Bus is stopped @ Loves, 1 hour away from Ft. Worth.
The rains did come again yesterday in Austin. Right after Bill said “5 min. to show” it started 2 rain real hard. Lightning was iluminating the venue. The thunder was dangerously close. We held the show 4 an hour until 9pm. After the weather service told us the lightning had left the area we began. I played my solo + lights came on mysteriously + went off again.
@ 1 point the stage was pitchblack after stagehands, trying 2 disconnect a colourchanger that was going crazy, had pulled a masterswitch. Mark’s drums were very, very faint in the monitor + I could hear Jon only through the mains. Calvin came on 4 the 3rd piece+ we found that his guitar was not in the monitors. We futzed around a short while + then played on w/o his sound.
After another 3 songs I called an impromptu intermission + we tried 2 fix the monitors. Apparently the rain had gotten in2 direct boxes + mike connections + was shorting everything out. We did finish the show in front of an amazing audience that was very positive + cheerful in the rain. Actually the rain kinda stopped while we played + came back hard right after the show when the crew was loading the trailer.
The big Texan promoter hugged me after we came off stage, happy that we had finished the show under adversity. None of us had wanted 2 cancel 2 shows in a row in Austin.
Several thousand $ of equipment demage in lights + mikes, esp. the intelli-lights, computer driven moving lights. A co-owner of Intelli-lights who had seen the show, gave our LD Chris his phone number + promised his suppport.
The promoter gave us an uncontractual bonus + promised a show in a theater next time. (Stefan said he is a good man, the biggest rarity among promoters.)
Onward we go. The bus is back up 2 speed. We will B in Dallas/Ft.Worth soon, where we will have Monday off. They will B fixin’ equipment then. Everybody came through under pressure. What a gr8 group of people.
Hope to see you at coach house in feb.
Your music alone put a guitar back in my hands In 1990 after concluding that all guitarist bored me with their synthetic sounds from strats and marshalls,
Until I heard “road to Santa fe… that piece changed all.
The next day I went to Hollywood and traded my Gibson for a Benito huipe flamenco and never looked back… thank you…