Another evening well spent

A college friend of mine (who lives near DC now) has a girlfriend who is in the the United States Army Field Band. She was on tour when I visited Maryland recently, so he suggested that she and I should try to meet up while she was in New England. (I was also given some crossword puzzles to deliver to her. Apparently when you're on a tour bus for four weeks you go through a lot of crosswords.) After some email back and forth today was the day we settled on.

So first I saw one of their concerts in Westerly, Rhode Island. It was pretty fun. (I have a weakness for John Philip Sousa, which always helps at these sorts of events.) I only wanted to throttle two of the people sitting around me (a couple who kept giggling and making hats out of their programs), and they left at intermission, so that was all right. A few of the things they played were:

( But perhaps you don't care! )

Afterwards I got directions to the hotel they were staying at and met with my friend's girlfriend for dinner. I had been instructed to bring embarrassing stories about him, but sadly I couldn't remember too much. (Well, maybe one or two things.)

It was nice to meet and chat with her -- hopefully I will get to see both of them the next time I'm down near DC.

Arrrgh.

Some may recall previous complaints about getting a show at a disorganized bar in Newport. But in the end we triumphed and managed to get a show there on April 10. It was very exciting!

Or did we?

Last night I checked my voice mail and found a message from someone at the bar -- not the guy I had spoken to previously. He informed me that both he and the owner (who I had talked to previously) had been booking shows and that the result was that April 10 had been double-booked -- and the other performer (Paul Geremia) had been booked first, so we were out.

He did express some guilt over the matter and said that as soon as they had an opening, probably not until June, he would give us a call. (Chris, the other guy in the band, will be in Alaska for most of June, but we'll see how this goes.)

I talked this over with Chris today and we decided that it might be worth offering to open for Geremia. (Actually, that would be really exciting for us, though Mr. Geremia might not be into it, which would be fine too.) However, when I called the bar up this evening to check into this possibility I was told that they had never had two acts in a night before and that it would be impossible. So, there you have it.

(On the other hand, maybe we'll go see Paul Geremia play that night anyway. That would be fun.)