So last night my band “Stonetrout” was playing a benefit. We volunteered to play for free, supplied the PA, and I ran sound for the first band (we were second of two). The benefit was for an annual music/camping festival called “Two Day Town”. I was hoping this gig would give us an inside track to be invited to play at next year’s Two Day Town.
We were about 2/3 through our 90 minute set when a guy I didn’t know came up to me between songs, told me his friend was a great fiddle player, and asked if she could sit in. At first I told him we were in the middle of a set. He was persistent, so I looked at our remaining songs on the list and picked one that would work with a fiddle. I told him she could play with us on that song. He replied that he wanted her to play on 3-4 songs. I told him no. He held up three fingers and said “that’s strike three” and walked away. (I have no idea what strikes 1 and 2 were!)
He then walked over to our band spouses table and told my lovely wife that I could sing and play really well, but he didn’t like my attitude. He told her he was on the Two Day Town committee and would make sure that Stonetrout never played Two Day Town. When I got home last night, I emailed both the President and Chairman of the festival as listed on the web site, described the situation, and asked that they not allow Stonetrout to be blackballed by this one committee member.
While I have seen many bands over the years that I would have loved to jump up on stage and jam with, I have never asked to do so except when it was a friend’s band, and then usually just to add a harmony vocal on a particular song. Was I wrong to think this guy was incredibly out of line?
Bill, tgo