Saturday, May 1, 2010

Cabin Fever

It's about two in the morning. I want to play. Badly. But there really isn't much I can do about this particular urge at the moment, so perhaps talking about it will help exorcise it from my mind. I've had a pretty long break between gigs, nearly six weeks. I was optimistic about finding a side gig to keep my bills at bay, but every lead went nowhere - at least for now. At least the prospects for Steppen Stonz are promising as far as this summer goes. Mikey (the bandleader) has thrown some interesting possibilities out, trips to play in the South and Midwest. Those would be pretty fun for me. I think the greatest buzz I get in playing in a band is playing someplace I've never played before. And best of all is getting completely out of the box and going somewhere totally new. I mean, we could play a new (for us) venue in Reno or Carson City, and while it'd be nice, we've all either played at or been to every venue in the area. And our fan base, as loyal as they may be, are still there. I love every last one of 'em for supporting us, but I like seeing completely new people, completely new places.

And this summer could be a banner season for that. One possible trip could be to the bank of casinos along the Mississippi River in Shreveport and Bossier City, Loiusiana. When the first mentions of this possible trip came up, I did a search on the net for the casinos in the area, and came to a minor surprise - there are links back to Reno in these casinos. There's an Eldorado in the area, and a Boomtown as well. I believe that there's a Harrah's there as well. This isn't anything particularly new, really. As casino gambling is legalized in more and more parts of the country, the casino owners in Nevada see opportunity. In most of the country it meant casinos owned by Native Americans initially backed by Nevada and Atlantic City interests, though most of the tribal casinos eventually either shook off their partners or went solo when the backers left of their own volition. But in Louisiana, they're apparently privately owned. The only difference between Nevada and anywhere else is the lack of sports-betting.

I also fired up Google Earth to look at the area in its entirety, and found something intriguing and slightly revolting at the same time - a Hustler Club. If you know your history of that naughtiest of naughty magazines, you'd know that the Hustler Clubs actually came first, as Larry Flynt's vision of a Playboy Club for average businessmen - hustlers - rather than the well-to-do. The magazine came along later. Well, a few blocks west of the Big Muddy is a Google Earth thumbtack with the tag 'Larry Flynt's Hustler Club'. This is almost scary for me, but almost too tempting to avoid. Y'see, I have a bad history with strip clubs. No, nothing scary, evil, or criminal, just embarrassing. Like getting my nose bloodied by a dancer in Reno nearly twenty years before I moved there, the first time I'd ever been in a strip club. To make a long story short, a dancer tried to stick her boobs in my face, but she didn't have enough to do the job and smacked me in the nose with her sternum. Didn't go near another strip club for almost a decade, when my sister-in-law took me to a club in Bend, Oregon. Where the dancers all knew her. She told me that it was the only place in Bend that she could get a drink in after midnight on a weeknight at that time. Well, I guess it'll do for and excuse.

Then there's the possibility of playing in the Detroit area. The city is really the cradle of American pop music as much as it is the Motor City. It's so much more than Motown, baby. George Clinton, Ted Nugent, Madonna, The MC5, Kid Rock, Eminem, ICP, and Iggy and The Stooges. Then again, the city is crumbling to dust as we speak, as the industries that supported it have all but died away. I'd still like to see the area, but to be totally honest, I'll go play just about anywhere as long as there's a paycheck involved.

And that's all I really want. So here's hoping for a very busy summer. Joy won't like me being gone, but she always appreciates the money I bring home.

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