Unfortunately, the first Friday tends to immediately follow the first Thursday (which is Laguna Artwalk), so I ended up playing two gigs with nothing but a night's sleep between them. Not actually a big problem -- in fact it makes it a bit easier since I can leave most of the equipment in the car overnight -- but my voice wasn't really up for it at 9am, especially after singing for 3 hours the night before.
But I warmed up after a while and had a pretty good time. Not a lot of people came by the stay and listen (more so because they hadn't booked the usual Lunch Trucks "because it's Good Friday" (Is truck food even more of a sin then than usual?!?)), but lots of folks walked by and dropped money in the jar. I hadn't really expected to make anything in tips for this kind of thing, but ended up with $60, on top of the city's check -- not bad at all!
This was the first test of using the iPad in broad daylight, which I was afraid wasn't gonna work -- and I was right. Not only is the image washed out in the bright light, the shiny glass makes it easier to see my own face than the songsheet. I don't think any kind of "shade hood" would have helped enough, either. Of course, I can and did fall back on the paper version, but the songs evolve a bit over time as I scribble performance notes and tweaks on the pages, so the iPad versions are somewhat different than the paper copies. I'll have to print up a new set of sheets before my next sunlit gig.
As I and the farmer/vendors were packing up at 1:00, several of them came by to tell me that they liked my stuff. And that public consensus wasn't lost on my city hall friend who will probably be inclined to book me again sometime. Besides, I couldn't hardly be worse than the octogenarian ukulele orchestra that she booked last month!
1 comment:
That's cool! I *always* tip the musicians at my Farmer's Market.
Post a Comment