Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Crowd Arrives Late

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Is it just me, or have we been hit with a string of unusually bad luck? Or maybe it's an unusual string of bad luck. In any case, it's not that our luck is unusually bad, it's that there is a lot of norm-level bad stuff happening at an unusually high frequency. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we accidentally dug up an Indian burial ground when we were burring our pets... or if maybe we tried to break into the home of a boy who's family has accidentally left him alone at home while they are traveling during Christmas... or if we were separated from our mouse-family while emigrating to America during the early 20th century from Russia and can only feel a small connection when looking at the night sky and singing one part of a duet and hoping (but secretly knowing) that our mouse-sister is singing the other half (and the high harmony part) of that same duet. In any case, things have just not been going well for us.

We recently had a gig at Ski Shores on Lake Austin. We were excited because it's an awesome place where people can just pull right up in their boat and enjoy an awesome meal, great drinks, and sometimes The Possum Posse. The week of the gig, however, we were rescheduled to an earlier time slot due to some issues related to the university of texas. We tried to let everybody know via our website, but as you probably know, there are only about 4 people outside of the band who have visited our website. In fact, there are only 3 people inside of the band who have visited our website - and we have a 6-person band. Weak, I know.

So we played an early set in the heat of the day, but... once we got there to set up, we learned that due to the recent rains, Lake Austin had been closed to boaters!

After we were done playing to the crowd of approximately 10 people, including waitstaff, bartenders, and management, we relaxed at the bar. About 20 minutes into our relaxing, a group of people gradually began trickling in and asking about the live music. We explained that we had been bumped up, and that we had just finished a 3-hour set. They were not appeased. For the first time ever, we found that the demand for Posse exceeded the supply of Posse! Needless to say, we were shocked.

Had we not already sent home 3 of our band members and broken down all of our equipment, we might have played another set... and we are just desperate enough for attention that we seriously considered it. But in the end, we decided that it's better to leave people wanting more. Of course, since they hadn't heard us, it wasn't really "more" they wanted, as much as it was "some." So maybe the reason we decided not to play wasn't because we wanted to leave them wanting more. Maybe it was because they wanted to hear us (assuming they would enjoy our music) and we didn't want to burst their collective bubble with our mediocrity.

Hopefully we'll return to Ski Shores soon. It's an awesome location, and tons of fun. Maybe we just need one show to turn our luck around. Or maybe we'll just move our dead animals to a different cemetery.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Stormy Weather

Friday, September 3, 2010

You know what they say. If it ain't one thing, it's another thing. I think there's a lot of truth to that. Somehow. Also a lot of vagueness to it, so that makes it much less powerful when you think about it.

Anyway, last night we played at Junior's in downtown Round Rock, Texas! That made our second show in a week - after Carousel Lounge last Saturday. There was a storm brewing and Juniors was an outside gig, so we were a little worried about rain. Our worries were exacerbated when we met the guy playing after us. It seems he was struck by lightning while onstage in Chicago a few years back. He wasn't seriously injured, but nonetheless, it probably wasn't something he'd like to relive.

As we began cranking out the magic onstage, Robert's banjo suddenly and mysteriously cut out. You would think that an instrument with such a long, rich history would be the last thing on the stage to have technical difficulties, especially since we have that one key-tar/digital-ridoo solo in the middle of one of our songs.

Robert appeared to be fine, as usual, but if you looked just close enough - you could see a slight bit of frustration (see picture) in his face. He took a short break in which the music was noticeably less cool. The rest of the Posse continued to play, but the tension was building as the crowd became restless - even chanting "we want banjo" over and over. We began to fear there might be some sort of revolt and/or riot (as big a riot as you can have with a crowd of 16 people).

Then, from out of nowhere, Robert appeared with the Dobro. We hadn't seen Robert break out the Dobro since the famous and terrible "Possum Posse Dobro Feedback Incident of 2009." Instantly, he began laying down a steady stream of slide-steel goodness and the crowd was placated. They didn't seem to trust the dobro at first, but gradually, it's undeniable awesomeness won them over and they couldn't get enough!

It turned out to be a great show. The guy who played after us ended up getting struck by lightning again, which was unfortunate/hilarious. But as they say in the music biz, "If it ain't one thing, it's another thing."