First of all, it’s bloody hot here! The month of June has been mostly good weather, but apart from a stormy week when Mom was here, it’s been hot and dry. This week’s temps will mostly be in the high 30’s, and then it falls to the low 30’s for the foreseeable, with no rain in sight. Will is now over the cold he brought back from the UK, and I managed to avoid it.
Last week was all about the gig. As Will mentioned, we were saved by Alain at Musique en Herbe, who agreed to loan us equipment. We went to collect it, and had a chat with him. Their main purpose is giving music lessons to kids, and as part of that, they have a kid-band that plays local gigs. Their lead guitarist and bass player are moving to Bordeaux, and he asked if we’d would replace them. He’s in his mid-60’s, so has similar musical tastes to us, and we already have a few songs in common. We agreed to come round on Friday night to meet the kids and see. We took home most of the equipment that night and set it up in our little practice room. Between that and the gym machine, there was barely any room to move around, but it was worth it to play on nice equipment. We had a practice that night that went mostly well, considering it was our first in over a week.
On Friday, we had three practice sessions, the last of which went poorly, probably due to heat and fatigue. After dinner, we went to meet our new band-mates. It’s their usual jam-session night, and we’d been invited to play with them before, but never made it. It doesn’t start until after ten, and in our dotage, it’s hard to leave the house then. There were four kids in all, guitar, vocals, keyboard and drums and I played a couple of songs with them. We didn’t bring our instruments, and they didn’t have a lefty guitar for Will, so he spectated. We agreed to play together, and we’ve been given ten songs to work on before our first rehearsal on Sunday afternoon.
The day of the gig, we got up and took the first round of equipment down to the centre equestre. They used the mixing board, speakers and mic for music and the announcing of the day’s activities. We made sure they were set up before returning home for another rehearsal which was nearly flawless. Alessandro catered the lunch last year, and it was meant to start around midday. Typically, the events ran over by 1.5 hours, so we got to watch our share before finally getting to eat. He served Italian cold cuts and cheeses, with roasted veggies in oil, plus wine. As part of our payment, we got to eat for free. We returned home and chilled a bit before heading back around 6:30 with the rest of our gear.
They were still running more than an hour late, so we hung out and chatted with Mathilde. Their youngest is the first of their girls to be into horses, so this was their first time at the fete. We moved and set up the equipment, then did a sound check. We weren’t sure who was going to be there to help us, but luckily, Manu was. The idea was for us to play after dinner, but it was 9:30 and we were still having aperos. A bit later, people started on the first course, and at this point, we decided to go on.
We were both nervous during the first few songs, Will perhaps a bit more so, and we made a few errors that few others would notice. We relaxed a bit more into the middle and from there, it was all fairly good. We mostly failed on getting much evidence, but not for lack of trying. Will put his laptop next to the speaker, but it was too distorted to use. He also recorded the gig with his camera, but it died half-way through. I asked Carol to fill in for Mom who usually records the gig, and she obliged.
Since very few people usually pay attention to us, we invited a few other people, with Jenny’s permission. Gilles and Myram were planning to have a picnic, but had to cancel because her mother is poorly, so they attended, as did Sophie and Dom, plus the neighbours, and the usual suspects. So we actually had a small cheering section this year, and our friends seemed to enjoy it. We finished just after 11, and they were still serving the main, turkey kebabs and fries. This was catered by Benoit, who specifically chose the meat for Will. He also brought us beer during the show – a real sweetheart. Manu & Mathilde had waited for us to eat, so we had a late meal together. It was then the kids asked if they could put on their music, and they played terrible French music from the 80’s for quite some time before we had to ask them to stop.
At this point, it was after 2, and we dismantled the equipment and headed home. We had a cleanser and reviewed the footage of the gig, giving it a thorough going-over. It was 4:30 before we went to bed, and then got up the next morning around 11. We agreed to return the equipment that afternoon, so loaded the car and headed that way during the heat of the day. After that, we relaxed at home before calling it an early night.
Not much else is going on. I’ve just finished a couple of medium projects, and might have some time off before heading to Mpls. I was approached by a potential client who has a real estate site, like my current guy. But this one uses a completely different technology, so it would be a big learning curve, and not a lot of potential to make money. So I may end up saying no, as much as it pains me. Will is mostly waiting for clients to come back to him. And that’s it from sunny Mazeroux.