K&W in Laguna Beach -- Friday, 28June2013

The competition for good spots to play has heated up in recent weeks. It occurred to me that, on a workday, there's no way for me to get there earlier than the homeless and/or school-less guys, so I figured we might as well just go down when "the good part" starts, 'cuz it won't affect our odds of getting a spot anyway. So we met down there at 7:30, and of course, found all the corners taken.

But we had a secret plan. There was a Hurley store just two shops up from the ice cream shop, but it's gone out of business. The front of it is set back from the sidewalk into an almost perfect "orchestra shell". Nobody else has thought of playing there yet, so we were able to get it. The sound is great, and it looks great in the daytime, but when the store is closed, there's no light. And since we started late, pretty soon it was *very* dark in there.

I had brought a little book light that I used to use for my paper music book, so I set that up, but it was way too little. Still, people stopped to listen pretty often -- but with no bench to sit on, they didn't stay very long.

Except one crazy/drunk guy who thinks he knows Warren (though Warren doesn't know him), who just *loves* our music, and loudly proclaims it at the end of every song. And interpretive-dances along with each of them. It was kind of cool at first, but as he got more and more demonstrative, he started to scare the regular people away. And after a while, he started singing along in his remarkably strong voice, to the point where Warren had to go over and ask him to sing more quietly.

Anyway, we played from about 8 until 10:30, and only made $26. Not sure if that's because of the crazy guy, the darkness, or the lack of benches -- probably all three. So it's no substitute for the main Corner, but it'll do in a pinch. But I'm definitely going to bring my camping lantern next time...