I had *lots* of people right at the beginning, including super-friendly Melissa (and friends), who asked for several songs right off the bat to get me started. Then a group of 14-year-old Beatle-fangirls materialized off behind me, and we had a bit of a bidding war, trying to get their respective requests played. Nice to be wanted!
But the dinner rush tapered off, and it was pretty darn cold, not to mention being Valentine's Day. I guess that worked both ways, though -- lots of people stay home, but I did have several couples wandering through. I played a lot of love songs.
Since Warren wasn't there, I brought the electric guitar again, but didn't get to it much. I played it for my new "If I Fell", for which it sounds great. But it sounded awful for "The Letter", which I learned recently after hearing "Billy Hill & the Hillbillies" play it Bluegrass-style at the Golden Horseshoe in Disneyland. I meant to try it again on the acoustic, which I think will work, but never got around to it. It also didn't really work for "Oh Very Young", which I've been working on getting "down" so I can play it more regularly by being able to play it more rightly. It's a tricky devil, and I've been reticent to play it much for fear of messing it up too badly, but now I think I can get through it pretty clean. But it'll have to be on the acoustic.
I play the electric all the time while I'm walking around the block at work, and it sounds OK (to me) on lots of songs, but out "live", through an amp (instead of just headphones), it sounds different, especially in that it rings (way) longer. I do want to figure out a mini-set of songs that work on it, so I can bring in some variety. I'll keep on it.
Anyway, it was pretty empty through the middle section, but I always had at least a few people to play for. I eventually got so cold that my stiff fingers were making me play badly, so I took another swing at the heater's startup controls, and got it working this time. That helped a lot.
Towards the end, I had a 60-something couple from the Middle East who were, inexplicably, huge James Taylor fans. They were really appreciative, and I deliberately held them up from wherever they were clearly trying to get to, by playing more JT songs that they couldn't walk out on.
And then at 9:40 or so I had another couple come in and sit down right up front. I played a few songs, including "Old Man" (by request of a mohawked kid (?)), which the lady apparently really liked. After a few more songs, she asked for "more Neil Young", but "Old Man" is the only one I know. She asked for "After the Gold Rush", which, again, I don't know, but she wanted me to just play it anyway. Um, don't know the chords, and don't know the words. "Play it anyway." So I finally gave up trying to explain that it doesn't work that way, and just played something else, which was apparently OK, 'cuz when I played my last song at 10:00, she wanted me to keep playing. I was reticent, 'cuz usually the maintenance guys come around right at 10 to take down the stuff, but they weren't there, so I played some more. And more. And more. She finally let me quit at 10:20 (with a $5 tip).
It seemed like a higher-than-usual percentage of listeners were tossing something into the jar this time, overall, so I made $63 -- pretty good for a sparsely-attended night. That includes $7 in change, which was surprising -- usually the change is under a buck. Lots of teenagers kind of emptied their pockets as they went by, which was actually quite nice of them. It's the thought that counts.
This could certainly turn into a terrific place to play, when it warms up. Problem is -- when it gets warmer, they're gonna start charging $50 to play there. Puts a pretty big ding in my take.
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