D.C. Hoot Night a Success

That was fun. Last night's D.C. Hoot Night gave us great performances from six groups of bands or pick-up bands. Dave Norwood from The Gary put together a band with a violinist and played three songs that had a great eerie vibe. Randy Reynolds and Seth Gibbs formed Doctor Club and played a few Television-esque covers. Nick Pelliciotto and friends played a couple Lungfish songs and a great cover of the opening track to Trans Am's debut. Three-fourths of Rainbow Dragon played Shudder To Think and Bad Brains! My sets with Excited States and Grand Champeen included the following songs:

Bed For The Scraping
Forensic Scene
Target
Do You Like Me?
Motr
What About Blighty?
Turnover
Repeater
Brendan #1
Merchandise
Blueprint
Styrofoam
X-French T-Shirt
Static
Make Out Club
Sweet & Low
Smallpox Champion

I have a hard time having "fun" when I play gigs where I work because I'm at work. I find myself being the common thread between everything happening at the bar. The business, employees, concertgoers, and performers require enough little bits of direction and attention to keep me from relaxing. It doesn't put me over in the sense that I'm miserable and wish I weren't there.  It's a unique position to be in and one that probably only happens to a bar manager who is in a band that plays at the bar they run.
An example of this is a night like last night. All six bands were planning on using my band's gear as backline and I ended up being the hub of info. I'm not pissed about it because I'm an organized person with answers so I'm perfect for the job. But it doesn't leave a lot of room for "fun" in the most commonly used sense of the word. 
Fun is a particularly strange notion because it is both treated as if it's a tangible commodity and revered like it's an actual feeling. But when people discuss their feelings, "fun" isn't included along with sadness, anger, happiness, fear, and regret. Perhaps my version of fun has changed over the years. Perhaps I care to much about my job. Perhaps the kinda of fun I'm looking for is sitting under an umbrella on a beach with a cold beer surrounded by loved ones, zoning out to the mesmerizing pulse of the waves rolling over on each other.