An Honest Mistake

Seems like an eternity since I've felt motivated to write. It takes certain circumstances to get me into that specific mood, and despite several gigs of varying qualities with both bands, nothing has really gotten me into the mood to talk about it. But the last twelve hours or so finally managed to remove the logjam from my mind. So let's discuss, shall we?

On more than a few occasions, I've talked about how I'm ready to recast Dirty Joe into something better. Well, that time has pretty much come around. In the last few weeks, we've found that all the insulating that Roger has done to our practice space has done absolutely squadouche to our problems with neighbors complaining about the noise. But at least the Clallam County Sheriff's deputies appreciated the effort he'd put into it. And our most recent pair of gigs wound up being underpaid, underappreciated messes, with Ron really putting himself on the outs with us by fucking up Roger's guitar when he restrung it and messing up the axe's bridge pieces to the point that the guitar just wouldn't stay in tune. John and I have decided that it's time to go. The only question left to us is whether or not Roger will be a part of our future plans. I'm leaning towards 'no'. He just isn't leading a healthy life right now. He's made a lot of people mad at him for the things he's done recently, though I won't bore you with the details - he's just in a bad place right now, and has been for quite some time. He needs to get is life back in order to be able to resume both work and music, and I'm not really sure I want to babysit any longer.

And then things got worse today - sort of. Y'see, Joy and I have been getting ready to play a weekender at the Circus Circus in Reno, and we'd been planning on leaving a few days early to get to Reno in time for Joy's birthday, and to visit with her daughter and her kids. But Joy's health really kept me from wanting to leave when we'd originally planned, and my car insurance payment being pulled from my bank account with my permission (again, long story) put a kibosh on any early departure, though we had been thinking about staying an extra day or two to enjoy Halloween with Michelle and the grandbabies.

It turns out that not leaving when we'd planned was the smartest move we could've made without our even really knowing it. Mikey called me around noon today and told me that our gig at the Circus had been cancelled. Not for anything we'd done or said, but because of an accidental double-booking. Some other band was already in place for that weekend, though oddly enough, the Circus' website (www.circusreno.com/entertainment/cabaret_schedule.aspx) lists us playing this weekend, and not another band. That said, the Circus apologized to us for their mistake, and promised to make it up us in the future. They made an honest mistake, recognized it, and did the best they could to alleviate the situation. I have no problem with that. Hell, I'm quite sure that's the first time a venue has apologized to a band I've been in, when they made a mistake that cost us money. I can accept that apology quite easily.

To be quite honest, while I may have lost a gig, I'm not too broken up about it. Y'see, it was only a two-night gig. With my travel expenses, two-night gigs do not pay for themselves at all. And my expenses would've been even higher with Joy in tow. And it would've been even more expensive for Mikey, because since the Circus doesn't pay for accommodations for out-of-town-bands, he was paying for our hotel rooms out of his own pocket. So in the long run, we'll actually wind up saving money by not doing the gig. And with the Circus actually apologizing to us over the snafu, we know that we're on their good side. Hopefully this will translate into a better (read: longer) gig in the future. And I've always liked playing at the Circus, so that future gig oughta be pretty good.

But for now, I'll enjoy this unexpected week off. I can relax, knowing that I've got a three-week, eleven-show run coming up in two weeks. And while I'll miss Thanksgiving with my family - as usual - I'll have money in my pockets for Black Friday. Perhaps this will be the time that I can finally get myself a laptop of my own, so I don't have to lug around my entire desktop to gigs. At bare minimum, I should be able to buy Joy something nice for Christmas.