Change your station once in a while

We had a great gig this past Thursday at the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier. Instead of having two bands on Saturday (one in the afternoon and one in the evening), the management  decided to have just one band play in the evening, and they switched the Saturday afternoon slots to Thursday evenings.

This is a great switch, because the way the stage is situated, the band is pretty much in the direct sun with no shade whatsoever all day. Playing the afternoon slot was agony. We've been lucky in that we've only had evening slots, but we've seen some of the other bands suffering in the afternoon slot and we'd heard stories that it was a real challenge, so we were grateful that the management made the switch.

I *know*, but Batman doesn't have to try and play
and sing music in the blistering summer sun.

I did discover one down side to the switch, though - the canned music that plays in the absence of a live band. We got to the pier early on Thursday, and rather than just sit in the van or walk around and get tired, we headed on into the park and found a nice spot to wait until it was time to set up.

While we waited, I listened to the music being piped throughout the park. It was pop music, which is fine. I like pop. But when song after song after song ended up being almost exactly the same - a power pop ballad sung by a female singer who primarily just belted relentlessly through the whole song - I started to get miiiiiighty tired of it.

That's assault, right?

I don't have a great memory. I tend to not really register things that I don't think I'll need to remember, and I block out things I don't want to remember. It's part of the reason I learned to write everything down. And it also must be how, when I wrote my last blog, I forgot the worst heckle we ever experienced.

It was in Dallas. We were headlining a long list of bands scheduled to play a bar in Deep Ellum. There was some kind of zombie walk going on in that part of town. For the uninitiated, that's where people dress up like zombies and then do some kind of 5k or 10k. I'm not sure if it was for charity or what, but who cares? People are dressed like zombies!

I don't see the appeal.