K&W at Yorba Linda -- 15Dec2006

It was our last shot at doing Christmas tunes for the year, and it went pretty well. Yorba Linda is kinda far, but I like it. It's a nice big café, and there's usually a fair number of people there, and they're not all studying students.

We played to moderate attention for a while, but then a family came in with two little girls (7 and 9-ish), so I was able to pull out "Rudolph" and "Frosty", and some of the other kid songs. They actually got up and danced around for "Waltzing With Bears". And they sang along with "Rudolph" (the classic little-kid "response" lyrics: "Like a light bulb!"), and tried to keep up with Frosty, which everybody *thinks* they know, but nobody actually does.

Overall, pretty low-key, but pleasant. At the end, I pulled out three new songs I'm working on / playing with. "Under the Boardwalk", which is a contender for permanent status on the list, my strangely peaceful version of "Satisfaction", and my seriously weird "Jimi meets Merle" version of "Purple Haze". Pretty sure I blew Warren's mind with that one...

I played a Christmas Party!

So, Friday night we went to a Christmas party at the home of one of the Trailmates (big-girl Princesses) guys. I had brought along some of my Christmas CDs, and gave some away to people that didn't have one already, including Ralph's sweetie-pie wife, Carla.

She had to work on Saturday morning, and was apparently listening to the CD in her car, called Ralph to get my number, and called me to ask if I could/would play at the office party she was planning for Sunday at her house. I said, sure! 'cuz I love playing the Christmas tunes, and had nothing better going on. She asked what I charge per hour, but I told her I was free -- I don't know how to, much less what to, charge friends. And I expected to have fun.

Ralph sent me his address and directions in an email. I looked it up on Google Maps, and drew myself a copy. But I neglected to write down the actual address number, which I didn't notice until I was almost there. I pulled up anyway, expecting to have to pull a Marlon Brando and stand out in the street yelling "Carla!", but a little neighbor girl was outside and knew where Ralph's daughter lives...

It was pretty odd, gig-wise. I don't play parties, and didn't know if Carla expected me to be background music (which, if she had, and I'd'a had the presence of mind to ask, I'd'a said no to the whole idea), or for people to actually listen. Turned out to be some of each, I guess. A lot of people were chatting, loudly, but occasionally some folks would drift in and request a song or three off the list. Toward the end, as people left and it got quieter overall, more people came to listen.

I'd brought some CDs, in case, and a few people took some and stuffed some money in the jar, and Carla foisted a batch off on people who were leaving. As I left, she gave me an envelope with a hundred bucks in it, and an extra twenty for the CDs she'd snagged. That plus the tip jar came to $141 -- not bad for a "free gig".

At the very least, I learned something about playing parties (besides "Don't"). Mostly, I learned that it's *way* different than playing Borders, if only because at Borders, people are stone silent, and at the party they were way too loud. But they're also much more "at home", and vocal to each other and to me -- asking for songs and deciding to sing along, or even get up front and sing with me. Clearly, at a party (at least a "happening" party) I need more "party songs" -- whatever than means (I tried, and if I could have remembered the words and chords to "It's My Party", I could have had a bunch of women up singing it -- a missed/botched opportunity). At least, some (more) songs that other people can sing, or sing along to. And some in a "girl key", and not only mine.

Anyway, mixed feelings. Generally, people who came in to listen were appreciative. But I found myself trying to play, sing, and concentrate against a wall of party noise, which is hard. I guess I'll do it again, if asked, but it'll take a dozen or more before I figure out how to really pull it off, if ever. After playing Borders so many times, I can see how naïve we were when we started -- I'm sure I'm just as clueless about how to successfully play at a party; in the "don't even know what I don't know" phase.

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 01Dec2006

I love pulling my Christmas music out every year. Unfortunately, we don't get many gigs in December to play the stuff. So I sent out an "only chance!" message to the K&W mailing list, and it actually worked! 9 out of 10 gigs, nobody we know comes in, which is fine. Of course it's nice when somebody does show up, but also rare. This time we had 17, count 'em, 17 friends: my brother and his wife, my dad's college friend and his wife (who've known me since babyhood), and old high school friend and her husband, three Toshiba friends, one from Linksys, and, almost at the end, two Princess friends with five teenybopper daughters-and-friends in tow.

Which made it pretty fun. Just getting to play those songs is fun in itself, too -- most of them are more elaborate, and therefore more interesting, than the standard pop songs we play. I attribute a lot of my growth on the guitar to my years-long striving to get those songs sounding good. Pop songs just don't "get" the diminished and augmented chords like them old tunes do.

Also, since there's no Definitive Version of most of them (Elvis' "Blue" and Bing's "White" Christmases notwithstanding), I get to do a personal arrangement of them. Meaning, of course, that I can play them "in my style", which means "down at my level of (in)ability".

But it went great. We had all those friends out there, paying attention, and lots of other folks were right there with us, too. One guy was in the comfy chairs when I got there, and we talked while I was setting up. He had to go, though, before I got started, even though he thought he (and his daughter) would like my stuff. About an hour into the gig, he showed up again, with the daughter, and did, in fact, seem to like it.

The whole night shot by. Having the additional 10 or 15 songs to play meant that we did that many fewer of the Usual Songs, which was a nice change. Makes me want to have another 20 songs on the list so the ones we play at any one gig can vary from week to week. That's a bit easier said than done -- (a) I can't think of another 20 songs that (a1) are great, and (a2) I can play, and (b) the best 40 or so always percolate to the top of my "want to play 'em ('cuz they work the best)" mental list, and the rest might as well not be there.

Anyway, we actually do have another Christmas gig, a week from Friday, but it's in generally-unreachable Yorba Linda. We won't have any friends there, but, hopefully we'll get lots of shoppers that need a little break.