In The Trenches...

It was a beautiful Wednesday evening. I was riding my motorcycle and enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair I have left these days. I stopped in at a little bar. The bar is real small. There is just enough room for a pool table and an electronic dart machine. With twenty people in the place its crowded. This night there was a lot of activity. They were settin up for the band. Guitar cases and cables were piled on the pool table. There was a PA speaker behind the bar and the rest stacked up blocking the dart machine. They were doin a sound check when I came in. In turns out that Wednesday night is jam night. There are probably thousands of jam nights happening right now across the country. Jam nights have got to be the trenches of music. You patch together a bunch of equipment and get a couple of diehards like yourself to play a few songs to get things going. Then each musician comes up and jams. You have to fill in various instruments to support the particular musician. If they are too loud are just plain awful you still let em play until you have to bring out the hook. You bring out the hook so as not to empty the place. Because if the bar hosting the thing doesn't make any money, then that is the end of the jam night. However, ironically most of the crowd is made up of starving musicians with not much money anyway. They buy a pitcher or two of beer and talk about music while the music is going on. It is places like jam night where I entered the music business. I love em! If you haven't been to one in a while, go. Don't forget to buy a pitcher or two!