The view is everything

Last week, we had the pleasure of playing our first gig in West Texas' own The Shack in the Back in Odessa. There's plenty we could say about the gig - namely that much to our surprise, about 500 well-dressed people came out to a random, but lavishly landscaped, club situated behind a Pepsi distribution center on a Wednesday night and paid $10 a head to party like it was 1999.

But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about the view - the view from behind the mic. Because this blog isn't about all those young, good-looking people with a lot of money and the ability to drink until midnight and still go to work the next morning. This blog is about US - the BAND. So, let's talk about our perspective. Literally.

Here's what we saw looking forward from the stage:

Okay, that's actually from the back of the stage looking forward, so you can't see that much. But if you could see anything, you'd see a lot of tables and chairs, all reserved for people. Reserved tables for a random Wednesday summer night. So weird, man.

Anyway, here's the view if you looked to the left:

A lovely pond. If you are at all familiar with West Texas, you know how unusual it is to look in any direction and see a pond. Very pleasant, man.

Now, the the view if you looked to the right. This photo was taken after the sun went down, so it's a little dark, but just see if you can spot anything...unusual:

The big microphone right in the middle of the frame? No, that's not it. That's at all our shows.

The super bright light? No, that's not it. That's just because I couldn't avoid getting it in the shot.

Look a little more to the right.

See it?

Why, yes - it's a man standing next to a urinal. Because the men's room door is open. It was open all night. Closed doors? Apparently, in West Texas, ain't nobody got time for that.

For our entire show, every time I looked to the right, I saw men standing at the urinal taking care of business. I had to stop looking to the right.

Luckily, I don't need to look to the right to play or sing, so it worked out. But it was interesting. And to think I used to complain about Beale Street Tavern playing the same Elvis movie over and over on a TV screen directly across from the stage. Ah, for the days of innocence on 6th Street.