Sweatin' to the Oldies

What a weekend. Two gigs, two crowds, two completely different vibes, different songs, different locations, and - strangely enough! - different bands, as we introduced our female keyboardist/vocalist on Saturday.

There was, however, one consistent between the two nights. One thing that is a consistent at EVERY gig we play...

...sweat.

Sweet Mother McCreedy - is it just me, or do clubs insist on forcing the bands to lose a pound or two in water weight? In my scattered memory I can't remember one time a club's ran A/C while the band's played, and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

Is it to make the patrons hot and thirsty, forcing them to buy more beer/drinks/frosty libations? Couldn't be - food, peanuts and occasional stupidity drive most people to drop far more coin then they should at the bar and drink way too much. OK - what about saving $ on electricity? Nah, that can't be it. It'd cost pennies to run the A/C for a five or ten minutes per set, and they'd probably make the money spent on A/C 50 times over by keeping customers who run for their lives when they start to smell fire and brimstone. Wait - maybe they just don't HAVE A/C installed? Sorry, but no - though we're not at Jetson level yet, just about every club in So Cali has an A/C unit built it.

I guess there's only one reason for keeping the club hotter than an Easy Bake Oven - musicians look sexy when they sweat.

Yeah - that HAS to be it. When the drummer, guitarist and bass player look like they're coated in Crisco oil, the crowd MUST be digging it. When the singer looks like he's just dunked his head in a bobbing-for-apples sized bucket, and the water's pouring off his temples down his face and into his eyes - the girls MUST be going crazy.

Of course! And when I hug friends who've come to see the band, there's nothing they enjoy more than hugging a singer who feels like a damp washcloth.

...yeah.

...nice.