A CD from a Tapas Restaurant
Two guys walk by a guy who is building a fort out of toothpicks and is in the stage of finding something small enough to enjoy the fort. One guy says, “Hey, why is taking Mo so long to make a cd?” The other guy says, “Because he can’t find an animal willing to enjoy his newly varnished fort.”
I can send you free is a cd compilation that I received to promote a show that started with my bass player saying,
“Hey Mo, this guy wants us to play at his restaurant and will feed us and pay us. It’s on a Monday and they want to make a cd of the bands playing just to promote the shows.”
“ok”
The Saturday before the show I was walking in the neighborhood of the venue and looked inside. It was a tapas restaurant which was good because I began looking forward to my free tapas dinner but there was nowhere to set up, no p.a., nothing. My ominous feeling about this gig was simultaneously felt by my bass player who called me within the half hour and said,
“Hey Mo, I have a weird feeling about playing at this restaurant. I want to go by and check it out.”
“Hey, I’m pretty close to it and I have the same feelings.”
We met the owner at the restaurant and told him who we were. He looked panicked since this will be the whole band, rocking very close to people eating dinner.
“We can move this table.” But, the table’s not the problem. The whole thing is the problem. So, I offer to cancel it as a misunderstanding. The band the previous week had to stop because customers were leaving. This situation was not far from Hedwig’s seafood restaurant tour and cancelling would be in the best interest of everyone. But the owner was looking for rainbows in an exploding toilet.
“No, I would like you to play. How about if you come and if it is too loud then you stop and still get paid and eat.”
I’m all for that but I know its going to be a pain for everyone else.
The situation was finally remedied at 4pm on Monday and it was agreed that I would do the show by myself. I shit you not when I tell you that it was too loud even with me unamplified. No mics, no amplifiers. Just me, my accordion, and my casio piano’s tiny speakers. The dudes who signed the Arctic Monkeys showed up and I just shook my head thinking, You came to this one. But I enjoyed myself because it was so quiet and will do it again in such manner someday.
You can have a souvenir of this debacle. Free. It’s just a compilation of latin rock bands and me. I should have recorded the performance but I didn’t. I’ll mail you one or give you one somewhere. And I will continue working on my new cd of songs. cornmo@hotmail.com