The Finger's Still Shot.....

We had a surprisingly good gig tonight at Steamer's in Pismo Beach. That gig is always hit or miss. I'm so used to being the 'dinner set' band there, where no one pays attention and we basically play to ourselves. It's even worse that they stick us as far away from customers as possible. So it's always a pleasant surprise when a few people show up and get into what we do.

Tonight was that night. A family of 5, an older new age couple, a local jazz head, two older ladies, and two middle aged ladies hung out for most of our set. Granted that doesn't sound like much, but it's a hell of a lot better than our typical audience of, oh say, NOBODY.

The crazy new age lady would get up during particularly burning solos and raise her arms and close her eyes and look up into the ceiling as if we were gods. It was wild, she kept hooting and hollering and going on. As weird as she was, it really made us play better, and it rubbed off on the rest of the crowd. Everyone started applauding after solos! Amazing I tell you.

Another interesting thing happened tonight. Ray Chang, our trumpet player/band leader, was going around and talking to us individually. He was saying stuff like, 'You haven't been really clicking musically lately and I'm not really stoked on it. Maybe you could listen a little better and focus on the groove, blah blah blah'. Well I'm a good sport and I'm like, whatever man, cool, yeah. I've known him for a while and we're pretty good friends, so I don't want any drama...

Our drummer however got pretty offended. Issac Lang is a studied guy and he knows the language of jazz very well. He pointed out to me that this combo, including Darry Voss on vibes (who is THE premier jazz drummer in the county mind you), knows what we're doing and in fact it may be that Ray is the weakest link.

As a bass player, I have a tendency to avoid drama at all costs and cruise right along. You musicians out there know my type, the laid back bass player guy. So I try not to get involved in that little conflict, and Darryl, well he's above that sort of thing anyways.

And sure enough, the three of us, bass, drums and vibes, were locking in and killing it tonight. We really got cookin' and had some nice moments, as if to prove to Ray that we know what's up.

Meanwhile, poor Ray had a bit of an off night. He was lost the beat a few times and flubbed some serious notes in recognizable melodies, couldn't find the one in 'Take Five' and so on. I looked over at Isaac who kept rolling his eyes throughout the course of the evening. Interesting dynamic.

So needles to say, we playing surprisingly well, and maybe it was because of Ray's little talk. It obviously made us step up and play our best. So maybe he was right?

Whatever.