Music Before the Money

Sunday was travel day because almost every bar band worked 6 nights a week. (You had to to make ends meet and pay for the equipment leases.)

It started at 2:00am, or after the last encore. This where the artistry of packing up came in. Every band member I knew could wrap cords, tear down gear and load the vehicle while engaging no fewer than three conversations with bar patrons, staff and each other.

Now, it doesn’t matter if it’s a 4-piece country band or the Rollings Stones A Bigger Bang Tour, every piece of kit has its place. That means that packing comes so automatically that I can only remember the tough loads where we had to pack a Yamaha Electric Grand and a PA up two flights of stairs.

Although there were times when it was tough to say goodbye (Meeting the ultimate love interest was especially hard because these encounters only happened on Saturday night) all the feelings of attachment faded during the first hour of the road.

Every band member had his preference during the Sunday drive, especially if it was a long trip. In Sensation, we had two vans. Randy drove the first leg and usually we switched before the sun came up. Ray Anderson, our guitar player, slept on top of the equipment. On one trip from Vernon, B.C. to Regina, Saskatchewan Ray slept through a snow storm, rain and a severe dust storm. He never knew about the rain or snow and only saw the end of the dust storm when we entered Regina.

A couple of times we arrived at the new gig before the other band had torn down. We always considered this poor manners and never thought too highly of the guys in the band. It really threw off the remainder of the day when we had to wait. Luckily this only happened twice.

A good setup was to get the gear up in the late afternoon (Sunday) and then hit the smorgasbord. The guys had been travelling this road longer than me and knew the the best buffets (and cheapest) in Canada. If you didn’t eat five times what the food would have cost on the menu you weren’t hungry enough!

This goes with the camaraderie of bands.

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them…

“A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you and every other person, too.”

They thought about this for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather… “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied… “The one you feed.”