We woke up at noon to the noise of my cell phone ringing. Lisa said, "Get up, get up, let's eat and go watch them practice."
We dressed in jeans and T-shirts and went downstairs to join the roadies and the band. They had a private dining room with a big buffet that would be available all afternoon. The huge auditorium was connected by a tunnel to the hotel, so we rode carts over to the auditorium.
The band set up and the sound guys did checks all over the seating area. They were injecting white noise through speakers and reading sound pressures everywhere. When they were satisfied they had the keyboard guy do some riffs followed by the lead guitar, the rhythm guitar and vocalist, the bass player, and then the drummer. He had to muffle down a little as the stage was reflecting his sound a lot.
This was something I knew about. I had played in a band throughout junior high and high school. We were good but not near good enough to quit our day jobs or school. Some of us ended up in the military, some in college, and one in a nationally known band. Our music had been too eclectic. We played mostly Doobie Brothers and Allman Brothers stuff when we started, then went into real hard core metal blues, followed by playing a lot of really strong jazz with some Latin and blues flavor. Like I said, too eclectic for the pop culture we should have been playing to. That was the beginning of rap shit and the hip hop craze. There were some rock and metal bands making it, but not big.
I was sitting by one of the sound boards when the tech kept wiggling a plug. I said, "If you have a kit, I'll redo the plug or put a new one on."
He reached under the table and brought out what looked like a briefcase. It had all the tools. He said, "A new one would be best. This one's getting worn."
I hadn't done anything like this in years, but I remembered it well. They used a butane soldering iron just like we used to, so I quickly had the new plug on. I checked under the board real quick and tapped the connection with the soldering iron to flow the connection a little better and put the lid back down. The sound engineer was sitting back in this big armchair, with his arms folded, watching me and then he said, "So you've done this before, a lot."
"Long time ago, when you're in a small group, you do everything."
"You've got that. What'd ya play?"
"When you're in a small group, you do everything."
"What mostly?"
"Bass. Some keyboard, some backup guitar, backup vocals, lots of drums and percussion, but mostly bass."
"Have Jimmy let you mess with his bass. He's really crazy about listening and watching other musicians."
I just nodded, as most guys don't want a bunch of amateurs messing with their gear.
The group went through most of their play list and degenerated into some of their newly written stuff for fun. They were jamming a little while when the sound guy talked to the bass player and he came over to get me. "Hey, come on over man, let me hear and watch you. I'll get my Gibson and do some chords with you while we jam.
What they were playing was borderline blues, so it was an easy back bass to insert. There were a couple of bars where they slowed way down, more than half. It was interesting, as it was now almost a ballad that went back to almost rock blues again. Right back where I came from, eclectic.
The guy handed me his bass. I stared at it, "Wow, a real handmade Columbia fretless, this is priceless."
"Yeah, neat, huh? If you can't do fretless I got a Strat over there for the funky stuff."
"Do you mind? I'd love to try it."
"Be my guest. A lot of good fingers have been on that axe working with me. Let me see what cha got."
He had the pickups set pretty high so you didn't have to pull the strings but could walk both hands for the run you wanted. If you slide your fingers on a good fretless with Humbucker pickups, you can make a good bass sing, almost like using a slide. I could see he had DeMarzio Humbuckers so I did a few practice scales then walked a blues riff followed by sliding the fingers a little to see if the bass would sing. Oh, did it sing. It was beautiful.
"Almost makes you want to cry, doesn't it?" The bass man was smiling at me as I wondered at the sensitivity of the bass.
The guitar player asked, "Hey, who's our new bassist. Isn't that the airplane jockey?"
"Yeah man, he knows what to do with the Columbia, too. Do it man, really play it. Come on guys, do the number and see what he does with the drag."
We did the piece and I just stayed with them very straightforwardly, until the part where it slowed down that he called the drag. There was a natural slide between notes that I could almost play one-handed. I slid my fingers, making the bass sing the accompaniment, as the guitar went way high with the metal.
When we were done, the leader said to the sound guy, "You get that? If you didn't you're fired. Damn, that sent chills up my spine. Teach Jimmy that riff, man, that was awesome."
Jimmy said reaching for the bass, "I was watching and listening, man, that was cool. I've never just let the sustain go on and on like that. Let me try."
He went over the series of notes a couple dozen times until he was finally comfortable to drop his right hand and let his fret fingers do the work. "Man, this is sweet. I wonder why I never did that. Everybody is thumping and pulling strings, but I like to just touch them with a walk. You do the same, it's like you're making love to the axe, Man. It's the way it should be."
The sound guy said to the lead, "He says he does everything, we should hire him to pick us up when one of us goes down for the night."
The leader said, "I think the man has as many hobbies as he can handle right now. We might get him down to the studio for some fun though. That would be cool. Let Jerry work some percussion while he does the drums or give Dean a chance to do lead and he can fill in on the keyboard. Hey, can you do a B-3?"
"Not really. I've only played the Hammond a couple of times. I would have to spend a lot of time practicing and probably take some lessons. And I don't have a lot of extra time."
"Gotcha, I know the feeling. All we do is live music. We write it, practice it, play it for fun, play it for pay. Everything's music. I keep waiting for that day when I don't want to pick up this Gibson or the Strat again, but it ain't happenin' so far."
Jimmy said, "We're all junkies. Our wives all say we're queer for each other, but we're queer for our music. We go between rock, blues, and now more and more jazz as we are getting older. I think our ears like it more. The blues still pull us back though."
I got up to get away from them so they could play among themselves. I sat down with Brandy, Tiani, Lisa, and John, who commented, "So what else don't we know about, Chuck?"
Brandy said, "That was awesome. You didn't say you liked to play music. When did you stop?"
I had to tell the story of high school and an almost good group who broke up to go on with life. I said, "I'd bet there are probably a million good musicians out there who don't play anymore because they weren't in the right place at the right time. They all went on with life. We can still enjoy music and our fingers and hands will still work for a while without practice but we have other lives now."
Tiani and Brandy hugged my arms protectively as they sat next to me. Lisa asked, "Can you play the guitar?"
"A little. I could do better with some practice, as it's been a lot of years."
"I'll bring you my guitar and amp. I'll bring you my little Gorilla practice amp with my Gibson 335. It's an ES-335 thin line."
"Wow, Lisa, that thing is worth a lot of money."
"Yeah, I know. It was my dad's. I was the only one who ever played it. He left some old Fenders and a couple of other Gibson guitars too. I've even got an old original Sundowner stage amp. It's in perfect condition, but the cone is getting old and will probably have to be replaced."
"If you let me borrow a guitar, bring a cheap one. That will do instead of one of the original semi-solid bodies."
We all adjourned to eat and lay down for an hour before being transported to the auditorium again.
While we were snacking in the buffet room, the immigration man from the airport came and joined us for a beer and a snack. We chatted for about a half hour before it time for us to leave. He said he hoped to see me again sometime. We had to wear lanyards with big tags. The crew gave us crew T-shirts and one of the guys dug up a big tour jacket for me to wear so my gun wouldn't show.
The show was great. They inserted the new piece they had practiced and Jimmy made the Columbia virtually sing during the drag. The crowd went nuts watching the bass player in the spotlight, moving just his left hand across the fret board.
They did two encores and finally ended the night with a soft slow ballad that mellowed the crowd enough to say goodnight. Jimmy was making the bass sing some more so he had been practicing what I had showed him.
It took the band an hour to do the meet and greet with the groupies and dignitaries. There was a lot of champagne and fancy wine but I noticed the band had some beer and that was about all. They weren't big drinkers. That's probably why they were still good musicians.
Back in our private dining room and bar at the hotel, everyone had a few drinks. I had a big Beefeaters with the keyboard guy and we all enjoyed each other's company. This band was different than a lot of groups. They hung out with their engineers and roadies. They were a close group and prided themselves that they could erect and wire a stage twice as fast with half the people.
We all migrated to bed to nap again so we wouldn't get our timing screwed up. When I came out of the bathroom after a shower, I was surprised to find three heads under the covers of one bed instead of Brandy in one bed and Tiani in the other. Brandy said, "Get in here, you have three of us and I know you can do three, you did it the first time Tiani and I got you in bed."
It was a tough job, but someone had to do it. Brandy and Lisa were alike, very active and very aggressive. They wanted everything I had. Tiani was a small tasty hors d'oeuvre that was fun to play with. Everything with her was in miniature. She was definitely a spinner. I could sit her up on me, where she would magically completely sit, and almost spin her around she was so light and tiny. The one thing not tiny on her was her pussy. She could make herself loose enough to be sloppy, and so tight she almost hurt.
I think I was able to do justice to the three girls. I know I was very content and didn't have to watch my ribs all that much.
We woke about four hours later to dress and go down for the continuous breakfast. We had some great German sausage, potato, and egg concoction that was delicious. The band repeated their practice session from the day before, but not as long. We came back for a short nap, a snack, and then right to the auditorium.
John and Lisa said they were going to the airplane to get it ready, so I said I would go as well. Tiani and Brandy wanted to come help, so we all got our uniforms on, packed, and took a taxi to the airport.
The two experienced pilots went over the plane and had it pulled out to the tarmac where the cargo plane was. John and Lisa continued to check everything, showing me what to look for and what all to check. When they were satisfied, they checked over our supplies and ordered some sandwiches and drinks from the flight kitchen. They did order in some extra beer as the agent said the band often enjoyed beer on return flights.
John had filed his flight plan for the return and the five of us were standing, waiting for the band. They came in a smaller bus this time, since there were just the six of them.
We went through the checklists and repeated our first takeoff with me ready to take control if Lisa were to fail in some way. The flight home was totally uneventful. We were all beat by the time we pulled in at about ten. At least the time difference was going to help out getting some sleep. We all cleaned out the airplane, making it ready for the charter they had tomorrow. The girls and I gave the clothing back to John so they could be laundered and readied for another crew.
John had all of us fill out W-4s and said the charter company would be sending us payment. I told John to just keep it as I was learning and getting time. He said I had to take the money or they wouldn't use me again. Oh well.
We were home by eleven, relaxing at the kitchen counter, telling every one of our adventures. The girls had to tell the others that I could play musical instruments and had jammed with the famous band, teaching the bass player a new technique. Tiani wanted to go home, so Brandy took her so she could also get some more clothes.
Brandy had been gone a pretty long time when she called and said, "Baby, I'm so tired I'm just going to sleep here tonight. You don't mind, do you?"
"No, I'm bushed too. I'll see you tomorrow."
Brandy said, "Probably in the morning when I'm less tired. Night, Honey."
"Night, Brandy."
I lay down in bed and was joined by Wanda who snuggled up and said, "I'm still a virgin. I didn't find anyone interesting enough to let myself go with."
Taking that as an invitation to enjoy her sleek body with her long droopy breasts, I turned to her and made love to her, and with her, until we were satiated and sleeping in each other's arms.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious