The non-gig

At 10 in the morning today my phone rang and I rushed to take it. Like most people I checked the screen first to see who it was, and since my phone only showed a number (meaning it wasn’t stored in my phone under a name) I hesitated to answer it (thank goodness for caller ID)…

We now pause for a little explanation: I normally don’t answer calls from strange numbers because I figure that people should send their contact number to me first before calling me so I’d at least know who’s calling. That’s what I do; I think it’s part of good cell phone etiquette.

Anyway…

I hesitated to answer the call, but then on impulse I decided to take it. The man on the other side seemed a little hesitant, then said, “Ito ba yung sa acoustic band (Is this the person with the acoustic band)?” I said yes and asked who it was, and he said he was with a certain company (which I couldn’t hear because of a bad connection) that was having a product launch at 6 tonight and needed an acoustic performer. “At the most a duet,” he said. He also said “Dave” recommended us, and I racked my brain (still racking, actually) for the identity of this Dave since I know only two people with that name, and they’re not ones who would be in a position to recommend 220 to a business group for a product launch.

I said I had to check with Ellen and Kukie, but offhand I couldn’t commit yet because I had work up to 8 p.m. We agreed to talk an hour later while I checked our schedules, so when we hung up I rushed to text Ellen and Kukie if they were available. They said they were, which left only me as the question mark. I figured I could leave the office a little earlier, but 6 p.m. just wasn’t possible, so I decided I would ask the guy if they could move our portion to about 7:30. I felt a little snug with that compromise; after all, it was a cinch the event wouldn’t start on time, giving us enough leeway to arrive a little later.

11 a.m. came but there was no call. Then 12 noon, then 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Still no call. By 2:30 Kukie and Ellen were texting me to ask if the gig was on, and all I could text back was that the guy hadn’t contacted us yet. “Maybe they found another group when they learned we weren’t sure,” Kukie said, and I think she was right.

So here I am, gig-less. It was, in a sense, a non-gig; we were invited but we weren’t. It may be just as well since the caller mentioned they had budget for only two people at the most, meaning we would have had to split the small, unspecified amount three ways.

Oh well…