Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Nov2009

The gigs seem to be getting lower and lower key as it gets cooler. Not a particularly good sign for my booked-solid November and December...

It was cold, but they did manage to bring out a heater this time. Problem is, I can't bring it up on stage, so it has to sit on my left, keeping my fretting hand warm, but leaving my picking hand pretty chilly. But I did OK. It'll certainly get worse.

And, I actually had even more fun than usual. It wasn't terribly lucrative ("only" $36 in the jar), but I had an almost constant supply of someone to play to, which is pretty rare. Mostly it was groups of teens, but we get along pretty well. I also had a few adult couples that were impressed and hung out for a good long while, it seemed to me, considering I had a heater and they didn't.

Somebody requested "Hotel California" last week, so I learned it all this week. I'd poked at it before, but it didn't seem to fly. This time, it does sound good to me, which either indicates that I'm getting better, or that I'm getting less critical of my own shortcomings as I get older...

So I tried it out "live", and it does seem to work pretty well. I'd'a thought that the Harmony box would be a big help, it being an Eagles song and all, but there are really only a few lines that have harmony in them. The bigger challenge is that it's kind of the same thing, over and over, so I'm trying to vary the guitar style between different verses.

I also brought some Christmas songs out, which nobody seemed to object to. Yes, it's pre-Thanksgiving, but I guess people are getting used to that idea. And I'm only playing the more modern, pop-song style ones, so far. Next week, look out.

The thing I'm starting to notice at Spectrum, though, is that, because the crowd turns over all the time, I tend to play the Greatest Hits, repeatedly, trying to rope in new converts as they breeze by. This means that I *don't* get to play some of the quieter, subtler songs that I tend to get to in a quieter, less dynamic place. Trying to "get" people is a kind of fun in its own right, but it's not as fun musically as getting to play a lot of variety.