I attended a polka party last night. After ALS the guitar player broke into "Sweet Home Alabama" and crowded the floor (yes, the band also played a few standards and classic rock). As he was about to sing the lyrics, his amp cut out. The band continued playing for about a minute, then stopped. Music stopped for over 15 minutes as the guitarist hopelessly tried to find the problem - downer, bigtime. The band could have and often does play without him. When they came back the crowd talked them into playing a specialty tune called the punctuation song, but somehow they were not prepared and didn't have or know the words - even though they had played for some of these attendees previously. A guy from another polka band helped out with lyrics and la-la"s. A female club member got to the stage immediately after the song and seemed to give the guitar guy a good piece of her mind. After a long pause before the next song, the band seemed to hesitate on what to play. Suddenly, the guitarist put his axe down and walked off the stage and sat down. The band played the rest of the final set without him. Wow! He came back for the two songs, but was obviously upset and said something about his encounter with the woman. Happy New Year.