K&W at Costa Mesa - 15Sept06

A pretty fun night. That place is so full of noise that I didn't expect to be able to get any decent recordings, so I just kind of blew off worrying about it (though the recorder was running). Naturally, I play a lot looser when I don't have the pressure, and end up playing and singing better, and having more fun.

Costa Mesa is usually pretty full of people, and the physical arrangement isn't bad -- lots of people are close enough to hear, though not necessarily within sight. So we had plenty of people, but they were mostly being aloof and buried in their books, papers, and computers. We had some clapping for some songs, and total silence for others.

Then, around 9, a little family came in with two cute little girls, for whom I am a known sucker, so I played some kid songs for them. At the end of each song, I looked around the room to see if any of the adults in the area were at all interested, but no one gave me any indication that they cared one way or the other, so I ended up playing to the girls (and their parents) for quite a while. They must have appreciated it, 'cuz after a few songs, the little girl got up and put some money in the jar, and after a while more, she got up, took a CD, and put some *more* money in the jar.

Anyway, despite the generally ho-hum response, the performance was pretty good -- my voice has been really good to me lately -- and we may have accidentally gotten a CD-worthy version of "You Were On My Mind", which has been eluding us so far.