K&W at SCP - 05Aug2006

Another surprising evening. The usual contingent of Asian students inexplicably weren't there, and the place was moderately filled with Regular People, who were reading, but also paying some at-least-partial attention.

I was really hoping to get some clean, flub-free, songs recorded for the Live CD project, even if it meant doing the same songs more than once. Fortunately, the audience was uncharacteristically fluid -- people coming and going -- so I was able to repeat the target songs without subjecting the same people to them over and over. That was lucky.

But, the notebook I've been using to record these long sessions finally (and predictably) ran out of hard drive space, without so much as an error message. At the end of the gig, I thought I'd saved the file like always, but when I got home the machine was hung. So I had to crash it off, losing any data that was still in the program. Fortunately, there's a way to recover and reassemble the zillion tiny temp files the program was making, so I was able to get the first 2 hours (of 3) back. Unfortunately, I was definitely at my best in that final hour, so most of the good stuff is lost.

Still, we did get some good takes, though not all of the songs I would like to get onto the CD. So, we're gonna have to wait until at least one more gig (Costa Mesa on the 26th) to finish the CD. This gives me time to edit and finalize the songs we do have, and to figure out which ones we need (or need better renditions of) to try to snag in CM.

Other than all that, it was a really good gig. We got a lot of attention from the rotating audience, and a lot of people stuck around to the bitter end and came up to say nice things. Just as I was starting to announce that we had to pack up, a nice lady (and apparent repeat-customer) raised her hand and called for an "encore" of "Waltzing With Bears". Despite already being late to start the tear-down, how could I refuse?

Lots of people seem to have noticed the tip jar this time, and we made $62 (!), an almost-record, and certainly a record for that place. That was partially explained by the sale of 9 CDs, including one lady who brought one up to me as we were packing up to ask how much they cost. I gave her my standard "Whatever they're worth to you" line, and sent her back towards the tip jar. I guess she wanted to make sure I knew how much she thought it was worth, 'cuz she came back over to me a while later and forced a twenty into my hand. Maybe she didn't have anything smaller...

K&W at CM - 28July2006

Shocking! Last week at SCP, the place was near-empty, and dead silent. I expected about the same this week -- in fact, I was counting on it, to facilitate continued work on our "Live" CD. But, there were *lots* of people there, and they were in a mood to listen, too. I'd say it was the best audience we've ever had at that store. Lots of nice folks, listening attentively, asking for songs off the list, and even tipping a fair bit.

There was a friendly lady with a cowboy hat and 9-ish-year-old son, who asked for a song, and right after that, I looked over at her (she was pretty far away), and she mouthed "Puff, the Magic Dragon" at me, which, surprisingly, I understood perfectly clearly. She was apparently trying not to embarrass her son, or maybe she just didn't want to shout across the whole café (again). It was fun, though. Didn't know I could read lips.

It was strange/stupid to be disappointed (sorta) about having a decent audience for a change. My playing was pretty good, voice OK (but too tired too soon -- I think I'm warming up in the car too much). My guitar was sounding better than ever, 'cuz I took some of Warren's advice and tweaked the tone knobs to better places. I'd basically had them set to "all middle", since I'd stopped using the under-saddle pickup and have been using the internally mounted mic, and didn't realize that I'd never experimented with 'em. Even with the "default" tone knob settings it was way better, but with a little tuning, it sounds really good now.

I guess we managed to get two of the songs we "need" for the CD done right, but not all of them. I made plenty of mistakes, but some of the coffee staff at that store are particularly insensitive to trying to keep quiet while the band is playing, so there are some songs with nasty noises in them.

Which leaves us with one more chance before I reach my patience limit (and we have a three-week lay-over 'til the next gig) -- this coming Saturday we're back at SCP, with, presumably, the dead silent "recording studio" atmosphere.