End of the Line Needless to say, with such careful planning and tight budgets, we were quite upset when the truck threw a push-rod. Talk about Murphy's Law! With no ready-money to fix it, we were forced to rent trucks for the final weeks, a logistical and financial nightmare. The last gig at Hard Times was billed as such by the manager, "Bob Hardtimes". We always played for the door there and he knew that that tactic would really pack 'em in. He was right. We made more money that night than on any other single night in the bands history. The place was filled way, way beyond capacity. The X-Raves always performed best to a packed house and that night was no exception. It seemed the crew had done and extra special job setting the lights and Bob Hockenberry had the sound system pumpin'! We were played very loud, very hard, and sweat a lot. Just like always. People danced, sang along and had fun. Just like always. Still, I can recall thinking "this is the last time" for each and every song as we ran through them. The end of the night finally came, as it always did. There were a lot of strong emotions going around but we managed to pack up the equipment and head home. It was over. Well almost over. I still had to fix the truck and get the equipment ready for sale to pay off the loan. It took months, but that too finally happened.
CODA As long as this story is, there is still much left out, of course. And yes, I did gloss over some of the inner turmoil in the band. In fact, I would have preferred to leave it out completely, except that some was necessary to advance the story. If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear 'em. You may be able to help correct some of the factual errors I've made, and I'm sure there are many (I'm very bad with dates). Thanks again for your support. It was a great ride! - Wade |