You have those performance days when everything is going great. We departed for the gig on time, weather was nice, and traffic was light. We even had time to go Facebook Live during our 54 mile trip to the performance venue. As an added bonus, the Black Widow was in a great mood and the band was ready to deliver a solid performance in Brownsville, TX. We had left for the performance with time to spare for a quick dinner. The band was in the mood for BBQ and we were excited to chow down.
Dinner was fantastic and we headed to the venue. We even bought some extra Rice Krispies treats for the drive back home after our gig. We arrived to McCarthy’s in Brownsville with plenty of time to setup and even get a sound check in. Show starts at 10pm and we had 15 minutes to run a quick check when the unexpected happened. Issac began to shuffle though cases and gear bags looking for something. We asked him if everything was all right and his response freaked us out! “Uh, I think I left my stick bag back at home”. This was freak out time for all of us! We began making phone calls to our friends in Brownsville in hopes of borrowing some emergency drumsticks pronto! The local music shops were closed so that option was not available to us. Five minutes to start time! We got a hold of a friend of ours who was able to bring us drumsticks but was about 20 minutes out before they could arrive. This is were “the show must go on” thinking came into play. What was something the venue had that could resemble drumsticks or at least something that could just be used sticks. Our drummer Issac said “I could use butter knives”? That just might work! So McCarthy’s was gracious enough to bring us a pair of really big butter knives! Issac quickly wrapped the cutting part in black Gorilla Tape. He would use that part of the knives as handles. The other end was to be used as the striking head which was also wrapped in Gorilla Tape. Fingers crossed everyone! Well we were all shocked, relieved, and just cracking up when we saw Issac making it work with butter knives!!
The gig started and we performed the first three songs with butter knives disguised as drumsticks. The show started on time and Issac made it happen by improvising and some quick thinking! Our friend Mike showed up with the drumsticks and walked up on stage and was a little bummed out that someone had already beat him to the punch and had provided us with drumsticks. He then realized that Issac was using knives as sticks and began to laugh as he noticed this. Mike handed the drumsticks to Issac and Issac swapped the cutlery for the sticks mid song. The rest of the night was history!
This was definitely and experience we will not forget! Drumsticks will not be left behind next time that’s for sure. Spare sticks were thrown into one of our gear boxes to prevent this from taking place in the future. The phrase “Show Must Go On” really took shape and meant something to us that night. If you have a “Show Must Go On” type of story please share it with us, we would love to hear about it!