John Hendow

Saturday night was an interesting and fun night. I sat in with The Dudley Manlove Quartet at an event called “Hops and Props”, at the Museum of Flight. As a sub, I had about a month to learn their set which is filled with great classics – many from my junior high days. As the gig approached, I felt pretty confident and was really looking forward to it.

On Saturday morning I was continuing my endless remodeling work at the house (actually, we’re in the home stretch… pun intentional…) and was routing some slots in new built-in bookcase. As always I was wearing safety goggles and hearing protection. Somehow a bit of wood debris got into my right eye and caused an immediate and painful scratch on my eyeball. It was so irritated that I spent a few hours flushing my eye with water and eyedrops. 

So that evening when I arrived at the DMQ gig my right eye was puffy, red and swollen. It had been watering all afternoon from the irritation so my sinuses were all stuffy and my nose was runny. Basically I looked like I had a headcold and/or pinkeye. Nice. But the show must go on. So during the first set I was supposed to start “Right Back Where We Started From” on guitar as a solo, then after 16 bars the balance of the band joins in.  I looked (blurrily) at the chart and saw a fuzzy shape which appeared to be a C, and thus began the song in the key of C. 16 bars later the band joined in… in the key of D. Nice. The band ploughed ahead and we finished the song without a problem.

During the set break I explained my newfound love of polychromaticism and recommended that the rest of the band get hip to playing in multiple keys. They were very cool about my mistake. I was mortified. I take music VERY seriously and mistakes like that, even when caused by funky vision, really gnaw at me.

The rest of the night was awesome and I had a great time. They guys in the band are funny and great musicians, and the music was a blast to play. Singing along to “Xanadu” was silly and joyful. Good stuff all around.