Here’s my behind the scene post for my performance at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Burnaby BC. I’ve been playing as part of this noon hour concert series for a few years now. I’ll be playing as a guitar duo with guitarist extraordinaire Andre Stepanian.

Here’s how we do it…

First is my email to Andre to give you and Andre the initial performance details…

Hi Andre

We’re back at SFU tomorrow, Wednesday June 2nd
Same location as last year, SFU Town Square, 8960 University High Street in Beautiful Burnaby, BC
Performance time is 11:30am to 2:30 pm (your set up and sound check time at 11am)
Dress all black and bring a jacket or fleese if it’s cold. We’ll be using mic’s

Al G. will call me before 9am if it’s cancelled due to weather.
(he’ll call if it’s extremely bad however if it’s a little cloud or a little rain the show will go on)

Park in Lot B pay parking. (there is no free parking this time)

See you then,
John G.

Next I’ll create my set list. This is a long one, three hours. So it’s three 45 minute sets at roughly 5 min. per song = 9 songs per set. I’ll bring a cd player with a cd to play on our breaks. I’ll be performing a lot of my own music along with music by Carlos Santana, Ottmar Lieber, the Gipsy Kings, and Jesse Cook. I don’t normally play a lot of covers for concerts however the odd time it’s nice to mix things up a bit.

Now my biggest worry is the weather, it’s been raining for the last 2 weeks and if it’s raining too hard the performance will be a canceled and rescheduled for another day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I’m up at 7am to iron my clothes, shower, eat and load the pa into the truck for the gig. I even have to bring my own chairs for this one as there is none to borrow at the event location. I check the traffic report to evaluate when to leave and it looks like the morning rush hour traffic will be really heavy.

It’s 9am and there is not cancellation call so it’s off to the gig I go, right away to ensure I make it for a 10:30am set up time. There is one main bridge to cross and the traffic is really backed up this morning. Fifty minutes into my commute and just as I get on the bridge I get the call. “The gig’s been Canceled!”

The downside to living in beautiful Vancouver is that we get a lot of rain and unfortunately for outdoor events it can really suck!

Fortunately… I was able to contact Andre, (my band mate), just as he was leaving his home to advise him of the cancelation.

Unfortunately… I will have to compensate him for his time.

Fortunately… the gig will be rescheduled and I’ll get to repeat the morning once again, however next time with a live performance. (as long as the rain stays away)

Unfortunately… fans may arrive and they’ll be upset that there is not event.

Fortunately… due to my wonderful new blackberry I was able to update my blog calendar to show the event was canceled.

Unfortunately… Andre had to turn down a gig that would have paid him a couple hundred bucks.

Fortunately… this event was in the middle of the day and I only had to cancel 1 student, I’ll teach the rest of my students later in the afternoon and evening.

Fortunately… I didn’t turn down any work due to this concert.

Fortunately… the extra fortunately trumps the unfortunately’s so this morning is really a great morning.

Oh well it’s just another day as a guitar player, time to get back home, teach and prepair for tomorrows gig!

Stay tuned…