Another rough one. I used the store's amp again (so I could record, for what that's worth), and, again, couldn't get it to sound right. Oddly, halfway through the night, I inexplicably decided to turn the right-hand speaker 10 degrees further away from me (I originally had it pointed towards myself 'cuz I forgot to being my little monitor speaker), and it sounded pretty good, then. I guess the direct feed is just too harsh, but through a little speaker cabinet wood, not so bad.
Anyway, the bigger problem was that there were not one, but two groups of people who had come in to talk. And when I say, "talk", I mean "holler". Some kinds of joyful reunions of old friends, I guess, but they were really loud. Probably trying to hear themselves over that jerk with the guitar...
Clearly, they have a right to be there (probably more right than I do, given that they bought some coffee), so I can't really complain, but it made it pretty hard to play. More great training for the harsh realities of the performing life, I guess. First time ever that I even thought of just packing up and going home in the middle of a gig, though.
Todd and Tammy come by, but didn't stay long (probably 'cuz they couldn't hear anything anyway), and I had a few appreciative customers -- one a big Simon and Garfunkel fan. But most of the night was lost in the noise.
Still, I sold 4 CDs, and unaccountably made $20 in tips. It's strange that we used to get $4 or $7 when we thought it went pretty well, and these days we get $20 or $30 even when it goes not-so-good. A chunk of that increase is explained by the CD sales, I guess. And, sure, I know that I am (and we are) getting better all the time, but I can't believe the audiences can tell the difference, so much. I mean, we're not *so* much better than the "us" on the April 2004 CD...
1 comment:
Cool!
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