Bill and I hooked up with Joe and Duke in New Castle, IN to perform for their concert series. It would have been a really fun show, if I hadn't been hurt as soon as I arrived. Just before unloading our gear, an elderly, frail-looking woman walked up, excited to meet the band. She reach her hand out to shake mine, before I could fully grip her hand, she unknowingly and excitedly clasped down on my fingers just above my knuckles, and squeezed my ring into my pinkie knuckle with the force of a python. I immediately had a shooting pain up my arm, and had to play the rest of the night with a huge knot on the side of my smallest finger. The rest of the band found it entertaining that I was maimed by a sweet grandmotherly woman.
The show went great, and the venue was a cool, reused building (which used to be a lumber yard). I ran into Marty Weaver, the keyboard player from Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors, who had come out to see us perform. He had a rare night off, and he happens to live in New Castle! After talking to him at the end of the show, we packed up and I drove home in more pain than I can remember feeling in my hand. Uhgg.
