We had a rare afternoon assembly in central Jersey, and thought the drive in was smooth, we hit afternoon drive traffic back. It’s one or the other – early traffic for morning gigs on the way or late traffic coming back in the afternoon.

There was substantial security at this school, with three or four no-nonsense guards, stiff vetting at the entrance (Wayne had trouble getting in – I guess the name Smith causes problems), all a product of the times. So it goes.

The audience was somewhat rammy today and I felt, though we played well, we didn’t connect as well as usual with the kids and the teachers. I also broke an A string during the second song so I managed to get in tune quickly but played the set with only 5 strings, something that tends to provide a distraction from my presentation.

The principal and the PTO woman thanked us for a good job but something was missing in connecting like we usually do. I can’t put a finger on it. Sometimes it’s not a sure thing. It was good to get out and do the show, though. We don’t play as many RR gigs as we used to.

Our next two gigs are the Friday before Christmas vacation, and I’m sure the ‘rammy’ quotient will be pretty high then.