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280
miles away on a rainy Saturday we traveled to Uncle Bo's
Blues Bar in Topeka, Kansas. Our friend, Greg, is along
for the ride and becomes very valuable in helping with sound
checks, carrying equipment, and driving. Thanks, Greg.
Uncle Bo's is in the Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka, Kansas.
By the way, Topeka is the capital of Kansas where Greg's
dad was an elected representative for a while. Anyway, Uncle
Bo's was a great gig except I forgot to ask who Uncle Bo
was or is. I like to know these kinds of things. The load
in went great with close parking to the club. By now you
know this is an important consideration for us. The sound
man met us at Big Mama, helped us with the equipment and
got us up and running in good order with a speedy and efficient
sound check.
One odd thing about the sound equipment at Uncle Bo's is
that there are sub-woofers under the stage that vibrate
the stage in the low end. Therefore my bass sounded huge
(is this really a problem?) and it was disconcerting to
Laurie as she felt she needed to turn up her guitar louder.
However, when you stepped off the stage the bass did not
have such an ominous presence as it did on stage (aw). We
worked around it and, being professionals, we play under
conditions that are less than satisfying on stage to the
performer so that the audience gets the best aural experience.
Suki, the club manager, and Jim, the sound man, were great
to work with and made us feel so at home we did not want
to leave. Thanks, all. We look forward to seeing you next
year.
One funny thing that happened when we got to the hotel made
us think we were lost in a twilight zone episode. We checked
in and got our room assignments and then went around to
the side where we were told to load in. The hotel gave us
rooms on the 3rd floor. Right by the place where we parked
Big Mama there was an elevator that went up to the 10th
floor. Kevin grabbed his bag first and disappeared up the
elevator. Laurie, Lisa, Greg and I followed in the next
elevator to go to our rooms. When we got in I pushed the
number three to go to the 3rd floor but the button would
not stay lit. Usually the floor button lights up telling
you that it will stop at that floor. Moreover, the elevator
did not move. I then pushed one to just get the elevator
moving. It did and it stopped at the 1st floor where another
person got on who was going to the 10th floor. We pushed
the 10th floor button then and tried the 3rd floor button
again. The elevator did not stop at the 3rd floor but it
proceeded to the 10th floor where, after dropping off our
new passenger, we find Kevin also wondering how you get
to the 3rd floor. Out of frustration we all go back to the
basement floor where we started. Here we find out that there
are two elevators for different sections of the hotel. This
reminds me of the saying, 'I know where you want to go but
you can't get there from here'. I think there is a song
that goes by this title. This all seems comical but at the
time it was frustrating. I'm glad we all can laugh
about it now.
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