I did a horrible job of keeping up with the end of our steel band tour, completely leaving out the wonderful visit to Toledo and the trip down to Kentucky.
Is it okay with you if I pretend it's the day we did all of this stuff and talk about it as such? Thanks, I knew you would understand.
On "Saturday" we drove up to Novi, Michigan for a private party that had an island theme. The gig was booked through one of Aaron's colleagues in Toledo and was outsourced to us when the news came around that we would be in Toledo. This gig was unique though because I would be playing drumset instead of lead. Another lead and electric bass player would help make us a quartet. We rehearsed for a few hours to make sure we blended well and sure enough it went smoothly.
Another not-too-long but not-short-enough drive on our tour
wouldn't kill us right? Well, it tried. About halfway up the freeway
mother nature decided to test just how badly we wanted to play our tin
cans. Cars stopped the middle of the road when visibility dropped to the end of my nose. We saw multiple scenes like this one on the left with objects that shouldn't be upside down doing exactly that. I have more pictures but yet imagine signs covered in water laying down on the ground.
We allotted time for getting lost and what not but stopping for rain wasn't really an option. The PANdemonium (ha) stopped after we traveled further north. With only overcast threatening us with a bad gig, we unloaded our gear into a beautiful backyard overlooking a lake. Because of our fear of rain, we huddled underneath a 9'x9' tent that restricted our view but saved our gear. Because of this small tent, the drum thrown was about 6 inches away from me teaching the kids how loud I can yell the F bomb.
Sure enough, the rain held off and we ditched the tent after about an hour. This was my view from then on.
My bitter yet brief rant about Under the Sea: Everyone wants to yell "...un-der da sea!" but then regret asking for the other 5 minutes of Under the Sea they don't know.
The Novi gig ended with no rain and happy people all around, including
us. We said goodbye to our new quartet buddies and headed back to
Toledo. On Sunday, we were scheduled to play in front of the local ice cream shop facing this awesome lawn. It had been advertised for customers to bring a lawn chair or blanket so they can enjoy music while they eat their ice cream. It couldn't have worked out much better than it did! We had a wonderfully appreciative audience that enjoyed every bit of their ice cream and steel drums afternoon. But all of this sunshine couldn't last forever...
After the peaking hour of audience members, it started to look a little gloomy outside so we decided to call it a night. Moments after closing the trunk to Aaron's car, the rain began to pour. Movie rain. Matrix movie rain. Green Mile movie rain. We would have loved to play longer but we really couldn't complain because it was our chance to get the ice cream that everyone had been enjoying in front of us all during the gig!
