As it is with most clubs that book musical acts regularly, the Dublin Pub books way in advance, like, say a year or so! This is great if you happen to be one of their regular bands, but it’s a nightmare if you’re a new band on the block. The only real way to break into the club scene here as a new band is to just be relentless in contacting bar owners on a regular basis (politely, of course). This way, if they have a cancellation by one of their regulars, they’ll probably call you when it happens.
Such a thing happened on Friday this past week as I was sitting in my car, digging into a 3-way from Skyline. Dave, our lead guitarist calls me, and I greet him with our customary pleasantries, “Hey butthole, what’s up?” He responds with “Hello, ass-master”, then tentatively tells me that the Dublin Pub finally called us to fill in for a cancellation. Tentatively, because he knows I’m thinking “Bloody hell, man, that’s tomorrow night and we’ve not even rehearsed for 2 months!” Plus, we both knew that fitting in the place would be a challenge for a 4 piece band with equipment;the pub’s stage was designed for, say, one acoustic guitar player with a harmonica player sitting on his shoulders. Sure, it would have to be a small guitar, but what I’m saying is that he’d fit…
Sometimes you just have to jump in order to get out of a cold puddle, so before I talked myself out of it, I told him that I think we should do it, even on short notice. So we rehearsed friday night and packed up our gear for Saturday night.
I’m happy to say that we had a great time, played for a full house, and kept them dancing until the place shut down. They made us play that Jenny-Jenny song twice, and we are still getting requests for ‘Come on Eileen’. That’s been going on for like, well, since the day the video aired on MTV. We’re working on it folks, but understand that we fear banjos and overalls. Plus, that singer has a range of like, 72 octaves and sounds like Tiny Tim crossed with Robert Smith from ‘The Cure’. Did I mention there’s a banjo in there? Righty right then, moving on…
Special thanks to:
Deniz’s Denizens - Deniz helps create the impression that hot chicks dig us. ‘Cause she’s hot, and she digs us.
Kelly’s cohorts Kohorts - Kelly can lift big speakers & make good cake. Nice hair, smells good too.
Gail’s Gang - Gail was impressed by us! We impress ourselves all the time, but we’re always shocked when we impress somebody else. Thanks Gail! Come see us more.
Chris’s Camarilla-”It’s threy ‘O-clawk in the awftehnoooon” That’s brittish for, “Let’s drink more and listen to Queen” You are the icing on a damn good cake, my friend.
Michigan State - Ehem. Nuff said.
Jackie’s Joiners - Jackie looks like someone…but who is it!! I’ll take a vote at the next show so we can all decide. She likes champaigne a little bit.
All of the Pub’s Crew for taking care of us and working around us during our setup.
See you all at TaleGators in December. We’ll post the date soon!