One day at some practice Lance asked me if I'd play with this drag queen
that was coming to town. Apparently there was a benefit for the Austin
Drag Fest and they brought Miss Tammy Brown out to do her Christmas show
then a set of her songs. She was bringing a guitar player but needed
full backup. That was me and Lance.
We had one rehearsal where we plotted through some of the worst written charts I have ever seen in my life. On most of the songs I ended up rewriting the whole thing... They were so bad it was almost amazing. We played through everything three times, shook hands and met up at the show.
They had Lav mics for the play, but the soundguy was really a DJ and he didn't have a clue how to work them. Bad sound was a theme for the night. They did the show (a pretty funny riff of Charlie Brown Christmas) and only a couple of mics worked... for a dozen people... After the play the DJ, I mean "soundguy" took off... and didn't set anything up for the music...
It took about an hour and a half to figure shit out. Tammy's guitar player, Michael didn't have anything to plug in to then there was the "regular" mic problem... Some genius had a mixer with only two inputs... and Michael had to go direct so that left one mic for Tammy, Michael and the two backup singers (Cunty and Natasha). Well planned...
You could tell Tammy was not happy with the problems. She (and Michael) flew from LA to do these two sets to a sold out crowd (Tables were $400, this was no cheap affair) and the sound was absolute shit. And there was and HOUR AND A HALF BETWEEN SETS!!!!!!!!!
By the time it all got straightened out over half of the crowd was gone. Tammy, Michael and the ladies had to play on a bar while Lance and I played over to the side and on the floor. Tammy had everyone that stuck around come right down to the front so half of the crowd had their backs to us. It was so weird.
But the best part of it all was that it worked. We played the tunes (from a combination of old/reworked charts and visual cues) amazingly well. Lance and I even made up a couple of songs on the fly. At the top of the set Tammy came over with the wireless and had me "play something that makes people shake their hips. I said "That's my specialty!" and I kicked something off that Lance and Michael jumped all over. And at the end of the set we just kicked in to a groove that eventually became Iko Iko at Tammy's request. So much fun!
So that was it a weird and wonderful night that was loaded with problems that were overridden with a little musical greatness. Lance and I are ready for Tammy (and Michael) to come back anytime.
We had one rehearsal where we plotted through some of the worst written charts I have ever seen in my life. On most of the songs I ended up rewriting the whole thing... They were so bad it was almost amazing. We played through everything three times, shook hands and met up at the show.
They had Lav mics for the play, but the soundguy was really a DJ and he didn't have a clue how to work them. Bad sound was a theme for the night. They did the show (a pretty funny riff of Charlie Brown Christmas) and only a couple of mics worked... for a dozen people... After the play the DJ, I mean "soundguy" took off... and didn't set anything up for the music...
It took about an hour and a half to figure shit out. Tammy's guitar player, Michael didn't have anything to plug in to then there was the "regular" mic problem... Some genius had a mixer with only two inputs... and Michael had to go direct so that left one mic for Tammy, Michael and the two backup singers (Cunty and Natasha). Well planned...
You could tell Tammy was not happy with the problems. She (and Michael) flew from LA to do these two sets to a sold out crowd (Tables were $400, this was no cheap affair) and the sound was absolute shit. And there was and HOUR AND A HALF BETWEEN SETS!!!!!!!!!
By the time it all got straightened out over half of the crowd was gone. Tammy, Michael and the ladies had to play on a bar while Lance and I played over to the side and on the floor. Tammy had everyone that stuck around come right down to the front so half of the crowd had their backs to us. It was so weird.
But the best part of it all was that it worked. We played the tunes (from a combination of old/reworked charts and visual cues) amazingly well. Lance and I even made up a couple of songs on the fly. At the top of the set Tammy came over with the wireless and had me "play something that makes people shake their hips. I said "That's my specialty!" and I kicked something off that Lance and Michael jumped all over. And at the end of the set we just kicked in to a groove that eventually became Iko Iko at Tammy's request. So much fun!
So that was it a weird and wonderful night that was loaded with problems that were overridden with a little musical greatness. Lance and I are ready for Tammy (and Michael) to come back anytime.
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