K&W at Spectrum Center -- 27Sept2008

More fun at the Spectrum. Lots of curious people, some of whom stayed around for a while. Little Jessica from Indian princesses, no longer little, stopped for a while, but was too involved with her friends to stick around until the end of the song, so I didn't get to talk to her. Old computer buddy Doug Wolfgram wandered up late in the evening -- he was just coincidentally there to pick up his daughter from the movies across the way, and heard the music. That was cool.

The night went pretty much how it usually goes, until a bunch of people (5 or 6, mostly ladies) came screaming up, clearly pre-lubed, rockin' out to the song we happened to be playing at the time. They whooped and hollered and half-danced, and perched on a bench/planterbox, waiting for more. I obliged with what passes for rock-n-roll in my repertoire: "Here Comes My Baby", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", etc., some of which they chose off the list.

It was great fun to have somebody actually actively rockin' with us, and they even went so far as to encourage the other people to "get with it". Wow. Unfortunately, they were bound for other destinations, and left too soon. They got the show kicked into high gear for a while there, though. Even after they'd left, other people were energized and asking for songs, 4 deep at one point. It's amazing how the same songs, played the same way, can be completely different depending on how the audience reacts. Those girls certainly made our night.

We made $78 plus a $5 check made out to "Keith and Warren" which I haven't tried to cash yet. Sold a handful of CDs in there, too. We've consistently made more than $50 there, so it's conceivable that we could pay the $50 "setup fee" to play the more public, heavier trafficked, location in the middle of the shopping center, and still come out ahead. It might be worth a try, just for fun -- we'd probably go home with less than if we'd played at the Food Court for free, but it'd be a different experience.

But, bad news, we got permission to play again on 10/10 and 11/01, but after that, they're gonna start charging $50 for the Food Court gigs, too. So we can either quit playing there entirely, or go ahead with the mid-mall location, since it's 50 bucks either way. I suppose we should give it a try -- once, at least.

It's an interesting trick on their part, though I doubt that they mean it to be: charging the band $50 is a clever way to weed out bands that people don't like. The management doesn't even have to audition the bands -- any band that is likeable enough to cover the $50 will play. Bad bands won't (unless they're desperate enough that they're willing to go negative for the night). I guess we're just barely good enough...

Keith at Borders Costa Mesa -- 26Sept2008

Worst. Gig. Ever. That I can recall, anyway. Only a few old men there, reading intently. Nobody even remotely listening. I tried to carry on anyway, but it was just too depressing. Not even any crazy people to play for. Before I even stated a lady asked me when I was starting, and said that she had top go to a meeting, but that pull she'd be back at 8:30 ('cuz she'd heard us/ me before, and liked it. But by 8:45 she wasn't there and I couldn't take it anymore.

So I packed up left. First time I remember bailing early on a gig. Usually playing for quiet people is still better that being home doing nothing, but this was just humiliating.

Of course, I find out later that my brother came by at 9:00, and must have missed me by only a few minutes. That only made it worse...

Keith at a Pool Party in Tustin -- 21Sept2008

For my third gig this weekend, I played a pool (birthday) party in a backyard in Tustin. This was the gig that we auctioned off as our "donation" to Geneva's high school last year. The minimum bid was $75, and this lady bid that on the first day, and no one bid against her. One bid -- the minimum. Sigh. At least that's better than no bids at all, I guess.

Anyway, it was a little strange, but OK. There were maybe 8-10 adults there, family, gramma, some friends, and half a dozen kids of varying ages, one of which was the birthday boy, turning 4, I'd guess. One of the adults was also celebrating her birthday, too.

The mom that "won" me knew about the auction in the first place because her daughter also goes to OCHSA, in the Opera conservatory. She was there too, of course, and I could see her quietly singing along with some of the songs, so I invited her up to sing one for real. I strapped my head mic onto her, had to clip the cable to her bathing suit bottoms, but she totally went for it, and knocked "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" out of the park. It was a little odd, because she has this opera-trained su-per ac-cu-rate e-nun-ci-a-tion, and I'm used to hearing it in a more casual pop style. Later on, I asked her to come up again, and we did "When You Wish Upon a Star". On "Will come to you", she practically trilled the L's. Pretty cool. Her dad was apparently traveling or something, 'cuz while she was singing, her gramma came forward, holding a phone out like a microphone, with dad on the other end.

It's kind of odd singing to a dozen or so people who were trying to have their own party, with visiting and swimming and kids running around playing. But I've gotten used to being ignored, I guess, and just carried on. After a spell, we all got comfortable with the situation, and they got brave enough to talk to me, and start asking for songs, and it got more fun as it went along. The lady seemed very pleased to have me -- certainly not your normal backyard birthday party.

I guess Daleen intends to auction me off again this year. We'll see if anybody wants me this time.

Keith at Borders Mission Viejo -- 20Sept2008

Back again at my "local" store, with a promise from part-time fiddler Melina to step up and play again. I had my little camera set up taking movies, but I don't think she was aware of it -- and since she's kinda nervous anyway, I didn't mention it for fear of spooking her even worse.

Like last time, I played solo for a while, and then she showed up and played along for a few songs. She had learned the "real" classical intro line from "Whiter Shade of Pale" and that worked out really cool. She had learned, or already knew, "Ashokan Farewell", but she does the rhythm differently (wrong), so it was pretty baffling for me, trying to follow her. We'll have to have a look at that, and agree on something. We did a couple more songs that I can't remember, and she also played along with "Don't Think Twice" this time, which worked pretty well. I've posted the video, and will try embedding it here.

Overall, pretty fun, but not as magically connected as last time. I had a bit of a fright when the Regulars arrived and, lacking anywhere else to sit, settled into the only empty table there -- the one right in front of me. I was sure it would get ugly and I'd have to fake an emergency phone call from home or a heart attack or something, but they were somewhat well-behaved -- only one woman was talking with her outside voice. It didn't completely derail me, but it's still too distracting to get any magic going. Oh well, still a pretty good night, altogether.

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Sep2008

Started off slow, as usual, but got pretty good at the end. I played to dead silence for most of the evening, with a few smiles to keep me going, but there was that "Library" vibe to contend with. But near the end, some families came in, and some other friendly folks, and I started getting some back-and-forth going.

For some reason, there were two big, old, trashed, "school tables" out in the room, taking up space 'cuz nobody wanted to sit at them. The probably had had some kind of event earlier. Anyway, I went ahead and put the CDs, cards, songlists, and tip jar on one of them, which made the setup far more prominent than usual. I was a little afraid to do that, 'cuz this is the one store that's ever enforced the "no CDs, no tip jar" rule, but I didn't see that particular picky manager this time, so I chanced it.

But that apparently made a big difference, because when I finally got some friendly people, lots of them saw the CDs, sign, and jar, and I sold 5 CDs (usually, none), and made $34 in tips and CD payments. Not a record or anything, but not bad.

I set up my little camera to take some movies, but I haven't had a chance to look through the results yet. With the dead silence, and the great acoustics there, I might have gotten some good stuff -- I'm just too busy to find out...

K&W at Spectrum Center -- 13Sept2008

Our second try at this place, which is outdoors, noisy, scattered, but fun. Bill and Mary Jane Wiley were there already when we got there, and sat through a good part of it. Partway through, Jim from Trailmates came by with his wife and daughter, and though they wandered off pretty quickly, Jim stayed and listened for a long while.

It's a strange place to play, with some people coming by just to eat dinner, and some people coming by on purpose, drawn by the music. Lots of youngsters, some too cool to acknowledge us at all, some bent on being smart-alecs, and some who seem to recognize that we're pretty good, really.

It was kinda surreal -- playing and singing while watching the big full moon rise up over the Edwards 21 marquee...

K&W at Borders Costa Mesa -- 12Sept2008

Pretty dead most of the night, as expected at this one. Some niceness near the beginning when the one nice employee lady (who had liked us enough to buy a CD a year or so ago) came to the café to have her dinner break. Since she has the CD, she asked for some of our K&W Classics, which was fun.

Near the end, though, a pair of Asian women (a mother and her 20-something daughter) came in, and while they were in line for coffee, the mother was totally getting into the song, which happened to be "People Get Ready", the only overtly religious song I do, requested by a guy who was genuinely listening and getting interested. When the song was over, she said, loudly, "Play that one again!" Huh?!? That's a new one! I said, "But everybody's already heard it!", and she said, to the room in general, "Oh, they won't mind. Will you?" Of course, nobody wanted to answer, or even acknowledge the crazy lady, so they all got really busy with their books and/or coffee all of a sudden, so I said, "How about I do the last two verses over again?", and started them before she could object.

She and her daughter sat down in the table that's right in front of us that's generally empty because it's right in front of us. They were wearing the same bright green T-shirt dress, though the mom had a pink sweater over it. Turns out the daughter is slightly retarded, and the mom is doting over everything she see, touches, or says -- she's also holding her hands across the table and singing along with the song, right into her face. Really odd, but super (over?) friendly, and loving the music.

She asked for some songs, and some more, threatening to hijack the evening, but I tried to let the other guy get in some requests, too. Then she asked for "You've Got a Friend", so I started it up, but she was singing along, as loud as me, at her daughter, but doing the Carole King version, not the James Taylor one, so she was singing sometimes way different stuff than I was, and it was *really* throwing me off. I was ignoring her as hard as I could, but she was too loud, and too wrong.

She was reminding me of a lady that used to work at Toshiba who was similarly Asian, and loopy. We used to call her "Crazy Jean", and a lot of people avoided her, but she was great fun to talk to. I used to go up and talk to her sometimes, just to get a dose of surrealism, 'cuz she had this amazing talent for unexpected tangents and connections -- and her own way of looking at the world. I miss her.

So it was getting close to time to quit, and who should come walking in? Speak of the devil: it's Crazy Jean! She's unmarried, but she had a 12-year old girl (her neighbor's daughter) with her -- they were on their way home from the beach. We happened to be in the middle of "Love Potion Number Nine" when they came in, so she started "bop-walking" to the rockin' beat, and came right up to the front of us. The *other* crazy lady, also right in front of us, jumped up and grabbed Jean's little friend's hands, and started dancing, too. Jean was a bit taken aback, but it looked safe enough, if weird, so she let it go. We just kept playing...

So the other crazy lady starts talking to Jean's friend, gets her name (Alyssa), has her sit on her lap (!), and Jean kinda goes along with it all. Turns out she's a teacher, "owns a school" in San Louis Obispo, and, as she told us while we were packing up, wants us to come up and play sometime. I said that it's kinda far, and she said, "Oh, you just sit down... on a train! You don't even need any baggage..." (a reference to a line in "People Get Ready"). What. Ever.

Weird night...

K&W at Borders Yorba Linda -- 30Aug2008

We've alerted the guy who books the Borders gigs that we don't want to play at Yorba Linda anymore -- it's a great place to play, but it's just too far to go for a free gig at today's gas prices, and the generally six to ten bucks in the tip jar.

But it went really well. The acoustics there are nice, and the people are friendly. I think we literally made $4 (to split) in tips, but it's still nice to play to nice people.

I'll miss that place. But not the drive.