[Dixielandjazz] GIG FROM HELL

[Walker, Maurice]

Anybody else on the list wanna talk about their GIG FROM HELL?
 
Tom Loeb
_www.hotsytotsyboys.com_ (http://www.hotsytotsyboys.com) 
 
I played back in the sixties with a banjo show band called the Levee
Loungers.  We made several appearances at The Golden Nugget in downtown
Las Vegas which went pretty well except when our set schedule overlapped
the schedule of Buck Owens.  Buck and his group were great, but his fans
would come in while we were playing and just hate us -- the kind of
intense hatred you could just feel.

The worst gig of all was two weeks in a roadhouse just outside Sioux
Falls.  We came in on opening night and the place was almost black.
There were two tiny pink "flood" lights, giving just enough light to
keep us from bumping into each other.  Other than a little light around
the bar, nothing else was visible.  Our book included a lot of stuff
with key changes, tempo change, the works. We did one of our usual
openers and received a nice round of applause.  We did another and there
was a little polite clapping.  After the third one there was silence.
The silence was even more absolute than the darkness.  As we were trying
to figure out what was going on, a voice came out of the dark.  It was a
big voice, the kind of voice which could only come from a very big
source.  There was annoyance in the voice.  The voice said, "WE WANT TO
DANCE!"  So we threw out the book of heavily arranged material and
played for dancing the rest of the two weeks.    

Maurie Walker