Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 02Sept2011

A really great night! Perfect weather finally -- not too hot, and didn't get too cold, either. My brother and his wife were there even before I got there -- I'm afraid they got to see more of me setting up than singing, but they had to get to a movie. Daleen and a friend came by with some dogs, and our neighbors from up the hill were there for a long time, too. They'd never seen me before, and were apparently impressed a bit.

There were lots of young families out, and I had a small one of my famous Kids' Dance Parties early on, and then another huge one around 8:30, with the most kids I've ever had -- probably a dozen families joined in, with all the moms, dads, grammas, and kids dancing, singing along, and taking pictures. Big fun.

I'd been recording at home to make a new "studio" CD to sell, since it's been 5 years since the current "pop tunes" one. I was surprised at how well the singing went, and how accurate my guitar playing was -- apparently playing all day, all week, makes a difference. I didn't really think I was "losing it" when I only play once a week, but I guess I am.

I (mostly) finished the CD that afternoon, recording the last two songs and putting it all together, but, although each song is OK, they're all at different volumes so it's uneven as a sequential CD. I can fix that, but didn't have time, so I only burned 4 copies. I gave one to my brother, and two more got bought during the night. After I quit, a group of people came up, bought the last CD, and told me that they were from New York and that I'd "do great in Central Park". Great idea, if a bit impractical, commute-wise.

It did get cold enough that I needed to put on my jacket towards the end, and in doing so, I dropped the mic. It's been dropped a million times before, but it's very light and it's never gotten hurt by it. But when I got back up and running, the vocal sounded *really* treble-y to me -- almost like a deliberate "singing through the telephone" effect. I asked the crowd if it was sounding funny to them, but, as always, no response, so I don't know if something is broken, or if the amp freaked out, or if I was just imagining it. I played another hour or so, feeling like it was sounding terrible, but people didn't get up and leave, and in fact, I was accumulating more and more people. But I'll have to check into what's up before my next gig in two weeks.

I sold the four new CDs, and one each of the other two, and made $77 for the night. Played for a lot of groups of kids, and lots of older couples that didn't respond much (it's that distance thing), but stayed a long time. And it was great to have the amplifier and the harmony box again, after the struggle-to-be-heard of playing acoustic-only in Laguna. I usually grumble about the hassle of setting up and tearing down the equipment, but it's clearly better than the alternative...