Being Creative

   Sometimes it's important to just be creative. This is especially true when the songs you are sent to learn are, shall we say, open-ended. When one of the recordings is actually a rehearsal of a band learning the song, with stops and starts, clocking in at about 9 minutes when the actual song is about 2. 

   Creativity comes into play even more when the songwriter, it turns out, has failed to send the actual songs he wants to play in the set, and has instead sent the ones he would do as backups. With the "rehearsal" (more on that momentarily) being right before the show, it might seem logical to just go with the songs that the band has already checked out, but no; clearly plowing through 5 brand new songs right before the show is a much better idea. Especially at the rehearsal on somebody's roof where the amps, pa, and drums never made it, since the owner of said backline had to take care of his kids. Creativity need not be restricted to the music itself, but to making do with unplugged electric instruments, a drumkit consisting of a floor tom and a cymbal, and a keyboard played on the screen of an iPad. But it's ok: "just be loose and creative, you guys'll kill it." Truth be told, the show went better than it had any business going and it certainly was loose as requested, if not more so. 

   But the day after the show was in fact the highlight, being told of the ticket sales and the money that was made as a result apparently not being quite what was expected. Of course it was never discussed that the band's pay might fluctuate according to ticket sales (a discussion that would've taken place with the member of the band kind enough to find the guy a rhythm section). But we could take comfort in the fact that our fearless leader was in the process of addressing this issue with the venue, and that if he had anymore money he would've paid us right away. He did not - the person entirely responsible for the guy having a show at all (by finding half of his band) paid the remaining balance out of pocket. 

He did, however, send some pretty pictures from the "rehearsal" and show to soften the bad news. How creative.