Thursday, July 22, 2010

I Found The Dead Sea Scrolls and heckled the band.

Sometimes gigs can get a little strange. I was playing The Big Chill a fund raiser for The Shalom Project in Winston-Salem, NC. We were playing in the Gazebo in Grace Court Park Sunday 7/18/10. I was playing with Ken Rhodes-piano, John Wilson-drum and Diana Tuffin-vocals.
Everything was going along fine. We were playing jazz standards and such. The weather was threatening in the West and then the threats were real. Rain and lighting, a big storm. We packed and were huddled in the middle of the Gazebo trying to stay dry and alive.
This fellow came running in from the rain. No problem. He took his shirt off and wrung it out. He was kind of talking low and I wasn't paying much attention. I kind of looked at him and he says, looking at me, in his British accent; "I found the Dead Sea Scrolls". I tried to be cool. I thought, OK, this will get interesting now. Then it starts:
"You Christians do not want to see the second coming of Christ. Oh No. Father Son and Holy Ghost. You do not want to see it." He went on about that for a while and then: "You need to play" I kind of looked up and waved my hand around. It was raining and lighting. He said "You need to play! Play! Play like an Englishman!" His voice was rising. "Play" he shouted "Play like the Englishmen on the Titanic did. Play!!" This goes on for a while. Then he walks swiftly and resolutely through the park shouting at us to "Play! Play like real Christians. Play!!" until he disappeared across 4th street heckling the band into the sunset.