Celebrated New Year's Eve with 5 other couples last night at a really nice restaurant about 5 minutes from home ...
http://restaurant.elevenfortynine.com/

Great food, at a 'reasonable' price - $75 per for a 4 course meal with steak and baked stuffed lobster as a couple of the entree courses - , champagne toast, hats, etc, HIGH POWERED dance band that had the floor JAMMED all night ... they started off the first 40 minutes at 8:30PM with 6 pieces playing instrumentals - jazz, R&B, Stevie Wonder, Bossas - then kicked it into high gear with 3 additional vocalists ... they played non-stop till 11PM and took a 30 minute break then played the last hour ...

The difference came in the fact that a couple of the mic stands had holders for their beer bottles - even the female vocalist - and that they finished at 12:30 !!! ...
When I was playing with the band in NY a lifetime ago we would NEVER have beer bottles or a drink on stage, and at 12:30 on NYE we would just be taking a break before playing the last hour and a half ...

thats the answer Tony "A Lifetime Ago" its all normal now .....also POT is legal in Colorado starting today also whats next?..

POT LEGAL NOW


PS did they play a Polka ?...

Tony, when I played the American Legion in Havre de Grace, MD people constantly bought me drinks, which I did not consume. By the end of the night the table behind me was loaded with flat, stale glasses of draft beer. You're right, things have really changed, and from my perspective, not for the better. Maybe I am getting old, but to me it would be insane to drink while on stage. Pretty soon, the way things are going, it will be a crack pipe holder on the mic stand.

Gary

Drinking while gigging, and then driving home is a big No No with me, ...in fact I very very rarely drink at home anymore also.

Guys, I played 6 AM to 8 AM Jam sessions after all the strippers were finished for the night, 5 mornings a week for some time. This was at the "Blue Angle" on Bourbon Street. I also gigged at the "House Of Zin" around the corner on Royal Street 5 nights a week. I played Wedding any venue you can name from 1956 - 1975.

Every body I worked with all that time drank all night in New Orleans and I bet it hasn't changed much. I got a drink when someone wanted to buy the band a drink and the drummer drank his and mine. Boy those drummers could drink.

I personally think that all alcohol taste like crap. I can drink a couple of Amaretto Sours, but that taste like a fancy iced tea to me. I haven't had 70 alcoholic beverages in my whole life. That's less than 1 a year. Ha ha.

I don't see how people can drink that crap with iced tea, lemonade and coffee available. I figure that something must be wrong with their taste buds or they are drinking for the buzz. Ha ha!

Tony if my wife and I went someplace to eat and dance for $75 per, We'd have to file bankruptcy. No kidding. I'm jealous and happy for you at the same time friend. LOL

Boo, if you come down here and play sax with me for a night, I'll be sure you and Penny get to eat at the finest dining establishment in the area, and the bill would be way more than $75. apiece if you had to pay!
If you start hitching now, you can make it in a few days.

Hey, boo ... just read that legal pot in Colorado is going for over $400 an ounce ... I can drink a LOT of martinis for that money ...

From an ounce you get atleast 100 joints...

An ounce would cost you about €150 here in Amsterdam

A single Martini would cost you abot €7

I remember, many years ago, seeing Louis Armstrong performing at an outdoor venue and seeing quarts of beer on the piano and beside each player in the band. They all took gulps from the quart bottles though out the evening, and it seemed to me at the time, that they each knocked back several quarts each during the night. Gus Bavona told us that Harry James would regularly polish off fifth of vodka on a gig but no one ever saw him sipping the booze. I can assure you however, the booze in no way effected their performance ...

REALLY? A fifth of Vodka (taken over a short period) will kill the average frat boy. Hard to believe that it "in no way 'effected' (sic) their performance,.,.,". Do they make 10 proof vodka?

chas