K&W in Laguna Beach -- Monday, 02Sept2013

It was Labor Day, and stiflingly hot, so we were hoping for a decent turnout at the beach. And thus the ice cream shop, and thus the corner.

We got there at 4:00, but it was already occupied by Michael, who apparently doesn't care overmuch about honoring the "paid to *not* play" money the ice cream store owner gave him. (Michael does all self-written songs about how abused he's been by The Man and various girls, and he plays guitar well enough, but it's hard to tell what the songs are about 'cuz his cat-fight-yowl of a singing voice is mostly unintelligible, and certainly doesn't win him many fans.)

But he assured Warren that he was going to quit at 5:00, so we just hovered nearby to discourage any other bands from trying to move in, and to see if he was any more sensitive to glaring than he was to payoff money. (He wasn't.)

But he finally cleared out, and we did pretty well, though the 5:00 hour is pretty slow. Worth it to slog through to the more-fun evening hours, though. And our friend Daniel came by with his big-lens camera and took a few decent shots as the sun was going down.

Late in the evening a guy came by, sat on the bench, and way too enthusiastically proclaimed how great we were, after -- and during -- the songs. He was, for some reason, dying to hear "Lyin' Eyes", which I seldom play, but did. He got up and went to the ATM next to the ice cream store, and when he came back, tried to get the guy next to him on the bench to break a twenty. The guy couldn't/wouldn't, so, let's just call him Drunk Guy, decided to go ahead and put a twenty in the jar.

He was loudly singing along on every song I did, even after I started trying to play "chick songs" and then obscure stuff he wouldn't know. Finally Warren couldn't take it anymore, and went over to ask him to sing more quietly. He took, as only drunk people can, huge offense at this, said that he was singing as loudly as his twenty entitled him to, but got up and indignantly stormed off. Works for me. (And his twenty contributed to the $107 we pulled in.)

Weirdly enough, later on a (much more polite) guy came by and asked me if I knew any Eagles. I read him off the list of 6 or so Eagles songs I know, and he decided on "Lyin' Eyes". Hadn't played it in six months, and then twice in one night.

A few weeks ago a guy asked for "Tiny Dancer", and when I said I didn't know it, he said, "You should learn it". So, OK, I did, and it works out moderately well, arranged for guitar and transposed down for my vocal range. I fired it up for the first time, and I think it may be a keeper. I've also been working up "Daniel" which is working OK too, and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", which, not so much.

Two nights before had inexplicably become "Karaoke Night". This time, it was "Adults asking for Kids' Songs Night", and we did "Puff, the Magic Dragon", Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection", and "House at Pooh Corner" -- all of which got a huge response. Musta been something in the water...

This blog post. Let me read you it.