Crazy shenanigans from the CUPE
So today we had a gig playing "It Came from the Garage" for the Office Professionals Day shindig going on in Barton Hall. We, of course, were first on, because we're badass.
So the event started at noon, and we were supposed to go on at 12:30. They put our call time at 12:15. Patrick, Pete, and I met Jim at Lincoln Hall at 11:45 to talk logistics and schlep everything over to Barton, where we met Mike and Raf. Brian and Armand both had classes beforehand, so they were going to get there later than us; around 12:05 and 12:10 respectively. 12:15 came, and there was no sign of either Armand or Brian, and none of us had their cell numbers, so we were starting to panic. Jim got a call from Brian saying he was running late, but he was on his way, so we decided to start making a contingency plan in case we had to play with only 6 people. That was when the people organizing this thing announced that they were, improbably, ahead of schedule (When is anything ever ahead of schedule??), so we were going to go on at 12:25. As we wondered what to do, we heard the announcement for us.
At this point, my narrative merits discussing a little bit of the structure of this piece. The instrumentation for it is: 2 plastic trash cans, 2 metal trash cans, and 3 buckets. While the majority of the piece consists of "beating-the-hell-out-of-trash-cans"-type antics, the beginning is this cool layering thing, where we go from having 1 guy playing by himself, to 2 guys, to 4, to 7.
So... Since Pete starts the piece, we just sent him out on the stage by himself, to vamp until Brian arrived. Patrick and I were going to cover Armand's part between us. Poor Pete went up on stage and played for what must have been about 2 or 3 minutes, when both of the latecomers arrived in the side of the room, dripping wet (it was raining outside at the time). Brian was supposed to be the second on, so he ran over, grabbed a trash can, and began playing. That's chutzpah. The rest of the performance went off without a hitch, and I actually think I played my own solo the best I've ever played it.
So now we have something to fondly remember, in days to come.
So the event started at noon, and we were supposed to go on at 12:30. They put our call time at 12:15. Patrick, Pete, and I met Jim at Lincoln Hall at 11:45 to talk logistics and schlep everything over to Barton, where we met Mike and Raf. Brian and Armand both had classes beforehand, so they were going to get there later than us; around 12:05 and 12:10 respectively. 12:15 came, and there was no sign of either Armand or Brian, and none of us had their cell numbers, so we were starting to panic. Jim got a call from Brian saying he was running late, but he was on his way, so we decided to start making a contingency plan in case we had to play with only 6 people. That was when the people organizing this thing announced that they were, improbably, ahead of schedule (When is anything ever ahead of schedule??), so we were going to go on at 12:25. As we wondered what to do, we heard the announcement for us.
At this point, my narrative merits discussing a little bit of the structure of this piece. The instrumentation for it is: 2 plastic trash cans, 2 metal trash cans, and 3 buckets. While the majority of the piece consists of "beating-the-hell-out-of-trash-cans"-type antics, the beginning is this cool layering thing, where we go from having 1 guy playing by himself, to 2 guys, to 4, to 7.
So... Since Pete starts the piece, we just sent him out on the stage by himself, to vamp until Brian arrived. Patrick and I were going to cover Armand's part between us. Poor Pete went up on stage and played for what must have been about 2 or 3 minutes, when both of the latecomers arrived in the side of the room, dripping wet (it was raining outside at the time). Brian was supposed to be the second on, so he ran over, grabbed a trash can, and began playing. That's chutzpah. The rest of the performance went off without a hitch, and I actually think I played my own solo the best I've ever played it.
So now we have something to fondly remember, in days to come.