Opportunity Shocks

Greetings. 
Regular readers will note a small difference in the website today. I have replaced the "subscribe" widget with a "Subscribe by email" one. I can promise you I'm not hellbent on collecting addresses or "mining" big data or (worse yet) looking to collect and sell my readers' information. A reader informed me that the subscribe widget was useless and didn't work properly, so I'm trying out the other options for now. I think most people just plug the site into feedly or some other favorite reader. In fact - if any of you have some better solutions that don't require a lot of coding, I would be happy to hear them. See? I look for advice too. I don't just give it.

Dear Ask A Punk -
This def. goes under the heading of a good problem to have. My band is OK, we're not great or anything and we're not headlining anywhere and we all work day jobs but we take it seriously. So what has happened now is - somehow we've gotten invited to do a sort of tour with a bigger band that is playing not exactly festivals, but definitely bigger shows than we've ever played. We haven't decided as a band yet whether we're going to do it or not. It would mean quiting jobs and probably losing money of course, but none of us are working jobs that are important to us, but more than that, I'm wondering if it is all too soon and if it'll be a disaster because we're taking like four steps ahead instead of just one or two. What do you think? - Opening Act?

 Dear OA -
Easiest and shortest answer in the history of this website: GO.

Quit your jobs, pack up your gear and go. There is only one way to find out if you're ready or not, and that is to go.

You said that you were invited on this "tour" by a bigger band, so obviously they see something in your band that maybe even you don't see yet. We're not always the best judges of where we are creatively - often that means we're not nearly as good as we think we are, but sometimes the opposite is true. Surely that other band wouldn't invite you along because they're hoping you'll suck, right? I mean that would be an odd thing for any band to do, unless they're shooting for some weird bit of performance art.

Ninety percent of life is just showing up and saying "yes" to the universe. You really have to grab on to opportunities when they present themselves and then just see where they take you. What is the alternative? Say you wait another year or two to "get better" and then what? ...call up this same band and hope they remember who you are, while also hoping they don't remember that you turned down their previous offer?

What are your real fears here? Are you worried that the band won't play well? Or are you worried that you won't get along together "out there" on the road? Are you concerned that certain members will be out of control? Are you worried that that person is you? Only one way to find out.

Go... and good luck.