As I lug my two guitars, amp, and gear bag back into the house I feel many things. Mostly my shoulders, they are on fire from putting in some good work at the gym yesterday and then farmer carrying gear to and from my car today at Farm Day in the City. Yeah, the shoulders could use some rest. I had a gig last night at Marc’s Lounge that went really well. Some loyal friends stopped by, as did some others that I didn’t know. I had a late night and slept in a bit this morning. I consider 9:30am sleeping in. I showered off the evening’s booze and a few other scents that found their way to my hair and clothes, and then headed for two gigs at Farm Day in the City.
As I began playing, many people stopped by to listen including one little girl who looked as though she was just learning how to stand. She started dancing with feeling, buddy! It was perhaps the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and it made me smile. Music is such an instinctive thing. You don’t have to understand the words or the meaning, although it adds another layer, but you can simply just dance along to the groove and that alone is beautiful. You can’t teach that.
I also saw a dad trying to pick up his kid as he held on to two beers, only to let the child slip from his arms then, in a reflex move, soaked her with the beer as she slid to the ground. The kid was ok but I’m sure she reeked of beer for the rest of the day. Good luck explaining that one to child services haha. I’m sure for them it will be a great story in a few years. For me it was a great story today.
Something else that was funny for me and not so much the people involved was when I was walking past Casa Mia. A man had his dog on a leash and as the waiter came out with two plates of food, the dog made a leap and, in one clean swipe of the tongue, snagged a tomato off of the plate. The waiter was a bit in shock but eventually was able to chuckle, which was good because I was also laughing. The man who owned the dog didn’t even apologize. He just said, “Yeah, he does that sometimes.” … Hey man, show a little remorse, you sociopath.
There was a lady who came up to us as we were setting up to play and asked if we played any Metallica, to which Justyn replied, “In fact, we only play Metallica.”
“Really?” she said, “Do you know any Nickleback too?”
Justyn chimed in again, “Wow, we play only Nickleback when we aren’t playing Metallica!”
She then went on to explain how much she enjoyed Nickleback’s later work when Chad Kroeger had ‘matured.’ It was an exchange equal parts ridiculous and beautiful. I’m curious to know for how long she stuck around until she realized we were not going to play either.
Those were just a few encounters from a beautiful day that I thought were worthy of sharing with you. They made me smile and laugh and I hope you are able to do the same!
Peace of the Shore 