So we played our "big gig" Wednesday night. It was the annual "booze cruise" that is an event that occurs in tandem with a "Users Conference" that's held at a bayside hotel on Coronado Island.



We set up on the top deck of the boat with the idea that if we sucked then people could escape back down to the lower decks and no harm done.



We had the majority of the attendees on the deck with us and they stayed for the entire hour+ set, so I guess we didn't suck. My comedy MC skills were in full flower and I had the crowd laughing quite a bit. It was freezing and drizzly up there for a while, but we blasted through "Keep on Rockin' In the Free World" and "(What's So Funny) About Peace, Love and Understanding" and by then my fingers had thawed so I was able to play pretty well after that. Vinh played really well tonight. As Mark put it, "We peaked tonight, man! We timed it pefectly!"



We planned a end-of-set jam of a 12 bar blues thing-a-ma-bob with the idea that people in the audience who had expressed an interest in playing could do that with no need to "learn a song." Apparently we scored major points since one guy was a BIG customer of ours. Even though he sucked he jammed for 10 minutes or so. The drummer was a jazz drummer, so the concept of locking on a simple 4/4 groove was alien to him. It was pretty interesting in the way a trainwreck is interesting. I was happy to go down to the bar and get a beer while that while thing was going on. We left Bob in charge on stage.



The next day the marketing folks thanked us for playing and then today positive comments were made in the all-hands meeting, so we're heroes.



We had the experience of playing in front of 100 people and they were entertained to a reasonable level, so everyone won that night.

The weekend was a decent success. We played at my neighbor's party and were a hit. The people seemd to like us and we all played pretty well. We were up there for 1 hour+ and were pretty wiped out after that. Sunday was my book release party and most all the key people made an appearance - Joe and Catherine (yay!), Teresa, Bob and family, Mark and Linda, Kay, Bret and Thomas and a bunch more.



We checked out the boat yesterday and I was quite disappointed. It's not set up for entertainment; there is no stage and the second deck is very cramped. We decided to set up on the top deck, outside and blast the volume. I predict we will blow a circuit breaker with the first notes.



After we get through this gig I will put a hold on the band thing and get my next two books written.