Meanwhile, up on the bridge we were going about our every day duties. Our wall screens were filled with incoming dates for Bon Jovi and Moonshine Overamerica. It was just another Friday. Until the screens went black and the lights went out, followed by the heavy metallic sounds of the five foot thick, titanium emergency doors clanging shut.

We were dead in the water. Adrift on the maddening sea that is the concert industry.

There we were, standing in the dark, holding tour dates for Motorhead and Vertical Horizon, when we realized something very important. As a group, none of us had socialized in over five years.

It’s become that type of world. As we increasingly relied on voice mail, email and faxes to communicate while we gathered dates for David Copperfield and Sting, we lost touch with our very own coworkers. And it wasn’t until that fateful day in the light of emergency candles that we took a really good look at each other. And boy, were we surprised.

For instance, we didn’t know that our newest employee, Irving, has a three inch scar across his forehead from a frontal lobotomy. Nor did we notice our bookkeeper had undergone the pop star plastic surgery that is so very popular these days. Unfortunately, the doctors botched the operation and she ended up looking like a combination of Britney Spears and Alice Cooper. But her pierced navel is kind of cute.

Eventually the candles burned out and we sat in the dark, catching up on each other’s lives. Meanwhile, security had isolated the virus, attached anti-gravs to each side and set the transporter on high-dispersal, thus ending the immediate threat.

But even though it was almost quitting time, our day wasn’t over yet. We still had dates for Asian Dub Foundation and Joe Jackson to enter. Finally, the lights were reactivated and the wall screens lit up with schedules for Fathead, A.J. Croce and Ben Harper. And although the virus cost us valuable tour collecting hours, it also gave us the chance to get reacquainted with our fellow employees. Now, with the ordeal in the past, it was time pick up where we left off.

So we put our clothes back on and went back to work.