The weather was really nice so lots of people were out. We got a bunch of young families all at once and started up a big party. I got out the fingerlights and passed out 6 or 7. And of course, once we had some kids and parents dancing, clapping, and shaking tambourines, that dragged other people in, until we had a really big crowd and requests rolling in 4 deep.
As the party started to taper off, a Persian guy and his daughter came by. The daughter seemed to want to play a tambourine, so I gave her one, and the dad grabbed another one to show her how. Without a word they just climbed right on into the act, and when Warren stepped out to take pictures, they just moved on into his "spot", and the daughter, and then the dad, picked up his guitar and pretended to play along (fortunately, it was unplugged).
It was also a great night for older people coming by to sit and listen for a while. Got lots of nice people, and lots of requests – some of them unusual, like "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Pancho and Lefty".
Some high school girls, all dressed and made up, were walking by and suddenly stopped to listen. I guess they liked what they were hearing, 'cuz they suddenly broke out dancing, but it was a goofy hillbilly hoedown dance, which looked pretty funny in their disco clothes, hair, and makeup.
I've been hoping/expecting that the Fridays would get better as it got warmer, but not so far. I had some little girls dancing right at the beginning, which is becoming kind of traditional lately, but it was a pretty slow night, generally.
For some reason, they'd brought out "the big stage", which seemed nice at first, to have so much room to move around in. But turned out to be a bit of a problem, because there's so much room between me and the front of the stage, the kids aren't as intimidated about sneaking up on to it (and apparently the parents don't see as much of a problem with it, either). Of course, they make their move while I'm in the middle of a song, so I can't say anything, and can't even make "back off" hand motions. And, of course, as soon as the bravest/craziest kid gets up there, they all figure it's OK, and climb up, too.
And I don't really mind, as long as they stay back a bit. But having given them an inch, it's not long before they're crowding up and about to knock over the music stand, and I've had kids decide to step on those big shiny buttons on the harmony box and totally mess up the song. Oh well. At least they're not scared of me...
One teenage girl came running up just as I'd finished "Let It Go" from "Frozen", my new huge hit crowd gathering song. She asked, "Did I miss 'Let it Go'?!? They called me and I came as fast as I could!" I didn't know who "they" were, but I said, "Yes, I just finished it. But there are others -- and I'll probably end up playing it again in 5 minutes or so." So she sat down and listened and laughed and clapped as I went through half-a-dozen other Disney songs. At one point she asked me, "Is the 'Toy Story' song that you do 'You've Got a Friend in Me'?" I thought about that and wondered, "What other "Toy Story" songs are there?" And then I remembered one, and said, "Yes, that's the one. I certainly don't do the 'Jessie is Very Sad' song!", and she laughed and laughed.
Later on, a guy listened to a few songs, and then came up and said, "I don't have any money to tip you, but I wanted to say that you sound great, and I'm from London, and you don't hear any voices like yours singing The Beatles". I'm not entirely sure what that meant, but I took it as a compliment.
And another guy, all heavy metaled out, was standing and staring at me pointedly for a long time, kind of slack-jawed. I was initially afraid that he was gonna "start something", but after a while it seemed clear that he was impressed. Finally he came up and threw some money in my guitar case, started to walk away but turned to throw me "the horns" and mouth "You rock!" I'm not sure I can really claim to do much "rocking", but thanks.
Towards the end a little girl came up and asked me, "Can you play 'Let It Go' again?" She'd apparently already heard it once that night, but OK, I did, and since she was obviously a big "Frozen" fan, I followed it with "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?", which I'd never played in public before. It starts off really cute, but gets really sad, but she (and her mom) seemed to like it.
And more strange tips: some kind of high-end chocolate thing, a somewhat ragged Laffy Taffy bar, and a big black button. Yay?
When we got there, Anne the Trumpet Girl was there already. She plays jazz along with backing tracks, and it all sounds like Johnny Carson's Tonight Show band. She's pretty good, I think. Or I guess. Heck, I can't tell.
What's quaint is that she thinks that someone would want to hear that kind of music down on a street corner in a beach town. But she's blonde and cute, and her trumpet case catches some tips one way or the other.
Anyway, she told us she was almost done, so we waited her out. The weather started out nice, but got pretty cold later on. There were lots of people out, but for some reason, I couldn't get very many of them to stop and listen much. We had some people here and there, but never got a real crowd together except once when a little boy stopped to dance and a bunch of people had to stop to watch. That turned into a pretty big party.
A while later some ladies stopped to listen to "Landslide" and when that was over I asked them to pick a song but they wouldn't. ("Oh you're doing just fine!" I get that a lot.) So I asked them if they'd seen that Sparkly Vampire movie, and I played the song from it ("A Thousand Years") which I'd just learned, and it went over really well with them, and other people passing by.
I had had a terrible cold all week, and actually almost didn't go down, but I thought I could manage it if I took enough cough medicine. And I almost did -- I only crashed and burned three songs with coughing fits. But other than that, I was singing pretty well. And despite it seeming like we weren't getting through to anybody, we made some surprisingly good tip money. I guess I was doing better than I thought I was...
While I was setting up, a family walked by and the little girl, maybe 7, shouted out, "Are you a clown?" I don't have the perm anymore, I wasn't wearing my top hat, and I hadn't dyed my new shoes red yet, either. Whatever gave her that idea?
It's apparently Winter Formal season, and like last Saturday in Laguna, there were lots of teenagers out in their version of formal wear. It's fun to see, but not good for a gig night because they all have somewhere they're getting to, so they can't/don't stop. One dressed-up girl laid some flowers in my guitar case with a big smile, though I think she was really just tired of carrying them around...
A couple of girls stood there taking video of me for quite a few songs. They asked if it was OK to put them up on YouTube, and I said, "Sure, but email me where". Didn't happen, of course, and no amount of searching turns up anything. Oh well. Flattering that they *intended* to post 'em.
But apparently it was "Sing Along Night", and even though they couldn't stop, a lot of the packs of girls loudly sang along as they breezed by while I was playing a Disney song.
Which I now have even more of. Over the last week, I worked up "Beauty and the Beast", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" and "Under the Sea", though I somehow never quite got to that last one (never got a big-enough party started, I guess). I was afraid that the two love songs were going to come off as too cheesy, but they seemed to work OK.
The other new one that's working OK is "A Thousand Years", which is the love theme from the second and third "Twilight" movies. Which, just to be clear, I haven't seen -- but I've heard the song here and there, and my kids assured me that if I learned it, I'd have the ladies eating out of my hand. Which turned out to be pretty true -- whenever I played it, I could see lots of both teenaged girls and older ladies walking by with their lips moving as they sang silently along.
And I was playing "Imagine" when four teenaged boys stopped, three of them just standing around waiting while the tall Asian kid sang along, swaying, with his eyes closed. That was heartwarming...
Neither one of my little fans, Gabby and Hannah, showed up. I was rather looking forward to seeing them. I feel a little bit stood up.
A wise (or hip) man once said, "Friends don't let friends clap on 1 and 3", but when I'm playing guitar, my thumb is playing the bass line on 1 & 3, and it's almost impossible for me to stomp my foot on 2 & 4 like I should, contrary to my thumb. I feel like a doofus hitting 1 & 3, but I'm working on thinking of my foot as alternating with my thumb (while, of course, I'm also playing the chords with my fingers, and reading the words, and singing, and remembering the 75% of the "song" that's not written on the page (patterns, bass runs/fills, anomalies, breathing, etc.)). I did have a bit of success on "Hey, Soul Sister" though, so that's encouraging, but this one-man-band stuff is harder than it looks.
Another awfully cold night, as you'd expect in February. But people around here just don't prepare for as cold as it gets, so most of them couldn't hang out for a while even if they wanted to.
But we did have quite a few people stop and listen for just a song or two, standing, and in many cases, shivering. Greeter Mikey showed up on his bike, looking more nautical all the time. And Blain, who is apparently independently wealthy and spends his days spinning Frisbees on the beach "for peace", really loves our stuff and stopped on his way home. He never gets tired of my version of "Leaving on a Jet Plane", for some reason.
Some ladies read through the list and decided on "South of the Border", which we used to play all the time, but haven't for years. I was afraid that I'd forgotten how to play its clever "Spanish" bass line, but it came back to me, and sounded pretty great.
And then a lady came up to put in a buck and look at the list, and immediately chose "Alison". I mock-accusingly asked her, "Did you just choose that one 'cuz it's the first one on the list?" She said, "No. I chose it because it's my name." Oops. It's another one I don't do very often, and now the pressure was on even more -- not just a request, but a Special Request. But I rallied and pulled it off just fine.
