Last night we went to play at the delightful little Devil’s bridge inn again. Depending on the crowd, each time is a very different experience. Yesterday’s was a group of friends who had reserved the place, and hired us, for their yearly get together. A noisy assembly that had hired a bus to be driving to and from, enabling all to get merry, wild and plastered; a smart move. The French authorities have been very severe with drunken driving since the new law was passed about a year or two ago. This has made things a bit tougher for restaurants, the drink markup being the usual way to cover the meals expense and at first folks were thinking twice at going out for a meal. On the bright side there have been a lot less accidents due to drunken driving and it is also the reason that more and more establishment now have small bands for the evenings entertainment. They up the price and offer a concert. The only problem now is getting properly paid for playing, a free meal is nice but….
Still, it was a fun evening for us and a good way to rehearse tunes that are still a bit sketchy. We played for nearly three hours for this loud but cheerful crowd and I was able to measure the progress I’ve made with my washboard these past months. I have been practicing more than usual because of the growing panic at playing in front of a large audience in two weeks. We open the evening for a French gospel choir at a charity concert in Pontarlier.
The weirdest moment was walking into the inn with our gear and noticing a familiar tune on their sound system that took a moment to figure out. A Dylan song sung in French! We got to hear three or four Dylan classics – Blowing in the wind, etc – while we were setting up. I knew this kind of thing existed, but so far had been spared!