Someone died at my gig

In a decade of gigging and over 11000 hours on stage I have seen some strange, exciting, and sad stuff during my shows and I'm not even talking about my personal performance. Bars and clubs are the places where people let their hair down and people relax. This was not really the case last night on New Years Eve for the first part of my night.

My longtime friend and colleague Mike Reny and I were about three or four songs into our night when all of a sudden during our rendition of "Man Eater" by Hall and Oates a dancing man right in front of us fell lifelessly to the floor. I mean I hate Oates as much as the next guy and know that Darrel Hall was the only real driving force in that dynamic duo. Oates just had a cool jerry curled afro and a sweet mustache, nothing else. Hopefully this wasn't the reason why a patron would fall over dead in front of us. Note to self; stop playing Hall and Oates OR have a disclaimer.

The best part was that this man, who was obviously not breathing, was immediately saved by the people of the room. Two staff members pulled together and started CPR right away. This was crucial! They got his heart and breathing started twice until the paramedics finally arrived and got the man stable enough to transport (meaning hooked up to the machine that goes "Bing"). I have seen CPR performed before, but you always seem to forget when it is done properly that if you aren't breaking the person's ribs you are compressing you aren't doing it right. Well it was done right and that guy is going to be pissed when he wakes up, but happy to be alive. It was a new years day miracle and I got to witness it with ukulele in hand from about 10ft away.

Don't believe me? Here is the link to the article.

The rest of the night went without a hitch. It is a good year to be alive!