As we get ready to go back to the Playa, part of the Black Rock Phil’s prep involves…The Orchestra Container! It’s how we transport our big instruments to the Playa; it can serve as a warm up and storage space between rehearsals and concerts–and it has the resources and supplies to help keep us making music!
Like what? well…lol…Thanks to Cary K, two actual full sized Timpani (yep; for real)—our “Away Show” speaker system and mixing board with our microphones (Thank you Tom L.!), night lights for bad-idea night-time or pre-dawn shows (which we haven’t done in a while..for …reasons), some kid-sized instruments, some other instruments donated/acquired (and no, do NOT assume they are there for free-use –coordinating who uses what is one of the important pre-Playa tasks we undertake…I would note, however, that we have four violas, to loan out…) and most important to many-a-panicked musician:
Our away-show tool boxes. Yes–you should arrive on Playa ready to be radically self-sufficient for yourself and your instrument. Yes, this means carrying around extra strings, pads, oils, cleaning rags, rosin, etc.
It’s also true that–we have a heart. And we know that we’ve saved more than one person’s burn with our little back up toolboxes with stuff like–a spare E string, a jeweler’s screwdriver, a suite of luthier tools, rosin, peg rosin, cleaning kits for brass, spare mouthpieces, a bridge–yah, it’s not everything–but–sometimes it’s enough. Sometimes.
Why? because…we love you. So we’re inside our stored container, up a ladder, breathing Playa dust, cleaning and re-stocking, and getting ready to get back to it. It’s May 5, 2023–and–we’re getting ready. Music isn’t ready and fully-selected yet–but it will be!
See you in the dust.
