Do the Right Thing (Parkersburg)

Here's a first...
Friday night in Parkersburg turned out to be one of the most negative evenings we've had in years.
I have to say though, it all started innocently, the night was like any other road trip for us; loads of laughs, a nice relaxing ride with great friends, dinner at a fine restaurant with superb food. That (seemingly) may have been the end of it all, because after we got to the club (The Front Row) things took a little turn south. First, during our sound check I noticed that the main speaker system shorted out and cut off a few times...no problem, a few adjustments and we're back in business, right !! We start playing, and it's going along pretty well, I come off the stage and down front to sing to the audience which is usually my custom to get them into the vibe of the night and to help them to relax and have fun...it's really going well. I tease a gentleman in the audience who seemed out of place but even he now is having fun telling me " how can I feel bad, I'm surrounded by all these beautiful women," and that he was.
Then the second disaster, the main speakers go out again during a crucial point in one of our songs , and the people can only see mouths moving, no sound at all; so we stop, take a break while the crew is trying to work out all the kinks. We go back, and it happens again, then again so now the evening is slowly sliding away from us, people are leaving (thankfully though, not in anger or disgust), the bartenders and waitstaff seemed a bit on edge, because their evening is shot as well, but we're all trying to make the best of it.
We make one last attempt, go back on stage and in short order the sound is gone, so that was that...the end of an uphill battle.
Although the night was shot we still hung around for awhile and chit chatted with some of the patrons who hung in there and refused to be thwarted by it all ( that's a nice feeling).
So it's really late now and we started to load our equipment in the van not even suspecting that there was real trouble right in front of us. We start to load the last pieces into the van when Michael noticed that his personal CD's were missing...that's right, someone broke into his vehicle and stole all his CD's. What's worse is that he had just gotten them and didn't know all that he had.
In an age of having a place "where eveybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came," it's a definite blow to have something like this happen.
Bill Poole who owns and manages the Front Row, is a really really nice and hard working man trying to give some nice to the city of Parkersburg that they might not have otherwise.
It's a slap in the face to him and his staff to have something like that tarnish the good reputation that they have created.
This is the kind of thing that can create a completely bad vibe for a place. I know that I would be very leary of someplace if I feel that while I'm busy inside entertaining them, these same people are outside ripping me off.
Parkersburg, do the right thing; you're a really nice town, don't let the actions of a few idiots ruin it for everyone. Return Michael's things to him.
For all those who read my blog, if you get nothing else out of this, know that it's hard enough to do what we do, we work our butts off for a mere pittance, don't steal from us, we're the very ones on your side, when you rob us you only rob yourself.