As a musician, I have had the privilege of playing music with, and for, many amazing and interesting people. Along with that privilege, comes some funny and weird stories of situations that have happened upon me on my journeys. In this series, I plan to tell little anecdotes of adventures from my life as a musician. For several years, I played gigs with my Baltimore based group, Ghost Sugar, and we played all over Maryland and in the surrounding states. One time, we played at a party in someone's barn in rural Pennsylvania.
The man who ran this event was someone who I had worked with before, a sweet older man, a patron of the arts, who loved supporting young musicians like me. He had told me how much he was looking forward to the event and how we were going to love the space. We drove there in two separate cars, as usual. I rode with Matt in his car, and Taka and Shio rode together in their car. Also as per usual, Matt and I arrived pretty early to the event, to scope out the space and start getting set up before the rest of the band got there. We met the man who was running the event, and he enthusiastically showed us where he wanted us to play. He had set up a small stage area for us, which was made up of several bails of hay with a piece of plywood on top. "So I was thinking you guys would set up on top of these hay bails, what do you think?" he said. I initially thought it was pretty cool. Matt didn't seem too hesitant at first, until he got on top of the hay to check it out. He walked around a little bit up there, and tried to imagine all of us standing together with our instruments. The hay bails were pretty unstable, uneven, and high off the ground. As great as the idea was, it didn't seem very feasible to actually play up there. We were afraid someone might fall off and hurt themselves, or we simply not be able to move around as we normally do. Matt looked over at me and chuckled. "There's no way Taka will approve of this" he said. After considering it, I agreed. Matt also realized that although we might have been able to squeeze all four of us on the tiny stage, if we took into account the microphones and sound system too, there was no way it would work. In the end, we decided to tell the man running the event that we would have to play on the ground instead, for our own safety and to protect our gear from being damaged. He agreed, and we had a great show! As you can see, nothing too crazy usually happens on these gigs, but every once in a while, there is a little memorable tid bit, just a moment of ridiculousness or hilarity, that can go in my portfolio of musician adventures I wouldn't have had in any other way.
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Alani SugarAlani Sugar is a young fiddle and mandolin player from Maryland. She has been involved in the region's music scene since she was 15 years old, and has the attention of musicians and music lovers alike in the area. She currently works as a professional musician and teaches fiddle and mandolin lessons online via Skype Archives
January 2024
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