nailing that sucker before tea time

We're playing the glass onion tonight. I had a long chat with Tony last night about the direction we want to go in with the band. He'd like me to play a few lead bits on mandolin. So I've been practicing the first song he suggested, in between customers, as I sit behind the counter. Should have that sucker nailed by tea time.
I play with other people and bands but none is them is as much fun as playing with this band. We never rehearse. That is we never rehearse as a band. I practice a lot by myself, songs I know we are going to play. But most of the time I never know what I'm going to be playing. Most of the songs we do I played for the first time ever while on stage. They rarely tell me what the next song is going to be and as for what key we're playing in; forget it. So I havea a split second to figure out what the song is, what key to play it in and then jump in and catch up. Often it's a song I've never played before. People in the audience just shout out songs for us to try. We give it a whirl. It's not often we're beaten totally, we usually manage a verse and a chorus at least. Anyway gotta play some more. See ya.