Well, last night’s gig wasn’t the humiliating nightmare I’d dreaded, but it also wasn’t the transcendent experience I’d hoped for.

It was all a bit confused from the start. Due to some miscommunication prior to the gig, we were under the impression that we wouldn’t be able to borrow any equipment from the headlining band (when you’re playing pub gigs like this, it’s pretty traditional for the headlining band to supply some of the backline—namely, drums and bass amp—for the other bands to share because it saves space and makes the changeovers between the bands much faster).

As it turned out, the headlining band was happy to let us borrow their stuff, which was great because there was no way we could have fit two drum kits on the stage in the Prince Albert. However, it did mean that we had hauled a whole load of equipment to the venue completely unnecessarily, a task which became infinitely more fun when it started to rain.

I wound up using my own bass amp, but instead of using my own speaker cabinet, I borrowed the huge Ampeg speaker cabinet that was already on stage. It was a lovely piece of equipment, but standing a foot away from it on the tiny stage, all I heard from it throughout our set was an undefined, bassy boom. That made it very difficult for me to hear exactly what I was playing, which in turn made me even more nervous about playing than I would be normally. Combined with the sweltering heat in the room and the less-than-rapturous Monday night audience, it all made for a rather uncomfortable experience.

To top it all off, I didn’t have any earplugs with me, so my ears were ringing horribly by the end of the main band’s wall-of-noise set. And then, sweaty and exhausted already, Jeremy and I had to maneuver the bass, bouzouki, bass amp, bass speaker, bouzouki amp and bag o’cables out of the pub and into the rain to wait for a cab, then get it all into the cab for the ride home, get it back out again outside our building and ferry it up three flights of stairs to our flat.

But that’s the way it goes; sometimes it’s great, and sometimes you really wish you had just stayed home in front of the television with a nice cup of tea. Which is precisely what I plan to do this evening.