Neither too happy nor too sad say the Stoics.

Marcus Aurelius may have cautioned us that the universe likes to keep things on an average.

After yesterdays good news, we were due for a little leveling out.

When I got to the venue last night I found that I had left my earplugs for my in ear monitors in my other jacket. Bummer. Rookie mistake.

Fortunately I had a backup pair. Pro Tip.

With one ear piece not working. oops. Then the other ear piece broke in half, mid set. Argh!

Mr Wizard had a string breakage in song 2 and had to capo and transpose, causing some very novel riffs to emerge.

And of course, a highly enthusiastic local chap who wanted to play my harmonicas. 

I tried pointing out that Harmonicas Go In Your Mouth.

In my case, that means I've licked them. Yes LITERALLY. I LICK MY HARMONICAS. (to be fair it's called 'tongue blocking') but any 5 year old knows once you've licked it, it's yours.

I tried explaining that as a result, we would be sharing things best left to people who are really, really close.

He was fine with that. Wasn't so sure why I wouldn't want to use the harmonica after it had been in his mouth. eeeeeewww....

Having come to a conclusion on this, our enthusiastic patron was not going to be discouraged by something as silly as 'No', climbing up on stage with us to yell into the microphone for a song.

How you handle this sort of situation is a challenge. Some bands stop altogether. Some walk off stage. Some call security.

Picking a fight with a Heckler or a stage crasher can sink the vibe for the night and alienate your audience. Being a 'precious' musician is frowned upon in our egalitarian culture.

It's your gig, but it's their local. 

What do you do?

I generally ride it out. Brother Bill says it's all part of the show. However, it really bugs other members of the band and actually throws them off their game.

Mess with my guys? Now we have a problem. That's not cool. No matter what, we're there to work. Broken string? Technical equipment failure? Rowdy crowd? All part of the spectrum.

Getting up on stage and screaming into my microphone?

No. That's simply bad manners.

Getting up on stage with a professional act is a privilege, not a right, and is by invitation, not request.

We finished the song, asked for a round of applause for our stage crasher, who may have continued to sing, if not for Rosie leaving the stage to go ask Security for some assistance.

It's just another night out playing music in Oz. It's not for the faint of heat.

Also our album is Number 1. So there.