K&W at Brea -- 25Aug2007

Brea's never been a favorite of mine, 'cuz it's really far, and the setup is *really* lame, (and, I suppose, my solo near-bomb last month) but this one went really well. The half of my brain that I get to devote to playing the guitar was unusually lucid -- things that are usually "the hard part" seemed somehow really easy. That can't have anything to do with the spider bite on my hand, can it?

Anyway, there were some pretty friendly people out there, and that always helps me "give it up" more on the singing side. And, on top of the guitar clarity, I was singing higher than I've ever been able to. There are "high notes" in several of the songs that I mostly hit, but am straining to do so. This time, I just hit 'em -- no strain, and no strained tone. That was kind of amazing, though obviously only to me.

After the gig, we drove over to "Brea Downtown", a recently dandy-fied sort of outdoor mall/street with two movie theaters, ginchy shops and restaurants, and, significantly, a local band playing on the corner for tips. It was pretty late (10:30ish), so the crowds were down from when Daleen and I were there a few weeks ago at 9:30. Warren's sent in the Application and a CD, so we'll see if we can get "in" there sometime. They warned us that the next open spot, if we get in, is November 9th, so it won't be soon. Nor swarming with summer crowds, but it still looks fun, and, at least, different.

Keith at Yorba Linda -- 18Aug2007

Nice. Kinda quiet at first, but I slowly built up some rapport with the audience, and we were all pals by the end. It was actually kind of rewarding, because at first people were afraid to clap. Then some folks were clapping visibly, but not audibly. As we went on, they got braver and started clapping loud enough to be heard, which encouraged other people...

I didn't go too far out on a limb, but I did play "Still Crazy", (which I love to do (it's got great chords), though it doesn't seem to get much reaction), and some others. I've been playing "The Weight" a lot lately ('cuz it's good practice for strumming), so I thought I'd try that one out, but I ignored my marking of "capo 2" on the page, at my own peril. I wish Present Keith would trust Past Keith on this kind of thing, but I'd been playing and singing it all week with no capo, so I thought I knew what I was doing.

Unfortunately, I didn't, and I also forgot that my voice is just about exactly a whole-step higher when I'm in the café than when I'm at home. That includes being a whole-step "less low", and I was pretty bottomed out trying to sing that thing without the capo. *Now* do I believe me?!?

I also ended the night with "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye", an underrated, oft-neglected classic that I think really works for me, though Warren seems bored to tears by it.

Towards the end, a little four-flock of Hispanic ladies -- all moms, daughters, and sisters -- came in and piled into the comfy chairs up close. They thought this/I was Pretty Cool, and were asking for whatever songs they recognized, mostly Willie Nelson and James Taylor. That was fun.

I usually put the tip jar kind of off and away from us/myself, to avoid making people uncomfortable coming up to it. Lately, though, it seems like maybe that "they can see me doing this" effect is helpful, not intimidating, so I put it right out front -- and made $23, a pretty good take for that place.

I hadn't even bothered to put the CD display out, 'cuz we haven't been selling any lately, and there's this controversy about the stores getting a cut, and I don't have many in "inventory" anyway. But as I was packing up, a guy asked me outright if I had any CDs with me, so I gave him one and he put some money in the jar for it. I don't think he put a ton of money in for it, though -- and I like it when the big tip totals seem to be summed from many small amounts, rather than a few people putting in big bills. Though big bills are nice, too...

K&W at Borders Tustin -- 5Aug2007

They're building a new shopping center on the now-closed Marine base in Tustin, and there's a huge new Borders. We campaigned for, and got, scheduled to play for the Grand Opening, which is the only Borders gig that pays money.

It's a nice store, huge, but the designated "Band Area" is really narrow -- shoehorned in between the side-exit "airlock" glass box, and a big square post in the café itself. This leaves about a 10-foot space for the band, which would be fine for one guy, but for the two of us, it was too narrow. We kind of cheated the configuration diagonally and got away with it, except...

My amp, to my left, was right up against the side door with its merchandise-control radar posts, which radiated out into the amp's circuitry, making a loud "whuh-whuh-whuh" noise. We had to quickly rebuild the setup, putting the amp on the right and the slave speaker on the left, which is fine except we're really used to what goes where when we build it the other way, and this was plenty confusing.

Anyway, the gig went pretty well after that. Lots of pretty nice people, and many of them left small tips, which is gratifying. I think maybe the tip jar itself was in a more-obvious-than-usual place, but it's hard to tell. I may have to experiment with that.

The General Manager, a late-20's, slightly punk kinda guy, sent over another guy to request "Mrs. Robinson" -- apparently after hearing other Simon and Garfunkel tunes. That was plenty unexpected, but I happen to have been poking at that song lately because of a Paul Simon TV special last month, so I dredged up what I could of it, and I thought it was a pretty acceptable job for a song I don't know. That was pretty fun, actually.

Then, at the very end, while I was making the "thanks for coming" announcement, a guy sent his little (grand?) son up to put some money in the jar, which was kinda up high for a 3-year-old, so his arm got caught in the jar and he pulled it right off the table, shattering it, and leaving a stack of crumpled money in a pile of broken glass. I just kept talking, and segued into "so we'll get a new tip jar and see you next time."

K&W at Bar Mitzvah Breakfast Party -- 5Aug2007

Two gigs in one day -- and both of them for actual money! (See next post.)

The first one was an after-bar-mitzvah breakfast party. A lady heard us playing at the Mission Viejo Borders in 2005, and asked us afterwards if we played parties, and when we said we'd love to, she said she needed a band in August of 2007. We thought she was a little crazy, booking two years in advance, so we said that maybe she ought to wait until it was a bit closer, and talk to us then.

And sure enough, a couple of months ago, she emailed me and was ready to book a date. Now that we understand that it was combined with her son's bar mitzvah, it makes sense that she knew the date so far in advance...

Anyway, she just wanted live background music, which is usually really annoying for me, but, for $75 each, we agreed anyway. Turned out to not be so bad -- there were 30 or so people, and they weren't being rude exactly, they were just having a family reunion with lots of talking and laughing, and we just played. It's actually a little tough, 'cuz it's hard to play when you can't hear yourself, but we managed.

Unfortunately, while putting the amp up on the stand, it pinched my fretting-hand big finger and raised a nasty blood blister. Luckily, I play with the tips of my fingers, so it didn't hit the string very often. When it did, though, I was mostly afraid that it would pop while I was playing and get blood all over the fretboard...

The people mostly just talked and laughed, but they were clearly listening also -- I caught the lady who hired us (Suzy) singing along from time to time, and after "Desperado" there was a little spontaneous round of applause. Suzy was suddenly conscious that clapping for that one meant that there *hadn't* been any clapping for the previous 15 songs, and said something about "they were *all* good, not just this one!" People were mostly appreciative, and several came up and said nice things at the end. We played two more James Taylor songs after most everyone had left, just so Suzy could sing, as she was clearly rearin' to do.

That may have accounted for the oversized $200 check she wrote us, $50 over the agreed-on price. Nice.