A long day in Springfield, NJ with two schools, two separate assemblies, two set ups and breakdowns and time in between. Traffic was good and we all arrived with plenty of time, and then the blips popped up.
I have a new gig guitar now that I have a stack of Martins that need tending to. Yes, that’s right, they don’t put a strap button on the neck of these new guitars so I had to chase down the custodian for some string to get my strap around the upper neck. Boy, I can’t remember the last time I played guitar like that, but it was in the last century.
Then we plugged in the extension chord for my new PA head, and… pop/flash. Not a good sign 15 minutes before show time. Then Nick’s amp didn’t come on either. Double drat. There was talk that we might not be able to do the whole day, but a small PA surfaced from the music dept. and we made it work. Lots of sweat to start out a Monday at 9 am.
We headed into deepest, darkest NJ to find a fuse for the PA and there was nothing. No more Radio Shacks now, and even Guitar Center and Sam Ashe said forget it. We had hear that the next school had the same PA head so it was good to count on that. Nick found a powered speaker to be his rig. We lucked out.
The afternoon kids were really cranked in the old school gym. We did well and made the PA situation work. It was tough not to have the full power of our system, especially in order to bring the kids’ energy back for the spoken stuff. That’s the stuff that counts for me, and requires a ton of concentration.
Two good shows with about 550 kids and teachers. Left at 7:15 am and back at 3:30 pm. Picked up a tank of gas for $21. I could have used these prices in ’08.