5/29 - Scorekeepers

It's a patio gig and the sun is blazing hot, so we set up and sweat through it....for a while.

But let's back up to how it all started with bad omens ~

The guy who booked us wasn't in yet and no one else seemed to know what to do with us. So, Mudcat waited it out until a phone call was made to give us clearance to proceed. Maybe these people should be working for Home Land Security or Border Patrol.

We get all set up and we're ready to start and a string on Jake's guitar breaks. I swear I had nothing to do with it.

The bartender tells us that every day for the past 3 days she's been scheduled outside and every day for the past 3 days the weather forecast made no mention of rain and every day for the past 3 days it's poured down rain.

Enough bad omens for ya? Here's what happened ~

There's a fundraiser going on inside for Shelly, who has breast cancer so we had a lot of people coming out to hear us and then going back in to hear the DJ announce someone else's ticket number as a winner.

While they're outside listening to us, I start to notice that most everyone is looking up at the sky and pointing. Of course I had to turn around and look up too and I saw that the sky had turned most angry indeed. It certainly took the mystery out of why it stopped being so blazing hot.

Then we feel a couple of rain drops...no big deal. Then we hear some claps of thunder...no big deal. Then the lightning...starting to be a deal. Then we found out just how angry the sky really was. We're talking no amount of anger management could have helped.

I tried to grab an umbrella from one of the tables, but couldn't budge it. The boys tried to help and it still wouldn't budge. Then one guy who was making his way inside stopped and suggested that we move the table over...the edge of the umbrella was under the overhang. In our defense, we're musicians not engineers.

So now we're the only ones still on the patio, stuck under the umbrella with all the equipment scootched into a jumble, the rain is coming down in a torrent, the thunder and lightning are putting on quite an audio/visual show and Mudcat turns into Carl Spackler and announces that the heavy stuff won't be coming down for a while.

Jake is appointed "runner" to get the equipment inside. He became instantly drenched. Eventually, Mudcat helps him and he becomes instantly drenched. I played the girl card and stayed under the umbrella (hey, one of us had to hold it up and since I was still dry it seemed like the logical choice).

Now comes the task of de-jumbling all the equipment and drying everything off with the towels that Mudcat has in his Mojo survival kit. He must have been a boy scout, because he's always prepared, although I think adding a canape to the mix for future outdoor gigs might just earn him a merit badge.

Betty came to Jake's rescue with more dry towels and dry clothes and Mudcat took one of our Project Mojo t-shirts to change into, but both boys were still soaked.

Just then, Joan shows up to hear us play. Great timing girlie. Had a barley soda with her and chatted for a bit while trying to help dry stuff off and re-organize.

And because the fundraiser peeps had their very own DJ we were sent home, but not before he called a winning ticket number and the girl who had that ticket came up to us to turn it in for her prize. Have another beer.