Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12Mar2010

The weather decided to show me that, despite appearances, it's not really Spring yet. I had my warm jacket, but not the thermals that had worked so well in January. So I played with frozen fingers again -- I'm getting used to it.

But it also kept the people at home I guess, because it was pretty sparse. But, hey, once the equipment is all set up, you play anyway -- and it still beats watching TV.

I did have some small groups of people tune in now and again, and it was kind of fun to be able to focus on them directly, since there would often be no one else nearby at all. I had a pair of teenage girls settle in for several tunes (Beatles, natch), and I had a mom come by with two little kids (4 and 5?). The little girl wanted to hear some dance music, so I played "Mister Postman" for her. But not before giving her one of my prepared-in-advance "Easter Egg with dry beans" shakers (Daleen's idea). She didn't really know how to shake it in time, but she was shaking it anyway, and I did several kids' songs for them.

Then some older girls came up and wanted to hear "Waltzing With Bears". Turns out that one of them was an old Princess fan of mine, and knew exactly what to ask for. She also wanted me to sing my "I'm an Indian Princess" song, but there were a dozen or twenty people listening in by now, so I declined. It's one thing to sing that with a hundred little girls joining in at a campout, but quite another to sing it solo in front of strangers.

Later in the evening, a group of 4 vatos with porkpie hats and the requisite tats and earlobe plugs came over and sat right up front, looking tough. But they found a song list and started asking for songs, polite as can be. They always seem to want to hear "Ring of Fire".

But all night long I was fighting against the way-too-loud house music. I called Maintenance, and left a message. I waited an hour and called again, and he said he'd be "right over". I don't need him to come over, I need him to go to where the volume knob is, but whatever. Nothing seemed to happen, so I called again, and he said he'd be right over again, so I just stood there waiting.

The drum track from the "Latin jazz" kind of stuff they have going cuts right through, and is incredibly distracting. He showed up and argued with me over what's "too loud", and whining that if he turned it down here, it would be down all around the area. I told him that that's not my problem -- that I can't play when that stuff is as loud as I am. He said he'd tweak it again and "see how it is over there", and it finally went down enough that I could ignore it for the remaining hour and a half. I don't want to be "that complaining guy" and have them stop booking me, but I also think I deserve a little respect, and an environment that's play-in-able. I'll have to craft a carefully worded email to the event coordinator...

Made only $22, due to the small turnout, but had a lot of fun getting to play some of the lesser-done songs in the book. Like "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" in honor of my frozen fingers...