Monday, August 31, 2009

Crappy to Happy

Well, the weekend got off to a really shaky start for me, literally. Just hours before gig time on Friday I got chills and a hacky cough and every pore in my body was aching like a throbbing tooth. I did not feel good A LOT! I wrapped up in a blanket and laid on the couch until the very last minute. Finally I got up and took a long hot shower and drug my sorry ass to soundcheck. The Bottle Rockets were in the middle of their check when we arrived. Marriane (books the bands at The Berkeley CafĂ©) takes one look at me and says “You look awful!”. “Well, I promise you I feel worse than that!” I said. So I had no clue what to expect when we hit the stage at 9pm (or so). The crowd started growing bigger and bigger and by the time I sat behind the drums, the place was full. From that point on it was “flu-like symptoms? WHAT flu-like symptoms?!" It never crossed my mind how bad I felt while we were plowing through our hour plus Ass-Kickin’ set. I thought we all played and sang damn purty and by the crowd’s enthusiasm they did too! After “Thunderbird” (cause you KNOW when we do THAT one we gots to go home) we shoved our stuff off stage and made pretty quick work (well mostly it was the other guys, I was trying to encourage merch sales) of packing the van. The B-Rox brought the rock that night too and I settled in for a good long dose of it until the thrill of our gig started wearing off and I started remembering something about chills and aching and feeling generally like dooky. I said my goodbyes, grabbed my wet clothes and as quickly as my (what felt like) 90 year old body would get me to the car I got a move on to the house. (As a side note, I like that late night AM radio show about UFO’s and shit.) So I get home and take a couple of Advil and about that time I had a feeling like I hadn’t felt in at least 20 or more years, something was coming up. I couldn’t believe it. I was REALLY sick! The involuntary heaving began and I almost had to make a run for it. It felt like my body wanted to get stuff out from behind my kneecaps. It was violent and uncontrollable and lasted a good 5 minutes. When it was done with me I staggered back to aforementioned couch and wrapped up with aforementioned blanket and begged sleep to take me away like a nice hot Calgon bath. (As another side note, y’all remember that song by Seal and Crofts called “Summer’s Eve”?, I don’t like that song) The next day I was worthless (well, more than usual) and by mid-afternoon my energy started to come back so I settled in for some riveting golf “action” on my TV. Sunday was a bit frustrating as my van has developed a new wobble up front. That can only cost more money that I ain’t got. So I took the wife’s car up to Raleigh in the late afternoon to see my friend, Michael Webb who was in town playing with Bonnie Bishop (and also who’s hogs had to sadly be put down because of the cancer). Why didn’t y’all tell me about her? SHE is GOOD! I mean REALLY good! That girl has GOT IT! You name it, looks, songs, great voice…now I can say I knew her when. The show was great and it was definitely a really good ending to what could have been a disastrous weekend. Many MANY thanks to all those who came Friday night and helped me to forget just long enough to get me through!

2 comments:

Moose said...

Uh... The song by "Seal And Crofts" is "Summer Breeze". "Summer's Eve" is a feminine hygiene product.

Unknown said...

Thanks for soldiering through. We really enjoyed the set. I hope you gained some new fans.