I started learning guitar 3 years ago at age 53. I took all my lessons on the web, mainly here on Guitar Tricks, but I used a couple others too. A year ago I got a band together with several of my buddies from work. Fortunately our lead singer/lead guitar player had lots of previous experience although he was only gigging a few times a year. After knocking off 15 years of rust, our drummer was a real find too. Without those guys we wouldn’t have had a chance.

Anyway, after playing together just a year and about six small gigs, we got a chance at the big time. Last Wednesday night our band, The Peril, got to play at the convention center in Philadelphia for the closing party of our big national risk and insurance industry convention.

We got to play two 30-minute sets to the crowd of roughly 1500 people and we had a complete blast. In addition to our freebie performance, the organizers hired a professional band, the Amish Outlaws to play an hour set between our two.

It was really amazing to be supported by a fully professional video and sound crew. Apparently there were about 30 guys just running all the systems, so we just had to a do a sound check and then play with none of the hassle of a typical bar gig. This was all way over our heads, but sure was fun.

I didn't tell my bandmates in advance, but I also hired a stretch limo to take us to the convention center and then to bar-hop when we were done. You only live once, right?! All in all, it was definitely one of the most fun nights I've ever had. We checked a big box on the Bucket List. Now back to real life!