Turnouts at Moxie Java have been pretty small. Obviously, we'd prefer a place with more people in it, but I don't know how to find that gig. I'm feeling lucky to have a gig at all, and hoping for the best, traffic-wise. It's a little scary when Steve says, "Not a bad crowd, for a Saturday" (eerily mimicking the first line of the last verse of "Piano Man"). It'll be interesting to see how much attendance we get this Friday. My impression from the two Fridays that I've checked in were that they consist of a few drop-ins, and a lot of friends/fans of the particular act of the night. For the piano guy (Rob Blaney), that makes 50 people; for the guitar lady, it was 8-ish. I guess it's a challenge to us to create a fan base, or make do with the drop-in traffic. The third option is find a new place (like Tully's) that has decent drop-in traffic.
The tough part of having a gig is it limits your ability to go looking for a different one. I keep holding out hope for Mama Java's at Mission Viejo Lake, which has that cute little sub-room especially built for music, but I haven't been able get there to see what they're up to since the "last chance!" night of the little jazz combo. I don't know if the combo was retiring, or moving on, or being fired, or if the shop itself has abandoned hosting music. The upside there is that it's fed by the big "Tortilla Flats" restaurant in the same center, and it's got the cachet of being "on the lake", instead of "next to Von's" like Moxie. When I went to the "last chance", there were about 20 people packed into the room, but they were clearly friends/fans, so it was probably non-indicative of a "normal night".
Diedrich's remains tempting, too, but the whole corporate control thing scares me. I'm not sure I'd like being sent all over different places every week. I guess it also feels like they prefer Original Acts, not cover bands -- more like the vibe at the Gypsy Den. I'm afraid to find out how the Monkees must have felt when they went on after Hendrix.
