Yesterday was an unusual day - let me tell you about it.

Started off okay.  We were supposed to go into the studio at 7:00 pm to lay down the final keyboard tracks, possibly a new bass track on "Death Letter", and maybe finish off the few remaining guitar solos, if possible. 

At 2:00 I get a call from Mike, the studio manager.  "Our 1:00 session just called - he's claiming that he didn't book for 1, he booked for 7:30.  We can still get you in, though, but not until after 10 or 11." 
Great.  Our keyboardist would be dead tired by then, since he gets up at 6:00 am.  "Well, if you want, you can come in now."

Frantic calls, ending with plans to run to the Mineola train station, pick up the keyboardist, bassist (Mikey P) will meet us at the studio.  We get to the studio about 3:50, and I'm thinking we've only got three hours before the session gets there, after setup time and everything.  But Mike lays down that new bass line, sounds great, we're getting the piano ready, and it's now 5:20.

The phone rings.

"This is the Black Forest Brew House.  We're getting a little worried - nobody has shown up yet."
"Well, nobody would show up.  We're booked there next Friday, the 27th."
"No, you're booked tonight.  You have to start in 40 minutes."

Called Ed the Hat (drums), who was busy but cancelled his plans.  Left Kevin (keyboards) at the studio to do the keyboard tracks.  Mikey P has a PA at home, Joanna (wife & agent, who was with me) calls her son Keith at our home to grab my amp and mike stand, and we tear through New York Friday afternoon rush hour traffic to get to the gig.  We're there, somehow, in about 25 minutes, so it's now 6:15.  Five minutes later, Keith pulls up, followed by Mike and Ed the Hat.  It's an outdoor gig, so we're pushing through the packed crowd to get to the stage that's set up on the deck.

Did I mention the Mike had fractured his finger last week and has a splint on it?  That's his middle finger of his left hand, the one he uses to finger the notes.  He was planning on resting it so he would be ready for our Saturday night gig at the Thistle and Shamrock.  And, Ed totalled his van a couple of weeks before and had to borrow another one to get his drums into.

Anyway, we get everything set up, do a rocking first set.  Take a break, get a couple of the Black Forest Brew House fantastic custom made beers (and Joanna had already gone back to the studio to get Kevin so she could drive him home).

That's when the rain started.

Huge, cannon-like blasts of thunder and some lightning.  At that point, Shane (the wonderful woman who books the club) just sort of threw up her hands and said "Well, you can either pack up and go or have a few more beers and see what happens."  We chose the beers, naturally, and after about 20 minutes it seemed to be clearing up. 

Set everything back up, and did two more sets.  Great crowd, lots of fun, and we played a little later than we were supposed to since we started late. 

Joanna and Kevin came, and it turned out the guy who had the 7:30 session never even showed up!  But, someone did show up at 8:00 for a last minute booking, but Kevin thinks he nailed all the parts, so now I just have to get in and finish up the guitar tracks.

Now that it's over, I'm going to see if my blood pressure can come back to anywhere near normal.  Looking forward to a fairly nornal gig tonight (it's a biker bar).