[Dixielandjazz] My Worst Gig Ever

[Katie Cavera]

...well maybe not the worst ever but let's say in the top 5 at least?  Note: this email is not for the faint of heart. When I was going to school at Indiana University I played banjo in a student dixieland band.  The IU Alumni Association really liked us and hired us for a lot of parties and events.  One time IU was going to play a football game against Purdue University over Thanksgiving weekend.  For all you non-Hoosiers, this is a huge rivalry and a big deal because it was going to be an 'away' game for us.  The IU Alums hired us to play the 'tailgate party' before the big game in a tent they set up in the parking lot at Purdue stadium.  We got there in the morning and it was freezing cold.  On top of that it was an open air tent so we were exposed to the wind.  I had a heavy coat on and a stocking cap as well as a scarf and gloves.  When it came time to play I had to take my gloves off of course.  

I can not describe in enough detail the extreme pain of playing a stringed instrument in the cold.  Recalling it now makes me shudder!  My right hand wasn't too bad.  I just put a death grip on my pick and flung my whole hand at the strings.  Forget about precision or playing anything with finesse. As long as I kept flinging my hand at the strings I could approximately make my right hand do it's job. The left hand was a different matter. With the first chord I played it felt like a thousand tiny needles were shooting into my fingers.  Every time I changed chords there was a fresh explosion of pain.  Eventually my left hand started to numb (although never completely), and it became hard to even tell if I was making the right chord shapes or not.  By the end of the gig I half expected to look at my hand and see bloody stumps of bones where my fingers once were.  I don't know if IU won the game that day or not because as soon as the gig was over we were
 back in our car with the heater blasting us on high.  

Now I live in sunny California and I don't have to worry about this.  Well not as much.  I do have a steady gig in Montrose at a farmer's market.  Montrose is located in the hills just Northeast of Pasadena and every now and then we hit a cold snap.  Not Indiana cold by any stretch of the imagination but cold enough to have the same effect. The first time it happened to me all the horrible side effects were there - the needles of pain shooting into my left hand and the inarticulate right hand.  That week I went to an Army supply store and bought fingerless gloves for everyone in the band.  I know playing in the cold is rough on the brass players and wind players, but trust me - the strings add a whole 'nother element of pain.

- Katie 

http://www.katiecavera.net
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