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.