Keith at "Make Music Downey" -- Saturday, 08June2013

I really only signed up for this because it was near my mom's house, and I figured it would be a chance for her to come see me. Also, it was being put on by a lady I know. It was "inspired by" the "Fete de la Musique" like the one in Laguna, which was fun last year (and I'm signed up for again this year).

But it was actually set up like the one in New York, and was more like a Jazz Festival -- 61 bands, rotating quickly on six simultaneously-running stages. Your time slot includes your setup and teardown time, and most bands get a half hour (!), while the headliners get a whole hour. I got 45 minutes, in a little art gallery with two rows of folding chairs.

I was starting to expect a travesty, and when I got there early to scope it out, it didn't assuage my fears much. There was a 5-piece Hawaiian band playing to about 8 people. As I came around the back of the shop, I got roped into helping bring in a retired 86-year-old dentist's electric piano. He was up next, just before me. He and his two granny-singers play at retirement homes, and brought in about a dozen fans.

They all left when he was done, so when I started there were 4 people there: three ladies, and the piano guy who was going on after me. (My mom wasn't feeling up to going out after all, so she wasn't there.) The place was in an ancient row of shops, concrete walls and floor, plywood ceiling, and incredibly echoey. I turned my system reverb all the way off, and it was still like singing in a shower, in a canyon.

But I was there to play, so I played. I started with "You've Got a Friend" and "had" the three ladies already. I followed up with "Homeward Bound", "Jet Plane", "Over the Rainbow", and "Hallelujah". Every time I'd look up, there were more people. They'd come by the doorway, hang there for a minute, and then decide to come on in and sit down. Every song was greeted with huge applause (though I suppose it sounded better than it really was, augmented by the echoey room). One of the original three ladies would applaud at the *beginning* of songs that she recognized.

By the time I was done, the seats were full, and there were half-a-dozen people standing just inside the door. Must have been 40 people in there. I don't know who paid them all to show up, but I'm glad they did...

Lots of older folks like me, but several Latino teenagers who were just as enthusiastic (and who came right up to take pictures of me with their giant cameras). There was no place to put out a tip jar, and it wouldn't have felt right anyway, but two guys came up and dropped money at the edge of the stage anyway. When Frank (who was running the show) came up to thank me after my time was up, the applause was so loud that he said instead, "Should we let him do one more?", and the crowd went wild with "Yes!", and "Let him stay!", so I got to close it down with "Let It Be". And in that final round of applause, two ladies stood up to clap.

I threw a stack of business cards on a chair as I left the stage, and at least 20 of them disappeared. I should have brought out some CDs, too, but I was taken completely off-guard by the whole thing. As I was packing up in "the back", a little old lady who had asked me, out of the blue, if I "like my car" (my wife's Honda Fit) as I was parking out front (and turned out to be the Director of the Downey Symphony) came up and said that she had no idea that I was "so terrific" when she talked to me about the car earlier. She asked where I was from, and I told her, but that I was there because my mom lives in Downey. She told me to tell her that she'd "done a wonderful job" with me.

Another lady then came up and introduced herself, told me how much she had enjoyed it, and said that she had seen "a white aura all around me as [I] played, coming and going". Well, thanks, but you might want to talk to someone about those hallucinations you're having...

I suppose a lot of it was that people were surprised to find someone playing pretty well, and tunes they knew. Most of the other acts were amateurs and local garage bands. Compared to Hawaiian music or blue-hairs singing "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", I may have been a breath of fresh air...

Anyway, rather than the fiasco that I was expecting, it was the best gig I've had in ages. The downside is that now I have to wonder how to find other places to play that are, you know, indoors, and where people are actually stationary. And if you don't count the gas money, I came out five bucks ahead, and afterwards had a nice lunch and visit with my mom. Win-win.