Post #342046 by tiki mick on Sun, Nov 4, 2007 5:53 PM

So, Hodahank, am I just totally wrong for pointing out something that caused me and my steel guitar player a lot of anxiety? Perhaps I should have said nothing, but that's the problem. No one ever says anything, and that kind of behavior from parents just goes on an on. Oh well, I guess I am in the minority of being bothered by it. And by the way, I PMd Kick the reverb and told him we know it was not his child that was doing anything wrong, and that we thought she was very cute.

But, I wonder if people would feel different if some parent let their child walk up and knock over a priceless, one-off custom mug or tiki. My bass and our equiptment is equally important to me. I am not a rich man.

Let me lighten things up and relate a quasi-funny story that happened to our band. The only gig we ever walked away from.

We were hired by a customer of our first Uke player, who owns a tiki store. The customer's heard our CD playing, and asked who it was. When our uke player told them it was her and the smoking menehunes, they wanted to hire us to play a party.

From the get-go, things went sour. They wanted us at their house 5 hours before the gig to set up, and then make ourselves scarce. Seems the customer did not want the guests seeing the "Help" set up.

We pulled up in the driveway, as per the directions, and the customer was there out front waiting. She seemed strange, with a nervous and creepy smile,and she insisted on following us very, very closely as we set up. We had to go around the back. Well, she had two jack russel terriers. Her "babies". The dogs were two of the snippiest, meanest dogs you ever saw. They were growling and biting our shoes as we are struggling to carry our amps and equiptment over rough ground to the backyard. It was quickly getting unmanageable. We asked if she could perhaps control the dogs a little, as their sharp little teeth were actually hurting us. She said, "no, they are only playing, and they have the run of the house-deal with it!". We decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, but as we made trip after trip from the car to the backyard (With this woman hanging over our shoulders like impending doom), we noticed the dogs now starting to attack our equiptment pile. We asked again, if the dogs would be loose the entire party, and were told yes, that they were "family members". We made an executive decision to start to pack up and leave. The woman went from strange to abusive, and started calling us every name in the book. We drove off without playing, and with her screaming obsenities at us and yelling that we ruined her party.

The customers called our uke player, who was exhuasted from running a store singlehandledly, and caring for an ailing relative, and demanded that she make things right. Our uke player, as exhausted as she was, went and played for 3 hours for these people, pouring her heart out in song, and entertaining the guests. After she was done, the customers said "thank you" and did not even pay her. We heard that later on the same two creepy dogs actually attacked some lady at the party, ripping her dress with their sharp teeth.

The rights of these people and their dogs were more important then the discomfort of other people. That's the point I was trying to make, that I believe a person can do whatever they want in life, as long as it does not impact other people. That's freedom, with responsibility and compassion for your fellow humans.

But I guess I am wrong for pointing it out. Oh well, next time we play I am going to erect a blues brother's type chicken wire barrier. You can hurl on the beer bottles at us you want!

I did have a great time at the event friday night. Nick Tiki knows how to throw a party, and my mind was boggled by all the great art I was seeing. I wish I could afford to buy some of those things! The highlight of the evening for me was seeing C-Al's "coconut dance" again. And it was really cool when Al-ii took me out back and showed me the hidden Tiki behind a bush. Nice! Also, standing out side and smoking a cig, and staring at the harbor was nice, Especially when a seal or something popped it's head out of the water silently and stared at me before submerging.