Last minute Friday night pickup gig! We didn't know we were doing this one until Wednesday, I believe. Sometimes shows just happen and this was one of them.
This show had all the makings of a disaster movie. As I mentioned, it was a last minute thing. But, more impacting was that the day before the show, one of my dogs, Wojo, passed away due to a heart condition. I won't go into all the details here. Thursday night I got about 2 hours sleep, was up at 3am on Friday, then stayed awake until time to head to the show on Friday night. Icing on the cake was the 40 minute drive to the show turning into a 2 hour drive due to traffic on I-35W, then GPS took me the wrong direction at the venue exit, all resulting in my being late to sound check. I really like playing live, especially with Sand Dollar Rodeo. But, as I was sitting there in traffic, I really did not want to do it and would have welcomed a Friday night off. That wasn't in the cards, so had to suck it up, put on a happy face and make the best of it.
So, we setup, sound checked, then had a few beers and relaxed until show time...
This was our first time at Cutting Horse. It was a nice place, kind of a split venue - one side sports bar, the other side concert hall. Not a huge place, but big enough. The staff were also very friendly and I think the bar food was good... pretty sure I saw Brian chowing down on some wings. I don't eat before shows, but it did smell pretty good.
We were opening for a band called Country City Limits. They are more traditional country than us, but that didn't really matter. As I am quickly learning, you don't want to play live in Texas on a Friday night during high school football season... especially during game hours. In other words, the place was not packed.
We did ok, though. Had some folks dance and traded a few wise cracks with the audience. Mentally, I'm pretty good about being able to block out the "real world" when on stage, so the show itself was fine and I had a good time. It was nice to clear my mind for a few minutes. No complaints.
Afterwards, we cleared the stage real fast for the next band, then I stayed outside packing gear for quite a while. As I packed up the last few cases, the beer and energy shots fizzled and reality came back in sight. I was ready to go home. Went in and made a quick "hello/goodbye" appearance and drove back home in silence. Sometimes silence is a really nice thing. Sorry to sound so down on this post, but I try to document the night as it was. For me, that's how it was.
On the positive side, the place was a nice venue. We really enjoyed it there and hope to be back there again soon. On a better night (personally) it has the potential to be a lot of fun. If you're ever passing through Weatherford, check them out!
Next show... next show, back to the strike zone...
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| Cutting Horse stage after sound check, picture from Heath's phone. Funny, it looks so small in the picture! |
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