Suntana's Blog Trek

That is a take on Julia Stiles’ 2001 movie – Save the Last Dance.
As promised, I am back to finally deliver on that sequel / continuation or more like the flipside to my last week's Post – Chronology of a 1st Gig's Drama. That Post's story had a seemingly Happy Ending to a certain degree after the very inauspicious beginning. I gave y'all the Teaser Spoiler that this week's Post about the Last Gig of that 1st little Band in my High School days, would NOT have a Happy Ending. I got some of y'all drooling with the Suntana's Blog Trek coupon that I gave y’all for more drama … to be redeemed on this week's Post. Granted this week's Gig Drama is less involved than its last week counterpart, but it nevertheless chronicles how our 1st little Band ended. So, just give me your Drama coupons and we'll get started.

For those of you all who did read my last week's Post – Chronology of a 1st Gig's Drama, y'all will likely be familiar with the characters. For those of you all who have not read my last week's Post, you should read that Post so as to familiarize yourselves with the characters and the general storyline.

Last week's Post left our little Band reuniting after a brief Breakup. As I alluded to back then, we did play together for 2 more years. As happens with most Bands after a period of time, things change and tensions are bound to develop. There at the end of those 2 years, we had been having problems and attitude from our Drummer, Eddie. We had tolerated it because well, we knew our Band's days were numbered and we'd be disbanding soon anyway as my brother was going to be going out of town to school.

We were now down to our Last Gig. One afternoon, we decided to have a Practice session. We called Eddie to see if he was going to be there as we used to practice at his house. He said that yes, he'd be there. So, my brother, my cousin, my older sister who was now singing with us, and I walked like half a mile over to Eddie's house. As we get there, we see Eddie getting into some car. We go, "Hey, what's up? Where you going?" Eddie goes, "I'm going riding." We're like, "What do you mean, riding? What about practice? We called you and you said you'd be here." Eddie just went something like, "Ehhh, Pfffffttttt! I'm not in the mood. We can practice some other time." He got in the car with some friend and drove off … just like that, leaving us standing there after we walked to his house.

We were seriously Pissed! At that point, I believe it was my cousin who went, "Hey! Let's call Bernie and see if he could do this Last Gig with us. If he can, we can kick Eddie out of the Band … teach him a lesson." Bernie was this Drummer we knew over in the Big City about 50 miles away. My brother, my sister and I liked that plan. We walked back to our cousin's house and called Bernie. Bernie said he was available and would play that Last Gig with us. We go, "Are you absolutely SURE? We can't have a maybe and then have you decide later on that you can't make it. We need to be absolutely sure you'll be there because we're about to go kick Eddie out of the Band." Bernie said he was 100% In.

So, we borrowed our parents' vehicles and drove over to Eddie's house. We asked his mom for the key to the room upstairs where we practiced. His mom inquired why Eddie wasn't getting the key. We gave her a very brief lowdown on what had happened. We began loading our instruments. Midway through our loading, Eddie shows up. He inquires, "Hey, what's up? What are y'all doing." By now y'all are familiar with my older brother who's never been into Sugar-coating what's on his mind. My brother went something like, "What does it look like we're doing? We're taking our instruments. We're tired of your Shit and your attitude. We didn't care for that Blowing Us Off stunt you pulled on us a while ago. You wanted to go riding. Well, now you can do all the riding you want. Don't worry about the Last Gig. You've been replaced. You're Out of the Band." I don't believe Eddie said anything. He just went back downstairs. He knew he had pushed his luck and our buttons one too many times.

The day of our Last Gig came up. Our Gig was going to be about 70 miles away. Since Bernie would be coming from 50 miles from the other direction, we decided he'd just meet us at the Gig, which was a Wedding Dance. We get to the dance hall and while it wasn't still open, we did start getting concerned. We were waiting and waiting and waiting … and NO Bernie to be seen. This was in the pre-Cellular Phone days. So, it wasn't like we could just call him up and he couldn't just call us. After giving us a good scare, Bernie did finally show up. He said he had had car trouble.

The Gig went OK and our Last Gig was Saved.
The Band disbanded after that.
It would be a little over a year later, in my High School Senior year when I'd be in a Band again.
Alright! More Musicians' Soap Opera Adventures!