My band has a gig. It’s not a great gig, but it’s a gig nonetheless.
My band has a name. It’s not a great name, but…
One of them (the gig or the name) is New Year’s Day in the evening. The other is A. G. Chesterberry. Guess which is which?
Ok, time’s up.
New Year’s Day in the evening isn’t a great evening for a gig. Mostly because everybody young and energetic enough to go to a bar to see music will still be recovering from whatever they did last night and into the morning. So in an attempt to get maybe just a few people out and buying drinks, there’s no cover charge. In fact, they’re billing it as “Cover. No Cover.” We’re opening for another local band that plays covers from the 60s and 70s and maybe other decades. And we were asked to “focus on favorites.” I assume that means we’re supposed to play songs that might have a chance of being the favorite of one or more people in the audience. I assume it does NOT mean we should play our favorite songs that we’ve written, or read a list of our favorite movies, or favorite colors.
The list of favorite colors would be quick. Have I mentioned that I don’t have a favorite color? Have I mentioned that I think “favorite color” is a concept that doesn’t make sense to adults? Have I mentioned that apparently I’m wrong? Some adults do, in fact, have a favorite color. I wonder if “those people,” when asked what is their favorite color, say things like “blue” or “red.” Or if they think blue and red are for children, and instead they say things like “#3248a8” or “70%, 57%, 0%, 34%.”
The list of favorite movies would be longer, but just as boring. Mostly, we’d just waste a bunch of time trying to remember any movies we like, and then trying to decide if we like them enough to call them our favorites. Except for The Princess Bride, of course. Cuz that’s my favorite.
So, assuming the gig is really about playing songs that folks in the audience might actually know and already like, we’ve come up with a list of so-called favorites. I can’t promise that anyone in the audience - if, in fact, there is anyone in the audience on New Years Day in the evening - will hear one or more of their favorites. But I like every single one of them. So there.
A. G. Chesterberry is also not a great evening for a gig. In part because it’s not an evening at all, and who wants to go out and see music in a bar when it’s not evening?
The gig is at a bar called Sam Bond’s Garage. Before it was a bar, it was a garage. Presumably owned and/or operated by a guy named Sam Bond. In other news, it’s also the place where I played my first ever gig, way back in 1995.
That was also the beginning of a lifelong quest for a band name. We played a gig or two as Something’s Up with Jake. We played a few as Three Meese. We went through many, many names. It’s a proven way to build up a following.
If you guessed that our band name for the upcoming gig is A. G. Chesterberry, you’d be correct. And if you guessed why we have such a name, you’d be telepathic. Or lucky - very, very lucky.
If you guessed that our band name is New Years Day in the evening, you’d be foolish and also better at picking band names than we are.
In any case, I hope this name sticks. And some day, some how, we’ll all look back on this as some kind of origin story. An origin story worth telling, worth re-telling, and worthy of the name.
We’re A. G. Chesterberry - thanks for coming out! And have a happy new year!
:)