When momma ain't happy...

...ain't nobody happy. No, we're not talking about me. We're talking about Mother Nature.

One of the things any band deals with, big or small, is the unpredictability of weather. All bands play outdoor gigs - from a private party in a backyard to an outdoor stadium. And the thing that sucks about outdoor gigs is the weather.

Our band has been together for nearly four years, and in that time, we've played in rain, cold and heat. We've dealt with our equipment starting to short out in misty rain. We've played gigs where my fingers were so cold, I could hardly play. And I can't even count the number of times we've played in heat so bad that my makeup was melted off before we ever started, and I had to wipe the sweat off my arm between every song so it would stop slipping off my bass. We played a couple of summers ago in a parking lot where the temperature registered a balmy 108 degrees. For realz. I literally almost passed out.

So, when we booked a gig playing on the Kemah Boardwalk for this weekend, we knew there was a chance that weather could be a factor, since it's an outdoor stage, but we've been wanting to play there for two years, so we were really excited about landing the gig. On top of it being a great venue, this weekend is the first weekend of Spring Break AND the venue is close to where some of my family lives, so we had every reason to expect a big crowd with some friendly faces in it. And a nice payday. Woo-hoo all around!

Imagine our distress as the forecasts throughout the week began showing decreasing temperatures and increasing chances of thunderstorms precisely when we were supposed to be on stage.

On Tuesday, it was in the 70s and sunny. So we convinced ourselves that the forecast could easily be wrong by a couple of days. Happens all the time. They think a front will swoop in on Thursday, but it stalls, slows down, and lo and behold, it doesn't start raining until Saturday morning. That's all we needed. Hold off until midnight or so on Friday night. It could happen.

Except that it didn't happen. By Thursday night, it was cold and grey, and the forecast showed Kemah squarely in the midst of a good 50-degree soaking. The Kemah folks called us on Thursday to ask when we'd be heading their way, and they said they'd give us a definitive thumbs up or thumbs down before we left, which was really nice, because on more than one occasion, we've showed up for gigs, on time and ready to play, only to be sent away - gig cancelled, with no notice and no compensation for our time and trouble. And those cancellations had nothing to do with weather and were all avoidable with some simple consideration.

If you're not in the band biz, this may seem unconscionable. It was to me when I first started. But sadly, it happens more often than you can believe. Too many venues and bookers have no regard for the bands they book whatsoever. But that's another post, so I'll get back to The Kemah Story...

We got the call on Friday morning that the show was cancelled. (sigh)

On the one hand, we were hugely disappointed. We had so looked forward to kicking off Spring Break with a killer show in a new venue. But on the other hand, we were grateful the Kemah folks made the call early and didn't either have us drive all the way down there with our gear for nothing OR have us play in the rain to no one. Either of those scenarios would have sucked. Instead we're hoping we'll get another opportunity down there after our EP is out.

For now, we'll look forward to our next show, which is next Saturday...outside.