[Dixielandjazz] Band set up

[Kurt]

I feel your pain about falling off the stage.  It happened to me at a local
dinner theater stage and I have a fake tooth to prove it.  Long, funny story
I'll tell you sometime.

Here's another reason to be aware of your surroundings...I usually play for
a local dance club called "The Castle Club".  They have been in existence
for close to 80 years and are very hi brow.  Their dances are held at the
beautiful Hoyt Sherman Place which has an art gallery with fabulous wooden
floors which the dancers enjoy.

For several years I would set up with my back to one of the walls and lean
against a large picture frame while playing the drums.  Boy was I surprised
when I read in the newspaper that the Hoyt Sherman board had decided to sell
that painting to help pay for much needed renovations to the building.  It
sold for more than $5 million dollars!

They now put their higher priced paintings in glass cases (probably in an
effort to protect them from drummers).

Kurt "Is that a new painting technique or a smudge mark from somebody's
greasy head" Bowermaster

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com]On Behalf Of
TCASHWIGG at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 12:16 PM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Band set up


In a message dated 1/6/04 9:23:04 AM Pacific Standard Time,
bowermastergroup at qwest.net writes:

> Another benefit is that the most important member of the band (we all know
> I'm talking about the drummer) is not buried in the back row.
>

And to think!  I always thought they put us drummers in the back row to keep
us from falling off the stage after imbibing a bit too much,  :)

I fooled em all one night however, playing in a a place that had beautiful
purple velvet curtains behind the bandstand, I leaned back on my stool to
rest
my back against the wall, and whoomp! fell about five feet down to the
ground
outside the club.  This was an after hours joint out in the country a bit,
and
they had built the club in an old barn with a loading dock.  Apparently they
had put the stage area on the dock and just hung up the curtains without
installing a wall behind them.  I found out why it was so cold up there as
well.

They called the joint Billy's Bayou, out in Crow Canyon in the East Bay
countryside of San Francisco, California for you guys that don't know where
the
East Bay is.  A few of you may have even played there back int he late 60s
before
the cops shut it down.

In the winter time it got very interesting, because all the cars used to
park
in rows side by side horizontally on a hill, then it would rain like hell
and
the cars would slide into each other often trapping a couple inside that did
not belong together, :)   made for some interesting times indeed.  Place was
frequented by the Hell's Angels Motorcycle gang as well, so it tended to get
a
bit drunk and rowdy, especially if one of those guys found his lady friend
in
one of the sliding cars.

The best fun however was watching drunken Hells Angels trying to ride those
big Harley hogs up the slippery muddy hillside to park the bikes in front of
the club, A real circus on wheels many nights.

Ahh  the good old days.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins
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