Keith at Long Beach Towne Center -- Friday, 17May2013

When I first got signed up with the booking agent that covers Long Beach, Chino, and Riverside, I volunteered for every gig she'd give me. That included a Saturday that she was in a jam for back in February, this one, and two more. What I didn't really realize at the time was that I was volunteering to play for just one hour, as the "opening act" for another band, starting at 6:00, on a workday. All four of those particulars are, let's just say, far from ideal.

But the "only an hour" thing wasn't *so* bad, 'cuz they send out a sound guy with a big nice amp, which means I don't have so much setup and teardown time. And since I'm partway there already if I leave right from work, I got there in time, though 6:00 on a Friday is still a pretty dead shift, audience-wise.

It was a bit annoying that the band that I "opened" for was three 15-year-olds -- two girls who could barely play their guitars and listlessly sang while a boy bonked on a "cajon" drum/box. Everybody's got to start somewhere, but it rather diminishes the prestige of this gig when acts that ought to be at a high school talent show can get in...

But it was fun, once I got started. It's a really nice stage, and my aunt, uncle, and their granddaughter were there right from the beginning, so I had someone to play for the whole time. A nice man bought a CD from me as I was setting them out, before I'd even started. I said, "But what if I'm terrible?", and he said that if I was playing there, I must be good. I guess he hasn't seen those three kids play...

Right at the end of my hour, 5 or 6 teenage girls came by and were *really* excited to be able to choose a song, and they tussled and argued about each one. I ended up listening to whichever girl was shouting out a song I'd'a wanted to do anyway, but they were thrilled and danced around and screamed out their next choices as soon as each song was over. Fortunately, the sound guy let me run over my hour by 20 or 25 minutes so they got to choose several before I had to shut down.

I ended up with $46 in the jar, which is pretty good, and actually a really high dollars per hour rate, considering the short playing time. It's just ridiculous that this place tries to put on two bands per night, especially since they enforce a 9:30 curfew. That means the first band officially gets an hour, there's an hour of dead time for the changeover, and the second band gets an hour and a half. If they'd let one band play the whole time, 6-9:30, there'd be more music, it'd be worth the bands' effort to get out there, and this would be a great gig, not a lame one. Problem is, as long as fools like me and Amateur Hour keep falling for it, management'll have no reason to wise up.