Performing Outdoors GIG 101 - 4 credits

Well the much anticipated day finally arrived for the Lava Lords first ever outdoor gig.
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We ended up being able to pack everything into two vehicles including all our amps, speakers, PA, cables, guitars, drum set, miscellaneous gear, two racks of lights, tents, sleeping bags, chairs, camping gear, coolers and even a fan. Of course we had to have a “pod” on top of one vehicle for extra space. This was our first major accomplishment for the day. Somehow it all fit. We all agreed that before the next long distance gig we need to formulate some sort of check list to make sure nothing gets left behind. If we get any more gear we are going to have to have a trailer or third vehicle or so it would seem. There are many chances for forgetting something for any gig, but a camping gig presents added challenges. It was a fairly uneventful drive south. We kept one eye on the grey skies the whole way hoping that the sun would come out. We stopped in St. Peter at Taco John’s. (now there is a bit of really interesting blogging….NOT) We stopped at the Fairmont American Legion hall so we could check out the layout and the stage. Just as we pulled into the Legion “Radar Love” came on the radio. We considered this some sort of omen. Not sure if it was a good or bad omen. Radar Love is a song that we really want to do BAD, but have struggled with it, so it has not made it out of “set four”. Anyway, confirmed with “head bartender” that yes indeed we were still on the calendar for Friday July 22, 2005. The stage there is pretty typical American Legion hall kind of stage. It appeared to be a bigger stage than the Legion in Zimmerman though. We made it out to the farm with no issues. Craig’s farm is in a very nice part of Martin County and is in a beautiful setting with many outbuildings, lots of trees, a view of the lake, a very large pole barn, and of course the flat bed trailer that would hopefully, cross your fingers and hope against RAIN, be our home for the night. After checking out the place and saying hi to Craig, Dufai, Todd & Patty, and Spot who was roasting the hog, we set about putting up our tents and establishing a home base in the pasture. Extremely hot and humid so we worked up a pretty good sweat….one of many for the weekend. Then we unloaded the gear. More sweat of course. We had many discussions about whether we should risk setting up on the trailer or just go ahead and set up in the pole barn. Hmmmmmm…The pole barn was nice and big and pretty much cleaned out. We had been consulting the news airwaves, and other sources for weather information. Anyone bring a laptop with wireless so we can check the weather? Guess not, didn’t make the cut! Who could resist wanting to play on a flatbed trailer. We set up on the trailer. It was not too long after getting set up and most things in place that light sprinkling started to occur. Out came the tarps, we covered everything the best we could. The sprinkles gave up and we did a sound check using Maddy as a “sound critic”. After the sound check more sprinkles came so everything got tarped again. We retired to the pasture to regroup, drink some favorite beverages, cool off, strum some acoustic guitar, change from “roadie clothes” to “gig” clothes, finalize the set list and worry about the weather.
(Lesson #1 – be sure to have “travel clothes”, “roadie clothes" and “gig clothes” in case you accidently spill Taco John sauce on your “gig clothes” or it is 90 degrees and high humidity and you sweat like you are in a sauna).

The wedding party arrived and proceeded to go “hog wild” meaning of course, after all it was a hog roast, they were dining and toasting. The flat bed trailer was set up, tucked up close to the pole barn. If you were standing on the flat bed you would have the pole barn at your back. In a way, looking out from stage, it was almost like 4 parties going on at once. To the left up on a hill were many of the Walters family with 4-5 RV’s set up and a nice camp fire going. To the right was the wedding party in a group of garage buildings, tables, chairs and food. Slightly to the left of stage was the “keg trailer” and there always seemed to be lots of people hanging out there. Directly in front of the stage were many chairs, people chatting, and checking out the band. Finally around 8:00 we decided to plod forward as it was not raining and the skies did not appear to be too threatening although still grey and cloudy. Our PLAN B was that if we had to we would unplug everything as fast as we could and have people help us get stuff in the pole barn away from the rain. We had one humongous tarp that in theory could cover the whole flat bed trailer in case of dire emergency / down pour.
We started the first set as we always do with “Red House”. Shortly after that song is where the real fun was about to begin. About the 3rd song Lonzo blew out the low E string on his bass guitar. Had to finish whatever song it was on three strings. Of course since we were so worried about the rain, the extra strings were packed away under the flat bed. (Lesson #2 – have strings and string snipper close by, thought we learned that lesson already). Got the string changed pretty quick and away we went. A couple songs later the new string was flopping around and would not stay tight. Ending up finishing that song with 3 strings AGAIN !! (Lesson #3 – if you don’t have 20/20 vision have your reading glasses close by so that when you do have to change a string you can see what the heck you are doing). So we ended up doing a 13 song first set with NO RAIN!! Of course during the set we also learned another valuable lesson (Lesson #4 – when playing outdoors use bug spray). The bugs weren’t that bad but it seemed like every time Kinger went to hit a drum head or crash a symbol he would squish a bug or two. The bugs were JUMPING off the drum set all night. This was actually pretty funny until such time as the “the CUZ” went to get one last deep breath to belt out a high note and inhaled some flying bug. Actually that was pretty funny too!! We all sprayed ourselves with bug spray as a precaution between sets. Set #2 was fairly uneventful as far as “issues”. People seemed to be enjoying themselves. We missed the back to back Ted Nugent tunes at the end of set #2 since we cut the set short and played them during set #3. Just as we were going building to the climax to end Cat Scratch Fever, Andy blew out a string and we pretty closed that song with a whimper. More than likely most people in the crowd can be oblivious to these things. Kinger commented on how his drums heads seemed “soggy”. Didn’t have the normal pop or punch to them. During the first set the fingers on the various guitar strings seemed slippery due to sweat. The 2nd two sets was the opposite…the strings seemed like they had GLUE on them. Not sure if this was humidity or bug dope?? Some of things very different about an outdoor gig as opposed to an indoor bar gig are:

a) no cigarette smoke (yippee)
b) there is no competition of the music vs. the “loudness” of the bar patrons
c) BUGS
d) RAIN
e) Worrying about the RAIN !!!
f) HUMIDITY affects drum heads & strings
g) FIREWORKS

During ALL THREE SETS there was a pretty good bunch of fireworks being set off by members of the wedding party and others. This was pretty COOL !! VERY COOL !!!
Towards the end of set #3 people started commenting that they could see lightening in the distance behind the pole barn. We decided to play one more REQUEST and then around 12:30 we ended the last song of the night. Within seconds the first of many large rain drops started to fall. You have never seen so many people quickly jump into being roadies. We handed off our guitars to people who put them away and started madly unplugging cords, microphones, cables, lava lamps and turning off the power. Bro Todd grabbed van keys and went to get the van. People were grabbing speakers and hauling them away to the pole barn. There was NO TIME to neatly wrap cords or politely arrange gear efficiently. It was a mad dash. Within 15 minutes ALL THE GEAR WAS SECURED in the pole barn, the van or the truck. The drum set got some rain drops on the heads and so did some of the other stuff. NO REAL DAMAGE DONE !!!!!
It was a relief to know that even though we did not really know where each piece really was or how it was stacked….at least it was going to be dry. The skies opened up and it DOWNPOURED for over an hour. We huddled in one of the garages with the rest of the party goers and discussed whether we should back the vehicles into the pole barn and start the rearranging / packing process or wait til morning. We decided it had been a long day and just wait til the morning. During the downpour we pretty much stayed in the garages until such time certain brave souls had to trek to the keg trailer through the downpour of rain to refill the pitchers with beer. We sat around til 2:00 or so and then retired to the tents for some much needed rest. In the morning we cooked up a HUGE breakfast on the tailgate of Todd’s pickup truck using camp stoves. Hashbrowns, cheesy scrambled eggs with onions / peppers, sausage, pancakes, and coffee. Had the Bloody Mary’s available but never tapped into those. All in all the GIG was AWESOME.
“We laughed, we cried, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
(who are we quoting here???) After breakfast we unloaded EVERYTHING into the pole barn and repacked and discovered where everything ended up. Talk about a snake pit of cables!! Pete reminded us to look for his glass guitar slide. We found it shattered into a million pieces. It had rolled off during the last set and shattered. We also discovered bug dope and lacquer guitar finish don’t play well together!!! DOH !! Beyond that everything survived. Somehow we were short space and could not get everything re packed into the vehicles. Finally after some rearranging we stuffed the last few pieces in and quickly slammed the door. Remember to stand back when we go to unload as this stuff in back is going to JUMP OUT once the door is opened. Thanks so much to Craig and the Walters family for being such gracious hosts, kudo’s to Todd & Patty and especially Dave & Wendy and all the wedding party! U GUYS ROCK !!! We can’t wait to do it again !! (if asked)