Last night was a lot of fun despite the odds. Rowan and I have been working hard putting together a more equitable setlist and we got to play it last night at Gypsy Sally’s. Tuesday night we’d practiced our little hearts out and then headed down to play the open mic with kind of questionable results, and today we left really, really early to avoid rush hour traffic on our way down to the actual gig.
Not that avoiding DC rush hour traffic is actually a thing – you have to avoid DC as a whole in order to do that.
In any case, armed with Tuesday night’s knowledge we were really, really prepped to not miss ANY turns this time around – and were only mildly disappointed to have google route us to Georgetown along an entirely different path. No matter – the point is is that we GOT there! We parked, had enough time for coffee [Rowan showed off his beanerdery by taking me to a Blue Bottle and talking about… like… “figuring” and “profiles” with the guy behind the counter] and then nabbing dinner at Chipotle [I continue to fail to find anything at Chipotle that doesn’t make me sick though] and STILL have time to load-in early to the venue AND spend plenty of time in their bathroom thanks to item two above.
Sigh. You know you’re not one of those laissez-faire rockers when one of the major plusses for a venue is the fact that their rest rooms are always clean – but man oh man, I can’t say enough good stuff about the fact that Gypsy Sally’s bathrooms are always in good shape.
Anywho, loaded in, set up, warmed up playing along to the Red Hot Chili Peppers album being played over the PA, and proceeded to rock the Hell out.
Now, Gypsy Sally’s is one of the only “tips” gigs I’ll play nowadays. The “why” to this is probably not immediately obvious : it’s not easy to get to, paying for parking ain’t cheap… BUT a) you’re scheduled against the “big” shows going next door in an intelligent fashion so that you get a LOT of audience flooding in from that, b) the staff is really, really fantastic and appreciative and c) the crowd is also really, really appreciative –it’s definitely a music crowd, not your standard barmongers, d) as mentioned… great bathrooms e) we can play what EVER we want. Rowan and I really have a fantastic time. And it’s supportive enough that we DO actually make a profit, so… until the promised big gigs on the BIG side come along, we are surprisingly happy about playing these.
So happy, as a matter of fact, that some nights (like Thursday night) we forget to take a break. And so, after playing our hearts out and then realizing ANOTHER big batch of people are crowding in so we should play our hearts out a little longer – we remember that we’ve not taken a break and have forgotten to run back out and pay the meter.
Now, especially since at the open mic we felt like we’d had a close call with this – seeing the car next to us being ticketed half an hour after the meters were supposed to be OFF – we weren’t feeling like we were going to get away with this, but Rowan’s windshield remained remarkably free of citations! Huzzah!
Then we got pulled over on the way home.
For a taillight! Just given a work order! Huzzah!
Then I-695 was closed on the drive home.
But the cat was waiting for me when I got home at 1.30 in the morning. Huzzah!
Little victories. Tis what Life is made of.
