My FIRST first time isn't that interesting... my first pro gig was fun though. We were at the recent International Gold Panning Competition in sunny Coloma California. We'd had a member sick for a couple of weeks before the gig, so our recent rehearsals were spotty at best, and with half the group living in Northern California and the other half 500 miles south, there weren't as many as we could have had to begin with.

In any case, we arrived for check in (substantially late... traffic in San Francisco was extraordinarily ugly) to discover that the Czechoslovakian (sp?) contingent had taken over the pavilion we'd been directed to. Seems that they were holding a pancake dinner. After a couple of hours, we finally got checked in and were directed to the camp we were staying at.

Well, the next morning we arrived for our show. With about 4 hours sleep split between 5 people, we were looking and feeling our absolute best. After discovering our names spelt wrong on the schedule, and our introduction getting a bit... off, we were already a bit intimidated. We took the stage, and gave one of the most mediocre dress rehearsals possible. Voices freezing, missed notes, bizzare tempo changes, the works.

Fortunately, there were only about 3 people in the audience to begin with, and they didn't speak English.

We're much better now... Honest!

M