Music on the Parkway, brought to you by the Mount Pleasant Crime Watch. FREE OUTDOOR SHOW from 6-9 pm.The plan was:
- Chris would do a solo set.
- Then he, i, and another singer/guitarist/songwriter would do a rare electric show (Chris playing lead electric guitar, the other guitarist playing acoustic rhythm guitar, me playing piano)
- Then a set with Chris and George Hardy on acoustic guitars with Edward Demille on drums.
Since the show was going to start at 6 pm, and I figured that Chris would probably be able to use some help setting up, and since I normally work until 6 pm, I elected to take a half day of vacation today, so I got off work at 1 pm. This turned out to be a good thing.
This morning, someone tried to steal Chris's car at around 8:30 am, and while they were unsuccessful they damaged the car's front end and the car made funny noises, so he was reluctant to drive it until he had someone check it out. So it was decided that at 3 pm I would drive everything over in two trips, the first trip transporting Chris's guitars and Ed's drums, then me returning alone to get my keyboard while Chris started setting up. While we were driving over, it was raining on and off, which caused us some concern, as the show was outside and we wouldn't really have any cover. However, when we got there we had a little discussion and decided to try putting the show on anyway unless it started raining in earnest.
Driving back to my apartment, I got slightly lost, and coming back, I got stuck in traffic for a while. I ended up getting back just before 6 pm, where I learned that the third member of our little combo had decided not to play (Chris said that his decision was based on him getting lost on the way over, the threatening rain, and the fact that there was a TV truck there.)
With help from some of Chris's friends my keyboard was set up quickly and I did a soundcheck with Chris that turned into a full set of music -- we ended up playing from around 6 pm to around 7 pm, to a fairly appreciative audience. At 7 pm it started raining pretty hard and we had to turn everything off and cover it all with plastic. As the rain got worse, we decided it was time to throw in the towel, and we (along with about twenty of Chris's friends and family who materialized to help) broke everything down and packed them away.
Then it was home to change into something not soaking wet and to put the keyboard out to dry, then over to Chris's to join the throng there for beers (or in my case Dr. Pepper) and relaxation.
In about ten minutes the news will be on and I'll get to see if we're in it or not.
All in all, for something that was almost a complete fiasco, the show went pretty well.
I'm fairly certain that we did all these songs, but I'm not 100% sure of the order. I played piano on all of them.
- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
- The Weight
- Before You Accuse Me
- The Local Expatriate
- Midnight Special
- Shortnin' Bread
- Gypsy Woman
- cats
- Dear Someone
Update: Piano is A-OK. Whew! But we didn't make the news. Oh well.
Update #2: Major props to crack soundman Shawn Harris for getting us set up and broken down quickly and generally for keeping us from getting electrocuted.