Tupelo

Finishing up our mini tour of Iowa we headed south to Tupelo, MS. Now Mississippi is not a state that I have spent much time in nor do I regret that fact. Needless to say I had never heard of Tupelo let alone ever been there. All that I knew was that the venue in Tupelo was to be my second arena show. So at some point during the bus trip, I changed my facebook status to state that I was going to Tupelo, and was suddenly bombarded by comments to my status. Little did I know that Tupelo was the birthplace of Elvis (and little do I care for that matter). Even if I had cared we were just in town for one show so I would not have had time to make a pilgrimage to his birth home.

The fact that I must have missed about the venue is that it is a hockey arena and not a basketball arena like Tallahassee was. Now I have heard horror stories of having to play ice arenas because all they do is put a layer of material over the top of the ice, and one has to play in the cold. I also did not expect to walk in and see half of the wall set up like I was going to play a game of hockey. I was expecting to be thrown in the penalty box should I hit a wrong note.

Yup that's the ice, and to be honest the cold was not that bad. I really think that the pit at Harrah's in Atlantic City was colder.

The other difference between Tupelo and the other arena show I played is that the orchestra was remoted to behind the stage. It really only makes sense since there is no pit and we would just be in the way of the audience. It also meant that we did not have to change into our black clothes, and that some people could wear a snuggie during the show...um Mike!

We get only the best equipment when we play Tupelo!