I got us a second booking at "Café Vista Del Lago" on the Mission Viejo lake! We played once before, and the owner agreed in principle to book us again, but hadn't given a date. I tried to coax one out of him by email, but that wasn't working, so I dropped by in person. A band called "Roland and Etienne" were playing to a packed house (about 35 people). I asked Jose (the owner) how many he thought were "fan club" and how many were "come by to hear (whatever) music", and he thought the former were only 7.
Later, I was talking to his wife, Lorelei, outside, and she said "We gotta get you guys back in here.", and I said I had e-mailed Jose but hadn't gotten any reply. She apologized for him, and asked my to just call her on Sunday, and she'd make him write us in -- which I did, and they did: April 10, 7-10pm.
Anyway, Lorelei didn't mention money, nor did I. We'll see how that goes, again. Presumably, they'll assume we cost the same as last time. It's hard for me to imagine that "Roland and Etienne" do this for $40. Alex, maybe, assuming he doesn't pay the "accessory" boys. If, in fact, the place fills on Saturdays (already) without the band's needing (much of) a fan club, we may have the advantage of being their most cost effective Saturday solution. I guess the question would be, even if we were free, and the place fills of its own accord, would they want us every, or every other, Saturday, or will they want to keep a "variety" thing going (since they have access to at least 4 other bands), just to keep it from going stale. I don't know how to call that one -- I don't even know what I'd do if I owned the place.
But, I think I've figured out what's going on -- there's a big Retirement apartment/condo beehive across the street. It's pretty upscale, on account of being on the lake. I think Jose's managed to coax a bunch of those people into the place -- the "non-fan club" people in there were pretty well along. This is a huge upside for us, based on The List. In fact, a white-haired lady that saw us the first time was there, again, and I talked to her for a while with Lorelei. She remembered us. If Jose's managed to turn his place into a viable social gathering place for the retirement complex, it's gonna really work for him -- and us.
I'll work up an e-mail for all the usual suspects, relatives and friends, urging them to come out and make a big showing. I'm a little afraid of that backfiring -- if they all come the first time, we'll not get anyone out the (presumed) second time. But, considering how hard it is to drag folks out, I guess I'll risk it, just to get some people there at all.
Lorelei agreed with my idea of putting some song lists out as advertisements. Both she and Jose had instantly gotten interested in having us the first time, solely by reading the list, so I suggested that it might help them to hype us to day-time customers. I guess I'll do a custom version with their shop logo on top, and make it more flyer-like, date, time, location, pictures, *and* the list. I had thought that she'd want them the week running up to the gig, but she said to bring 'em in as soon as possible, so I'd better get on it.
