LAST NIGHT!
The Cantina band at the Cameo Suite in Coleshill (Brum) for a 60th birthday party.
I've played here before with the big band, tonight was a very different vibe.
We'd invested in (and were all wearing) some 'Mos Eisley Cantina' T-shirts ('No droids! Live music!'), which made us look like we'd put some thought into a cohesive onstage appearance and would project an air of professionalism. (We hadn't. It didn't.)
Load in during a biblical rainstorm was fun, setup fairly standard, (I got to tell my 'Ernie Ball gave me this Bass for nothing' story), the audience didn't look like your typical heavy rock fans, we thought we'd be about as popular as a double-sided sandpaper condom but to be fair a few of them got up and had a boogie, so that was nice.
The second set was tons better, loads of people up and dancing (apart from Helter Skelter, which absolutely cleared the dancefloor), the 80s section of the set went down a storm, my hiphop joke got a laugh (just the one) and they were loving it by the end - even the too-cool-for-school youngsters were up dancing. I spent the last three songs on the dancefloor (apart from going to the bar to order a round of drinks mid-song as it was last orders) which was ace and got a lot of bemused looks.
Sterling -> small board -> MB CMD121P.
I played a couple of songs with a pleccy for the first time in about twenty years, which was very gratifying, the drummer played a blinder (he's an absolute machine, he deps with Edwin Starr (!), no idea why he's playing with a bunch of half-arsed charlatans like us), we even got the riff in the Sweet child of mine solo right, birthday boy loved it, Mrs birthday boy (who'd booked us) loved it and it was a pretty decent payer.
Pack up, load out (rain had stopped, thankfully), Marvin Gaye on the way home, back about 1 for a Henry Westons vintage (8.2% ABV - the Hereford Heroin) and leftover Jambalaya.