leave it like it is!" I hadn't changed the settings on my amp in over a month...I said, just give me a little space, and two minutes, and I'll have my stuff off stage and out of your way...he steps closer...and begins the exact same routine over again to me. I said, did you hear what I said, let me have some SPACE and TWO MINUTES and I will have my stuff...he interrupted me and put his fingers up to my face like he was turning knobs and he said "I need better TONE, man! You gave me bad TONE!" Without thinking for one split second that I was talking to a 6'5" 250 pound black guy from New Orleans, I reached up, pointed right between his eyes, and I said: YOU! Will NOT come up to me with this! I haven't changed that amp in over a month. It is YOUR PLAYING that screwed up your sound. I sat there and listened to you. Don't give me this line of crap. Now BACK OFF and let me get my stuff out of here before you bring yours up! I'm doing you a favor, man. That's MY amp you're using, remember? You want to bring yours, fine. Where is it? I was not using this exact language...Mikey grabbed me. I was backing Grady off the stage. He goes, "What's your problem, man? What's your problem?" I pointed at Grady and said "There's my problem, just get him off me, man. He's messing with me and he needs to BACK OFF and STAY OFF! Grady is holding his hands up like he's displaying the stigmata and wincing at me. He is whining now. He goes "I just was asking him where to plug in. I was trying to help him..." I said, "That's NOT what you said, and that's NOT what you DID! My amp is a Fender Twin Reverb, Grady. You plug in where it says 'INPUT'. I was still going at him when Mikey pulled me back and said, come on. I need to get my amp out of your van and it's locked. I said my van is not locked. He said yes it is, come on...I went back and grabbed the side handle on Ludwig and it slid open. It was then that I realized that Mikey had pulled me out of there to get me away from Grady. I kind of appreciate that. The chemistry of our two personalities clashing was about to create atomic fusion. Blue Agave played slipshod but at least they were all in the same key, more or less. Grady left his keyboard stand behind and his mic stand also when they all went home. I put it inside the place next to Tom's PA. If I had kept it until I see Mikey, I'd have posession of it and Grady could say I stole it. I had to tell Willie that when we left, because he said let's keep it till we see Mikey again and I said no, I don't want it in this van. It'll be safe inside 5th Street until Grady sobers up and realizes that he left it there. The guy came up to me at the wrong time, saying and doing all the wrong things. I decided today that the next time Blue Agave sponges a set off of Shakedown, that I'm leaving my amp out of the deal and I'm not going to help him with anything. Other than that incident, it was an excellent benefit and the music we played was super. Brandigirl stole the show and Lynn threw me more solos than I really needed. Billy Bourbon came up and asked me to play keyboards on a song he's recording and I said sure. I'm supposed to call him this week. Thanks Mikey for pulling me out of that situation, because my righteous indignation had turned into rage and was quickly developing into all-out violence. I'm clean and sober. I wasn't high or drunk. I have absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for whining, stupid people that are blaming me for their failures. That guy pushed buttons in me that I wasn't planning on having pushed. Mikey did preventative damage control. Cheers, WC1

[Gator]

I'm proud of You.
God, in life we meet some interesting "button pushers" Don't We?
You're a Pro
He's not.

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, 'Gate. Got a couple of really nice emails from Scott Burman today. A friend of his showed up at the benefit yesterday and Scotty gave her a CKs CD. She sent this to him today:

Listened to the CD twice in the car last night - it is TRULY great. I'm sure it was favorably received by reviewers. I think my favorite song might be the last one - that one or the one that you think is the best. I need to give it a few more listens to decide. But across the board it is a SOLID CD. It's not often that you find one where you actually want to listen to ALL the songs on it... you know, usu there's like a few good songs mixed in w/ a bunch of crap or so-so stuff at best. I'm telling you - this is solid stuff, all of it. Listened to the last song (song #10 I believe) at least 4 times actually. I even brought it along and made my date listen to it and he loved it too. Well, until the 13th then. I also asked Amy to try and use any sway she may have over Dac to get him out. Maybe I should just be your concert promoter?! he he.

Thanks again Burman - You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

Annedo

Then I got another email from Scotty about Shakedown...he stayed and checked out our set...



BTW... I thought Shakedown sounded awesome last night... You guys
definitely got the crowd into it...

The musicians sounded good... Don't know 'bout Brandy as I couldn't
hear her too well behind the stage...

Damn Johnny... Lynn is one bad mofo playing guitarist! This was one
of
the first times I really got to listen to and watch him perform... The
guy should be frontin' a professional, national touring act... Or at
least offering his services as a session guitarist... Blown away! Let
him know what I said next time you see him...

Funny too... When you guys were playing Black Magic Woman, I was
jonesing for my timbales and bongos... I would have been right up
there
adding to the sound! Until Thursday!

Life is good! WC1

[draglist]

Thanks for all the updates, John. Great stuff (about some great and not so great haps). I'm glad I'm not down there with you for these things. No doubt I'd be getting my ass kicked regularly when these guys get into your face... bp

[WildcatOne]

Well, thanks, BP. I'd have you here any time, man. Any of you guys can come down here and we'll go play a gig or two...thing is, it ain't usually like that (with Grady, for instance). 999 times out of a thousand, everybody's cool. Behind the showtime mode I was in, I could see Grady coming with this. I could see what he was doing. I could see that he was drunk and not thinking clearly. When he finally put me in a position of either letting him carry on with me or stopping him right there, I got the drop on him and it set him back on his heels. I'm 5'9" and I've been bullied by guys dang near a foot taller than me (so has Willie...Grady calls him "Little Man" and he hates Grady for coming up with such a demeaning tag), and I finally decided one day that I'd had enough of it, let come what may. Next huge guy that gets pushy with me will get stood up to. Like I've said, I'm a quiet, somewhat shy person. I smile and laugh and I'm real easy to get along with. I have only recently been able to meet people and just hang out with 'em if I haven't met 'em before...Some people see the way I am as a tool to take advantage of me or push me around, and I had to dig deep down to find the right guy to use on those kinds of people. It could backfire on me some day and I'm ready to accept the consequences, but I just hope that I'll be smart enough to know when to get the hell outta there instead of getting up in some guy's grille who just did a stretch for voluntary manslaughter. But that aspect aside, every gig is an adventure. Every one of them is at least a page's worth of stories. I'm having a great time doing this. I can guarantee, Grady is going to think twice before he shoots his mouth off at me. We'll get along fine as long as he behaves himself like a gentleman around me. I think he knows that now...Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

WC.. You know i never miss a word that you post and i love reading them.That link that Wally put up blows me away !! any chance the Citykings or the other groups that you work with could do something like that? man talk about exposure..

[Billy Mac]

WC.....you are one cool Cat, my friend......I'm with BP....I'd be stickin' a foot in sumbuddie's backside for messin' with ya....and you know me...I ain't no big fella....but I AM subject to go off like a stick of dynymite on some dumb ( * ) if it comes to it.

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Doc and Billy...what link are you talking about, Doc? That Wally put up? Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

right here in the dangerous deal.... man i'm stupid....

[WildcatOne]

No problem, Doc...I was talking to Billy on the phone when Wally put the link up and then I was talking to Wally and I hadn't seen it yet...but I just went over to the PC and downloaded it and saw it and I got my friggin' mind blown by the best modern blues I've ever heard. They are FANTASTIC! WOW...Thanks for the heads-up...WC1