Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 06Aug2011

I asked too late for gigs at Spectrum for August, and all that was left was the "early shift", so I took two Saturdays, 1-5pm, as "better than nothing". And with the demise of Borders, without *something* at Spectrum, I would have had literally nothing.

So, of course, it was hot, being a Southern California August afternoon. They did bring me the shade umbrella, so it could have been worse, but still. The fun part was that they've abandoned the old Food Court stage, and bought a custom circular stage that sets up over (!) the big round fountain in front of the movie theaters. It's really big (for just me), quite prominent, and up high enough that they have a little two-step staircase. It's in the same plaza as the old stage, and faces the same clump of patio furniture and big-tree planterbox bench seating, but from a different angle.

It's really nice -- maybe too nice. I'm afraid that they'll decide to start charging for it pretty soon -- especially considering the 4 hour (according to the maintenance guy) setup time. It's really a far nicer place to play than the old "main stage" that they've been charging $50 for all along, and when they get people asking for this new one over the old one, they'll undoubtedly decide to start collecting.

But on a hot Saturday afternoon, the plaza is pretty deserted, except for people that are on their way somewhere. Nobody's there to just hang out that early, nor in that weather, so I played to a lot of stone silence. There were quite a few people to play to, sitting over there under the tree, but they seemed to be more interested in the shade than the music. Occasionally, though, someone would be going past that couldn't resist listening in for a while -- that's pretty gratifying, to stop somebody in their tracks.

And, for some reason, there were a surprising 11 CDs sold. Not sure why -- the tips weren't all that great. I made $55 in combined tips plus whatever people bought the CDs for. Just another thing that's more random than I'd expect, I guess.

I had a "hard stop" at 5:00 (just when it was cooling off and people were starting to hang out more, of course) to allow time for me to tear down and the next band to set up. I was grateful for it this time, though -- I seem to be able to play for 7 hours in the evening/night, but after just two hours in the heat, I was wiped out, and my fingertips were inexplicably already trashed.