I'm Easily Amused

I'm a musician, always have been. I won't tell that story, except in bits and pieces. Here's a bit. Or a piece.

In 1990 I was in a band in Minneapolis. Mostly a cover band, but we played a couple of originals. There was enough musicianship to win other musicians over, and the non-musical just liked our set list. We had a gig (one of many) at a large club, since defunct, in town.

One night I had an idea, and I was so enthusiastic about how cool it was, the other guys agreed to do it.....

.....we would go on stage, be introduced - "Ladies and gentlemen, (band name)!" , our drummer would click off "One Two Three Four" and we would immediately go into what's called a "train wreck". A train wreck is the stereotypical ending of a live rock song - the drummer plays a bunch of BS, and the rest of the musicians play either one note or one chord, it lasts a few seconds, then BAM! At which point every member of the band would stop playing and exit the stage. That night I suggested we treat our intro as if it were the end of the last song of the night - do the train wreck, say goodnight, then walk off stage. And we did. It went like this:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome (band name)"
one two three four
TRAIN WRECK
one two three four
BLAM
"Thank you! Good Night!"
We exit the stage.

We took off our guitars and ran back to the dressing room, hysterical. After a minute a couple of the other guys suggested we go back out - the joke's over and we needed to play our first set. I kept begging them to stay put - to see what the audience would do. But the audience did nothing. Silence. I finally acquiesced. It wasn't going anywhere. We went out and re-introduced ourselves. Our singer may even have apologized.

A thin conceit, but a funny one. One of many.