The best part of the “Bark in the Park After Dark” fundraiser on June 14 was the dogs, of course. Knoxville’s Market Square was filled with a delightful variety of dogs and their owners. I got photos of some of the more colorful characters. It was really heartwarming. Dogs got to enjoy swimming in baby pools, sniffing new friends and visiting the “Poopy Patch” when needed. What a clever way to raise money for the Humane Society. The event is mis-named, though, at least the “Dark” part, because the thing definitely peaked in the afternoon, while the sun was still shining. We were glad to see it was such a big success – it’s a really good cause.
We were scheduled to play after the dog contests. The contests included a costume contest, a “Sock Hop” race where the owners put booties on their dogs, a “Lick Off” and dog “Simon Says”. The Lick Off was particularly popular – 75 folks signed up for that one. The Lick Off involved the owner putting cream cheese or peanut butter on their face and their dog licking it off. Dog “Simon Says” was silly of course, “Simon says put your tail between you legs,” etc. The contests ran over schedule (who would have known so many owners would enter the Lick Off?).
It was turning da
rk when it was time for us to start. We had to sound check on the fly, and as we were testing everything I got a crazy intense electrical shock from the mic. Just thinking of it makes my hair stand on end. It hurt, and it really threw me. We switched out the mic started playing, but after awhile I got shocked AGAIN. Ugh. It made me feel emotional and it made me want to stop playing. Jason got shocked, too. There was some sort of grounding issue on the stage. We did our best despite it, though.
The evening was beautiful – perfect weather and a gorgeous moon.
The whole getting shocked thing is funny, because Lora and I were just talking the day before about how Mercury is in retrograde and a lot of people she knows have had appliances break, etc. I said, “I haven’t had anything like that happen to me lately, knock on wood.” Well, I got mine.
I have to say that we were really glad to see our nice friends/fans in Knoxville (Travis, Josh, Michael, Seva, Lincoln). Genuinely some of the nicest folks around. We are very lucky that such cool people support us and our music. Hopefully next time we play in Knoxville Mercury won’t be in retrograde.
After we played, a group of guys in Star Wars costumes walked by. I had my picture taken with them (thanks, Josh). You never know what to expect. We packed up, drove up the road, and got a room at a motel. We settled in, and were psyched to find an old 1970s episode of “Soul Train” on the TV. The perfect end to a bizarre day.
