When playing in a band, group or combo situation there is a term you will often hear known as "in the pocket".

And no..."in the pocket" does not refer to a place to put your hands while on a gig! In simple terms, when a band is playing "in the pocket", they are playing musically "in sync" with each other.

First off, it's important to realize that a band can be playing a song together on stage - the same song at the same time - but not truly be playing "in sync" with each other.

Years ago I played guitar with bands doing gigs on what I lovingly refer to as the "Juke Joint" circuit. Little dives, honky tonks and watering holes catering to the crowd that works hard, and parties harder.

In many of these "joints", a tequila induced transformation would take place somewhere on the south side of midnight, and invariably, the warm fuzziness of friends having fun would be replaced by feuds and fisticuffs.

As a guitar player on stage I did my best to avoid these late night free-for-alls and just play the gig while the "joint" started rockin', but there were occasions when landing in the middle of a brawl was simply un-avoidable.