K&W at Laguna Beach -- 28Aug2012

I was expecting a slow lonely night, since schools are starting up and vacations are over. But it was actually quite nice. A lot less people out, but the lack of crowds seemed to make the people who came by more comfortable stopping for a while. We had a pretty continuous stream friendly people sitting on the bench, asking for songs. A friend of Warren's stayed for an hour or two, chatting up anyone else who came by, and requesting song after song, threatening to use up the whole catalog. She's welcome back any time.

I think a big part of what made it work so well for me, though, was the sound. Usually there's someone else playing on the other corner, so I'm afraid to be an obnoxious jerk (as some of them are) and play so loud as to interfere with their stuff. This time, there was nobody over there, so I was able to accidentally turn it up quite a bit louder than usual, so I could actually hear myself. I love when that happens...

When it's louder like that, I can hear myself, so I play and sing better, but the people can hear better over the traffic noise, so they like the music better, and people from farther away can hear the music and come on over if they like what they hear. Win-win-win-win-win.

So, even with the reduced traffic, we were getting through to a much higher percentage of the people who *were* there, brought in about $70, and had a great audience most of the night. I didn't give away any bubbles, but had some tiny kids to give fingerlights to, later on after dark. I'm a little worried when I do that since they're not really intended for teething, but I guess the parents will have to keep an eye on that.

I got to play "The Sound of Silence" again, and it's working out pretty well, I think, so it may move up to The List soon. The harmony's a little problematic, since it's a lower harmony and I don't sing very high, and the guitar part doesn't give the box enough data, soon enough, to get the harmony part right. But with some hopefully-subtle modifications to the guitar part, I think I can get it to work.

I also played my new kids/teens song, "Kiss the Girl" from "The Little Mermaid" a couple of times, and that one's definitely working out, too. It sounds great with the harmony box (and *terrible* without it -- "Please, Mister Postman" is the same way). And at the very end, we had a pair of seniors sitting and listening and requesting great songs, and suddenly, dancing!