On Wednesday, I had a show in Boston opening up for Widespread Panic. I had never heard this band before, but I knew they were in genre of "jam band." I don't know anything about the jam scene really, which is part of the reason why I wanted to do the show. I knew it was going to be weird, which I guess was also part of the allure of doing it. My shows from 2000 to 2005 were oftentimes like this, playing with an unrelated band whose audience could a damn about me and I get it up there and try to have a party.
A few people emailed me prior to the show, wanting to attend but not wanting to pay the ticket price for an abbreviated set. I arranged for some of these people and some friends to join me on stage during the performance. When I arrived at the show, the organizers were completely against having dancers on stage with me, even though there was a ton of space. We agreed to have them jam out in the space between the stage and the audience the barricade.
They wanted me to do two sets, one opening the show and one in between Widespread Panic sets. I always play one extended set so I wasn't too into this idea, but they said it was the only way I could perform. I agreed to do it. My first set was scheduled to be from 6:30 PM to 7:15 PM. My back-up dancers were pre-gaming pretty hard in the backstage trailer prior to the show, starting at 6:00 PM. The venue could probably fit 5000 people, and when I took the stage, there were about 50 in attendance. I was into the show, on a "this is ridiculous but kind of amazing" level. One of the girls who initially contacted me through Myspace ended up passing out drunk in front of the stage at 7:00 PM. Security tried to help, and she ended up pissing herself. Then, her friend was trying to explain what happened and barfed all over the place. 7:00 PM, so insane! Security then kicked all of my friends out. My set was cut short, and then, they told me that I wasn't allowed to perform another set.
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