"Do You Take This
Band to Be Your Wedding Band?"
February 16th,
The trio is out the
door bright and early this Saturday morning. The
guys have to be to the mall in Texas City (50+
miles away) by 8:30 A.M in order to set up their
booth for the bridal show. The three are excited
about distributing their
media kits to the brides-to-be who will stop
by their little table
in the mall.
They have also made arrangements with the mall
management to play their instruments, so
passersby can get a sense of a live GP3
experience. Since Valentine's day was just two days ago,
romance is still in the air. This is a great
time for any bridal business to push their
wares for spring and summer wedding customers.
As soon as the band arrives, they are greeted by Kelly from the mall. She takes them to their booth spot. Lee and George acknowledge to each other that it's in a good location. Their area is situated near the middle of the other booths and displays. Perfect for today's enterprise. Then Kelly says something peculiar: "Now, let me take you to your other spot that you'll be playing later." "Other spot?", asks Lee. "Yes, the catwalk for the fashion show." Kelly gleefully replies. As she leads the two into the center of the mall, George whispers to Lee "What is going on here? We are supposed to play in two spots?" Lee answers "I don't know...I never discussed playing a fashion show with her either." George's lips aren't moving, but his disdain is obvious: "This is a scam...a scam just like all of those Christmas gigs for them last year, the wrong name on the checks, and all that other stuff. Why do we keep putting ourselves through this?" "I don't know...let's just be cool, and see what's going on."
Kelly has picked up on the fact that Lee and George are displeased. "Is there a problem?" Lee respectfully protests "When this place fills up, we won't be able to pack up, move, and then set up again to play a second session in a different location. Kelly, that's just not realistic." George acknowledges that Lee is right. Even though the guys are fairly fast at setting up, it still takes about 20 minutes to move and set everything up. (15 minutes depending on how much caffeine Lee has had).
Matthew arrives to the area lugging some equipment. "What's up?" George and Lee explain that there has been a 'misunderstanding'. Matthew's comprehension of the request is instant "What are we... a NASCAR pit crew?" At this point, Kelly attempts to defend her point. "Well, you are at a Bridal Fashion Show. I thought you would know that you're supposed to play the fashion show." "You're changing the original agreement, we were to have a paid booth to play a little and pass out press kits. We can play the show or the booth but not both. George and Lee wonder if there are there any other 'modifications' that they have not been informed of like -are they to wear the dresses for the fashion too?" (Although George is up for it, Lee may have an issue with the pumps.) This tug-of-war continues until Kelly agrees to allow the guys to set up in one spot and not move.
Lee, George, and Matthew eventually acquiesce and agree to play the fashion walk pro bono. George thinks it will be fun, despite feeling that they've been snookered. Sensing weakness, Kelly moves in for the kill..."So you'll play this morning from 9:30 'til 12:30 whatever music you want. Then we'll start the bridal fashion show at 12:30 and you'll play for 30 minutes or so as the girls model the designer wedding dresses." "So you want us to be here past 1:00?" "Or whenever the fashion show is over." George looks over at Matthew then back at her. "Kelly, not to be difficult about all of this, but Matthew has a prior commitment back in Houston. We understood that we'd perform 2 1/2 hours. So we planned to be done at noon. "Since blaming the band doesn't seem to be getting her anywhere, Kelly takes a different tactic and begins to blame her new assistant for the confusion. George offers to play the assistant's voice mail message to his cell phone for Kelly. At this point she concedes and nervously asks "Can he be to his appointment later? We really want you three to play the fashion show."
Matthew makes a few phone calls and changes his plans. Kelly says "Great!" and quickly leaves the area before the guys come to their senses. Lee shakes his head as George whispers to him that George will never play the Mall of the Mainland ever again. Lee secretly believes that he can persuade him to change his mind. George secretly knows what Lee is thinking, and secretly thinks that he can change Lee's mind to not want to change his.
Within a few minutes (18.5 to be
exact) the trio is set up and finished with
their sound check. And despite the earlier
disagreements with Kelly, the band is in fine working
order, doing what they do best - playing music.
Every so often, George
(laughingly) keeps announcing this is their farewell
Mall of the Mainland performance. Greeted by
eye-rolling and grins from Matthew and Lee.
The band
is set up in an alcove positioned between
a Zale's Jewelers on the left and a Kay's
Jewelers on the right.
George dedicates the song
WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER
to both companies and suggests that the two have
a 'Jewel Off'. Then he jokingly announces
that both stores are offering special 1/2 off
discounts today in honor of the bridal fair (for
a limited time). The sales reps are good sports
about it, and one of them, Logan, even requests
"...some Billy Joel, Please."
YOU MAY BE RIGHT (I MAY BE
CRAZY) is the band's musical
response.
An interesting looking gent approaches the trio
during a break, and introduces himself as
'Mr. Hand'.
(No one knows his real name - just the stage
name, 'Mr. Hand'). At first glance, he looks a
little like a
Amish Crocodile Dundee 
. He says that he
'digs the music' and that he is also a performer
in a band called MUNDOTRIBE (www.mundotribe.com).
Lee is excited to learn that 'Mr. Hand' is a
fellow percussionist, having performed at many
world music venues like RaggaeFest and the like.
But Matthew and George don't hear any of it, as
they start acting out every 'Mr. Hand' character
reference they can come up with. Here are just a
few of his incarnations:
In between songs, Matthew assumes the role of stamping the GP3 square on the 'Bridal Bingo' cards that ladies bring to him. This is a tactic that the organizers have come up with to ensure that the patrons visit every booth at the show. One must have all of the bingo squares stamped in order to be eligible for the door prize drawing - a stretch limo ride for you wedding. The problem is that there is no one at the GP3 booth down the way (since the trio is playing at the catwalk area), so the brides-to-be are very pleased when they find Matthew merrily stamping away as if he's validating parking for everyone in the city.
The time is 12:45 when the bridal fashion show
finally begins. The wedding dresses look
SPECTACULAR! The models are beautiful as they
effortlessly glide down the runway like
rainwater down a rose.
They move and sway with elegant precision to the
trio's music. One could never tell that the song
selections were decided just moments before by
Matthew and George. To listen you would think
that the trio had been rehearsing for this
moment for all their lives. Each tune fluently
flows from one to the next with a perfect tempo
for the walk.
The trio plays ONE
MORE KISS DEAR / I CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
WITH YOU / SHE'S GOT A WAY /WONDERFUL TONIGHT
and draw to a close with HAVE
I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT I LOVE YOU.
After the fashion show, Matthew resumes his
stamping as Lee and George continue playing.
They stop briefly to take a group photo with the
models in the dresses.
Matthew dedicates the
last song of the day to the oddest booth at the
exhibit - Palmer Highway Chiropractic. "What is
a chiropractor doing at a bridal fair???"
The band plays the Nat King Cole favorite
STRAIGHTEN UP (AND FLY RIGHT).
As the guys pack up, several good connections
are made with the event visitors. They even land
a wedding for later in the year based on today's
performance. As George and Lee walk by the
band's promotion table, they are pleased to see
that it's has been cleaned out. Only a few
scattered business cards remain.
Matthew rushes away to his delayed appointment back in
Houston. Lee and George visit the
Jack-In-the-Box across from the mall for a quick
bite. They talk and laugh for a bit as the
afternoon unwinds. As they
drive away from the mall, George salutes the
sad,
dilapidated
'al Of he
ain and' sign 
(translated:
Mall of the Mainland)
once again, knowing it will be
the last visit.
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