Alex and Chris arrive: 5:30. There is daylight remaining!
Alex tends to his own business upstairs while Chris, taking a cue from a vivid dream he had the previous evening, makes tending the bathrooms his first task (this would turn out to be a misguided premonition, as a meeting was taking place in the adjoining room downstairs that would make any more than a quick effort . . . peculiar).
Brad arrives close to or around 6:00, and reports that both Rick and Victor are dealing with challenges that may preclude their respective appearances in the Circle for tonight's performance. The reduced crew is left to continue set-up (oddly more work with fewer people) and assume a circle of five seats. But on the bright side, the performance space is once again jungle-themed and even slightly reminiscent of a luau setting...
Meanwhile, somewhere on the Mass Pike, Rick musters a plan to get out of a roadside predicament and calls to announce that he will arrive ready-to-go at 7:30; this news is received with gaiety on the other end and serves as a morale boost to the team, but leaves them with the problem of reconfiguring the circle for six seats.
At first glance, a circle with six evenly spaced points seems straightforward: just take either all the odd or all the even numbers off the face of a clock, and there's a model. However, lacking the requisite mathematical formulas, and using only approximate measuring tools (e.g. a 1/4" cable and half a bottle of diet coke), it is a slippery slope indeed, and Dev and Alex retool the seats quite a bit until a satisfactory circle is reached.
Backstage Rick arrives as promised, and the GCNE goes on at 7:40. Tonight's performance will be captured on film, via Glenn's digital recorder on the roof of the tiki bar.
A good showing with Third Relation feeling particularly in-the-pocket; Blockhead also has some extra juice. There is an improvisation that begins with a slimy, low bass note circulation and evolves into a slinky stomp, with added percussion and slapped accompaniment. Compelled strictly by the spirit of the moment, a Victor-less Batrachomyomachy is given summons, with Dev, Glenn and Brad taking on the acerbic lead part. As an encore: a spirited, unplugged Calliope.
A little after-show talk, and a tear down to be out by 10:00.
1 comment:
In the name of clarity it was MA Rte 24 and not the Mass Pike where I left a large portion of the engine of what used to be the to-gig cruiser. I am glad that I was eventually able to make it to the performance though all heroics belonged to and all due praise should be heaped upon my speedy tow-truck driver, Brian.
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