The Door, Dallas, TX
Google Maps says it will take us 10 hours to get to Dallas from Garden City. We find this helpful. We plan accordingly, and leave Garden City well before the sun hits the horizon. Google Maps must be designed for people who are allergic to the speed limit, and in only eight hours we cruise into the Big D. I promise we didn't speed. Our destination? The Door, a rock club down in the Deep Ellum arts district downtown. This is my first trip to the actual city of Dallas (excluding the airport), and was pleasantly surprised to see the "Little Five Points - like" district there. Since we've still got a few hours until load-in, we track down some free wi-fi at Panera.
One can only check one's email so many times before staring at your computer screen is just stupid. So I leave Jon in Panera and trek out to the van to see if the Vaughn College Future Farmers could beat up on Arizona State. I thank God for the invention of the Playstation - there is no better way to waste time. What's that? You have fourteen hours to kill? Yeah, no problem. This game is being played in the snow, so the score is limited to 63-0, but hey, a win's a win, you know?
With time sufficiently killed, we head over to The Door to load in and soundcheck. There's a couple of other shows going on at the venue that night, and it's not hard to feel a little out of place there, especially having come from Garden City. It's tempting to go ahead and make your mind up that this show is probably going to suck, but I'm holding of on that just yet. You never know, right?
Being the first time we've played Dallas, we're not expecting a tremendous turnout. Sure, we invited everyone in our friends list on Myspace, but seeing as those folks are only somewhat kind of my friends, I don't really expect to see them. Don't get me wrong, I just think there's no real attachment. I mean, how hard is it to click a few links on a website? There's no real personal involvement needed, and as such, there's really no emotional investment. But we still hope that maybe some will be curious enough to come out and hear some music.
Jon and I are in the middle two slots, and the girl who's before me shows up late. This will be a theme. She then proceeds to play thirteen minutes into my set, at which point I actually walk up to the stage and begin getting my guitar out and tuning up. She looks over and asks me in a very "it's cute to be stupid" tone, "How much longer can I play?", to which I responded, "Yeah, you're already thirteen minutes into my set". To which she replies, "Can I play one more?" to which I feel obligated to say,"Okay". Being a jerk is not easy for me, so of course I let her play one more of her really bad songs. The "cute-to-be-stupid" schtick is also really annoying, but we've all got our things. I just couldn't believe how blatant she was about just waiting for someone to tell her to stop playing - I'm pretty sure if I hadn't said anything we'd still be there right now. Being musicians, there can be a tendency to really to want to look at other musicians as competitors; I think that's a lame way to do it. That's not the way to go through life, always looking over your shoulder, comparing yourself to others, picking them apart to make yourself feel better - it's just no good. I usually don't get mad - she really pissed me off, though, I'll admit. Nothing about her seemed like she genuinely was not aware of how long she played. But now it was my turn to play, and I'd driven a long way to do that, and I was going to play to whoever showed up. You just have to let stuff go, I think.
I noticed a couple of folks who really seemed to like the show. Later, I met them, and they actually found my music on Myspace. So there you go - my theory is flawed. Amanda and Alex - thanks so much for hanging out and listening - I hope you're enjoying the CDs. You guys made my night. Despite the short set, I had a blast playing some songs, and I felt that I played them pretty well. The crowd seemed to be with me, and I sold enough product to make it to cover the gas it took us to get there. I feel like we made some new friends, so all in all - a good show. We're hanging out in Dallas for a couple of days before driving for Florida - it's been a long day, so I'm looking forward to crashing on Tony's couch for the night.
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