Pat's Weekly Diary: 1/31
Saturday night…well… actually it was Sunday morning… we were in the Ponchartrain Center playing for the Krewe of Thoth. It's been many many years we've played this ball. Well over 30 years. It's such a massive event taking over the entire Ponchartrain Center and the parking lot. There are two bands alternating sets in most of the rooms as well as in the foyer, upstairs and in a tent out in the parking lot. Certainly the cold weather did nothing to stop the amount of people there. The whole place was just packed. We have been sharing the stage with the Wiseguys for many years now but we don't alternate our sets. Maybe 12 -15 years ago we were coming from a wedding to the ball so it was decided that the Wiseguys would play from 10 to midnight. We would play from midnight to 2. And we've been doing that ever since. It's been working out fine. A great gig. So… this years we tried to negotiate with them "hey how 'bout we play first and you guys play from 12 to 2". Seems fair, right? Yea, seems fair to us. But "no we're not doing that". Really? There's no discussion. No give and take. No back and forth. Just no we're not doing that. "Well alright… yea… thanks a lot." So there we were, the Topcats once again closing out Thoth late Saturday night - very early Sunday morning. Playing to a great crowd of people. Thanks to the Krewe of Thoth for including us all these years. And no thanks to the Wisguys for the compromise. I'd bet it was their bass players fault. I'll get him and teach him a lesson. Next Saturday we'll be riding in the Mad Hatters parade in Metairie. We'll be looking for you on the route.