K&W in Laguna Beach -- 26Mar2013

We got there a little after 5, and Tom was jammin' away, but he said that he was just about done, so we waited a few songs, and it was our turn on The Corner.

It was nice and sunny still, with a pretty good turnout of beach goers, but the first 2 hours or more were pretty lean, with people just rushing by. We did have a batch of cheerleaders come by and request a song (at my insistence), but then disappeared before I even got a chance to play it.

But it's becoming clear that The Good Time is after dinner, starting at 7:30 or 8:00. Unfortunately, if we just show up at 7:30, somebody else will have snagged The Corner. Anyway, we gathered a pretty big crowd, which persisted for quite a long time. Once you manage to get a critical mass, some people leave but others see the crowd and come over to take their place. And I noticed quite a few people that came by, listened for a while, left, and came back later, having apparently decided that we were the best thing going around there.

One guy listened for a spell while eating his ice cream and finally decided to take a look at the list. When he spotted "Hallelujah", he asked for it and put ten bucks in the jar *before* I sang it, saying "I'm dropping a ten 'cuz I *know* that's gonna be good -- the more verses the better!".

And a Zealander in a fancy suit (there's something you don't see every day!) stopped to ask for "If I Fell". I had been expecting a slow night so I hadn't bothered to put the CDs out, but he read the sign, and asked for and bought one -- first time *that's* happened. And then he came back later to marvel at why we weren't singing "in a tavern somewhere". I said I didn't know where to find one, but he had taken a card on his first pass through, and said something about how he was gonna find us one and call me. Here's hoping he comes through...

At the request of a friend and my brother, I've been learning Stephen Bishop's 1977 hit, "On and On", after transposing it into a still-awfully-high but more reasonable key. I've really only barely got it working, but thought I'd try it out in real life anyway, to see if it goes over and is therefore worth pursuing. And as half-learned and ragged as it was, it went over great! I think somebody pulled out a wallet and fed the jar all three times I played it. Definitely a keeper.

Anyway, we pulled in $79, which is just plain amazing for a Tuesday -- especially since Spring Break hasn't started yet for most places, that'll be next week and the week after, I think. I started the evening thinking it was gonna be a bust, but it turned out pretty good after all...