My show w/Hernandez Bros last Friday

I was super-excited to do this Brooklyn show with the Hernandez Brothers last Friday night, comix don't get much better than Love & Rockets! As it turned out, the event ended up being not as exciting for me as I'd hoped... but still kinda cool... not the worst, not the best.
I arrived early, set up all of my merchandise (LPs, comics, zines, CDs) on a couple of tables at the front of bar, next to a couple of tables already covered with Love & Rockets and other Hernandez Bros books from Fantagraphics, a couple guys from Bergen St Comics in Brooklyn were there to sell the Hernandez Bros books, and other than that there was a grumpy sound engineer in the back at the stage and nobody else around. I talked to the sound guy about my set-up, then at some point Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez arrived with their tour-manager/handler Frank, and they were talking to the people in charge of selling their books, I didn't want to interrupt them to meet them but I figured I'd get introduced at some point. I stood around but an introduction never happened, so when I had a moment I introduced myself to the tour manager guy Frank, and then introduced myself to Gilbert... he gave me the weirdest limp/soft handshake I've ever experienced! It was like his hand was cold and soft and dead, like he really wanted to keep his hand in this special condition so that it could be in good shape for drawing, and not have to suffer from shaking hands with people! i don't blame him, i suppose, since he is on tour signing books and shaking hands, maybe he doesn't want to spend all night getting his priceless drawing hand crushed in strangers' handshakes. I didn't get a chance to say hi to Jaime, and none of them seemed interested in meeting me or interested in who I was or why I had all this stuff set out for sale next to their stuff. I just wasn't on their radar at all, even though there were only about 5 of us in the club at that point. Then the doors opened, a lot of people came in, and Frank and the Hernandez Bros got on stage and did their presentation, with the brother taking turns drawing characters that the audience requested. They finished without saying "coming up next there's a set from Jeffrey Lewis," they just finished taking questions and then said "okay now Gilbert and Jaime will be signing books back in the other room at the bar" as if that was the end of the event... like they either didn't know I was supposed to be playing, or just considered it entirely unimportant, or forgot or something. So I got on stage in the now-empty room, and started plugging in my guitar and stuff, even though everybody had basically left to go get books signed and meet the Hernandez Bros. Before I started my set I went over there to see the scene and I noticed that Frank had even totally taken apart the merchandise area that I had set up! My merch stuff, which I had lovingly laid out and displayed before the show, had all been removed and piled in a heap onto a chair behind the tables so nobody could even see it. At that point it seemed so mean I felt like crying, it just felt like they were really going out of their way to act like I didn't exist and wasn't part of the show, or like they were annoyed that I was there at all and were just ignoring me and wishing I would disappear! My emotional state was probably not helped by the fact that I hadn't eaten any dinner. Anyway I took a minute to myself to put it in perspective and not be too upset and just think about what songs to play, and I went back to the stage area and ended up playing a nice little set to a nice little crowd of people, including some relatives (like Professor Louie) and some other people who had come to see me, there were some fans there - even though the newspaper listing for the Hernandez Brother event also didn't mention that I was part of it! At least I was mentioned on the poster an the website. My set was fine, but while I was playing all the Hernandez and Fantagraphics people back at the bar just all packed their stuff and left. At least they put my merch back onto the table before they left. But I never did meet Jaime Hernandez, and I didn't talk to any of them, and they didn't see or hear any of my stuff, oh well. I guess as far as they were concerned they weren't doing this show "with" me, it was just their own event and I was a weird unknown guy that some other organizer had tacked onto the bill without them wanting me to be there, or knowing that I would be there, or anything. Maybe they were just tired after doing a whole American book-signing tour. Really, the organizers should have had me go on stage first to start the night rather than go on stage at the same time as they were doing the booksigning at the bar. Anyway, I had a good set and met a bunch of nice people and maybe made a few new fans and sold some records and comics and zines, and even though I thought I wasn't getting paid for the show I did get $100 from one of the organizers at the end of the night which was a nice little surprise. I just wish I'd had a chance to interact with Jaime & Gilbert a bit, tell them I love their stuff and i draw comics too, maybe I should have shoved myself into their conversation earlier in the night. Not that I have much to say to them, so it doesn't really matter, I'd just say "hi, I'm a fan" I guess, so it's kind of pointless anyway. What can you really do in those situations?
It's still good because if I ever see them again sometime I can be like "hi, I'm the guy who did that show with you in Brooklyn..." (tho that still might not register!!).