I started doing rehearsals with the bass player over the phone in May. We all live a good distance from each other, so we didn’t get together until right before the gigs.

I drove up to Michigan a week before the gigs. I was able to spend one day with family before rehearsals began. We set up the gear, BS’ed for a while and started rehearsing.

What the – was going on? Mistake after mistake on songs we’d done for YEARS. Turned out that the drummer and bass player had put their instruments back on the shelf after our last reunion 3 years ago, and were just now starting to play again. OUCH. 3 days later things were OK, and when the lead guitarist arrived we blazed thru both sets with hardly any issues. Alright!

We were playing outside, and on Friday we headlined. 30 minute change over and we were “ready”. The drummer clicks off the first song, and the bass player’s IEM is so loud it throws him off and he starts the song in the wrong key. Away we go!

We had worked on endings, transitions and segues… which all got thrown out the window by the drummer, who sat there looking like a deer in the headlights. Both he and the bass player both went blank as soon we started. So much for our crack rhythm section!

We slog thru the 1st set, and by the 2nd set it is cold outside, temps in the 40s. Condensation was on all our gear with water literally puddling on my keyboards. Our hands were getting stiff and we had all we could do to finish that set and get the gear offstage. Most of the audience had given up and gone inside the bar, which was packed. The club owner couldn’t have been any happier.

And that was just the first night…