Keith at Laguna Beach -- 18Aug2012

I don't usually go down to Laguna on a Saturday night because Warren plays down there with Jim on Saturdays. But this time they had a gig elsewhere, so I figured I could go snag their spot on The Corner.

I had a lot of trouble getting the sound working right at first. It's ridiculously complex, what with there being tone controls on the guitar's pickup, the "D.I." box, and the amp itself, and volume controls on the pickup, the D.I., the harmony box, and the amp. And they're all liable to get tweaked just from packing and unpacking in the crate so even when I get it working one time, it'll be screwed up the next. I know -- duct tape. Don't think I haven't considered it...

Anyway, I was getting distortion on the guitar for one reason, and distortion on the vocals for another. And it's kind of embarrassing to try to fix the issues with people sitting there waiting and watching. But I eventually straightened it all out -- for now. I think. Probably.

Once I could relax about all that, it was pretty fun. More activity than on my usual Tuesday and Friday outings, of course. Sold 3 CDs, one of them apparently for a twenty, which brought the jar total up to $84. And I managed to get some kids around so I could give out some bubbles and fingerlights, which seems to be my primary objective these days.

I also tried out my latest song attempt, "The Sound of Silence". I have the beginning guitar part worked out pretty well, and the rest is trivial, but it's one of the few songs where the melody is the high part and the harmony is below. The harmony box can do it that way, but since my voice isn't anywhere near as high as Artie's, I can't capo as high as Paul does, so the lower harmony coming from the box sounds like someone singing bass. I'll have to experiment with how high I can risk sliding the capo after singing for a while, when my range goes up quite a bit.