Lauren and I went to Seattle to visit Aaron and Melissa and Isabelle. We had a great time. Aaron’s friend Rob set up a show for us to play with his band, the Department of Energy. He and his friend Cass also sat in with me and Lauren and played bass and drums. We practiced a few times in the garage of their keyboardist, Ty. I was feeling sick all week and my voice was crackin up during both practices, but mostly it was sounding good.
The night of the show I was feeling really croaky and worried that my voice wasn’t gonna hold up. I drank a few hot whiskys and that seemed to be helping some, but the bar was really smoky so I decided to take a walk outside. I roamed down the street in front of an office building and decided to start singing Mr. Jenkins to see how it felt, since that was the song that most wrenches my voice. I felt all alone, and my voice was doing pretty well, so I started belting it out. Then this guy from a nearby building threw open his window and yelled “Hey!”
I stopped singing and said, “Oh, hey.”
“Don’t quit your day-job!” he yelled, and then slammed the window shut.
I was a little taken aback at first, but then I just started laughing. Day job.
I walked back to the bar, still laughing. The show went great.