Board Tapes and a Broken Bus

So the Jars of Clay guys asked me to play drums for a show that took place last weekend. It was a “There’s no rehearsal but here’s a board tape” show…which was fine. Not ideal, but fine. It was a new set for them, and I had never played the songs. We thought that we would at least have a little time during our afternoon sound check to run over any songs that needed more attention. The morning of the show, I flew in from Pittsburgh, where I had played for Chris Rice the night before. (Have I mentioned that everyone in Chris’ camp are great people?) Jars were bussing in from Nashville that day. After I landed, I learned that their bus broke down on the way to the show, but that they would be coming in later that day…which turned out to be several hours later. They finally pulled up in another bus only twenty minutes before our show time. We quickly unloaded and set up our gear. We (briefly) made sure that we could (generally) hear each instrument in the monitors, then we just started the set. And we rocked…thank God for board tapes. How great it was to work with these guys who I’ve been in Nashville with for years.