Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 02May2009

A pretty great gig -- especially compared to the one earlier in the day. I started at 6:10, and the place was just about full by 6:30. Not to see me of course -- it was just Dinner Time, but still. A guy from work happened to come by while I was setting up, and was having dinner with his wife and kids when I started up. He was apparently impressed -- he told our new boss "Keith's a great singer!" first thing at our staff meeting Monday morning.

But it was a nice warm evening (finally!), and there were lots of people out. And not just roving packs of teenagers like previous weeks, either. I almost always had people tuned in. The Beatles Set thing worked again, for pulling in and retaining young people. And I had a lady ask for song after song, all good ones, including "Mister Bojangles", which she correctly surmised I'd be able to play, and every Cat Stevens song I know, even the ones that aren't on the list.

Unfortunately, I had a case of Movie Camera Intimidation Syndrome, so I fatally muffed up most of the tunes until the last half-hour or so. But I got a few that are presentable, and I've posted them:
Graceland
Hey Ya
Sealed With a Kiss
If I Fell
All My Lovin'
Your Song

The funniest thing that happened was a kid, about 15, that came up, dropped a quarter in the jar, and gingerly took a CD, looking up at me to see if I was gonna object. I didn't (mostly because I'd'a had to stop the song-in-progress to do so), so he wandered off with the CD, which, I noticed, was the Kids' Songs one. I just chuckled to myself that he'd gotten what he paid for. After about 10 minutes, he came back over. I expected that he'd come to swap the CD for the other one, but once he figured it out, he pulled out another quarter, and took the other CD too. Even funnier.

I didn't think I'd be up to playing for too long after having already played at lunchtime, but I took a nap, and was able to play almost the whole 4 hours. My voice got a little ragged, off and on, but mostly pretty good.

Anyway, I had a great time, (made $55), and expect that it'll just get better and better as it gets warmer, with longer days.