Monday, January 31, 2005

 

Hats..... Big Cowboy Hats.....

The Stock Show's in town. It's like any other industry's convention, but with lots and lots of cowboy hats. There's nothing wrong with that, they gotta have their convention too, so God bless 'em. It's good for the Rapid City economy too, what else is going to generate revenue in this town in January?

Not so good for musicians, though. I'll admit that the duo known as "Slappy is Jebus" didn't exactly light the room on fire at Cheers last night, but we did OK. I even added a little extra twang into my voice in hopes of making the many visitors feel more at home. See, Cheers is a hotel bar. Normally that's not an issue, in fact it can be a real bonus to our little open mic. Getting to host the open mic during the Sturgis Rally was an absolute treat, people from all over the country got to join in the fun with us. The LNI tournament brings a lot of folks into town, looking to party and have a good time. I'm sure the Stock Show participants want to have a good time, too. Apparently they don't want to have our kind of good time.

It's kind of interesting when you play a song and nobody responds. OK, we probably didn't make the right choice to start off. Still, people are usually polite, at least acknowledging your effort with a smattering of applause. After last night's first song nothing. We did BOTH Jesus songs in an attempt to get some response and other than an older gentleman blessing me with his crucifix, nothing. "Two Condoms," usually get people going. Nada. Is this thing on? I guess it was because local musician Willy Grigg came over to our table to say he loved it. I try not to let it bother me too much. If Shawn couldn't reach the Stock Show crowd with "Electric Cocaine," what chance did we have with a Weird Al tune? Stock Show crowd, how do you reach 'em?

I went up and played a Tom Waits tune with Josh later in the evening. I'm not sure whether I'm more impressed that he asked me to join him on stage or that he actually knows who Tom Waits is. I'd be more impressed with myself if I were sure that's how Tom spells his name. Josh also knows who The Dead Milkmen where, so he's a pretty interesting guy.

I made it a relatively early night because I thought I'd get called into sub for special ed at the high school. When my phone didn't ring at 6:11 I figured I wouldn't be working today. I did get called at 6:27 (funny how the time always sticks in my mind when I get a call while sleeping), I'd be teaching band at the middle school. Actually, it was a fun day. I wouldn't mind doing that again.

BOJ


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