Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 01Feb2013

Finally, warm weather! I arrived to find that they'd messed with the layout again -- there are new comfy chairs around the planter boxes, which, apparently, led them to put up a tiny stage -- 8x8 instead of the previous 16x16 one. Fortunately, that's plenty for just me, but I don't know what the giant-synth-setup guy or the 3-man Peruvian band are gonna do...

I had had a really terrible cold since Tuesday, and didn't really know if I'd be able to sing at all, but I was feeling a bit better, and I'd already paid the $50 "setup fee", and I don't know what her policy is for last minute cancellations, so I chugged some cough syrup, loaded up a huge bottle of Mountain Dew, and went anyway. It was tough going for the first hour or two, but after that, it seemed to clear up and I was singing just fine. I only crashed and burned one song in a coughing fit all night.

Lots of people out on this fine night, and even more because of the Winter Formal kids wandering around in large packs, microscopic dresses, and outrageously high heels. I guess they were just killing time before their actual event started somewhere else, 'cuz after a while, they disappeared altogether. Disappointingly, only a few of them had time to listen to and/or request some songs -- usually I get more connection from the teens, but they were probably distracted.

I finally had a recurrence of the believed-extinct Kids' Party, helped along mightily by some parent's clapping along to the rhythm to the Chuck Berry, causing others to join in. Why doesn't this happen more often?!? It *really* dragged other people in. I'm not sure how to get that started on my own, though -- once the music starts, my hands are kinda busy...

Anyway, I must not have sounded *too* bad, since I sold 5 CDs and pulled in $143. I think I actually had a lot more listeners than it seemed, since people can now camp out in the comfy chairs and listen without seeming to be specifically engaging with me, and there were lots of people in those chairs for long stretches. Or maybe they were just tired...