K&W in Laguna Beach -- Friday, 15Aug2014

I decided that going down at 4:00 and then not getting the corner anyway, especially on a Friday, was too much trouble, so I went at 6:00 instead. And, of course, the Tommies were bogarting the ice cream corner. It's not so bad if they're playing, but they were mostly just hanging out, preventing anyone else from playing, and waiting for the crowds to show up to make it worth their while to actually play. That seems pretty uncool, but what can you do?

Sanchez was in Acoustic Alley, as he has been since he got ticketed, so I set up on the Fingerhut corner and played to my reflection in the window for a couple of hours. Even 6:00 is "too early" to be on Fingerhut on a Friday. Noted.

I did have a few groups stop to listen a bit, but without a bench, it's tough to get anyone to stay very long. I was playing "Kiss the Girl" for some people, and a tall slender 60-ish woman couldn't help but stop to do some solo Samba. She was completely unabashed about dancing right there on the street corner. I asked her to find a song on the list, and she chose "Under the Boardwalk", which normally has a Calypso beat, but I do it -- cleverly, I had thought (and necessarily, due to lack of drummer and bass player) -- in straight four. It's the first time I was embarrassed by that, since she probably chose it for the expected danceable beat. She danced anyway, but oops.

Around 8:00, a group of teenage girls appeared, as, coincidentally, did Warren. They stayed for quite a while, dancing, singing along, and generally acting silly. It was good for us, though, since a crowd attracts a crowd.

Still, it was mostly awful, but about to get worse. At 10:00, Sanchez relocated to the "other corner" across the street from the Tommies in the other direction (the intersection is actually a three-way meeting of PCH, Forest, and diagonal Park Ave). He cranked up really loud, clearly deliberately trying to drive them (and us) away. Warren went over to ask him to turn down or at least maybe turn the amp so it wasn't pointing right at us, and he responded by threatening to go get his "big amp" out of the car. Apparently, the gloves are off...

The Tommies gave up, since it was late anyway and they're all-acoustic and didn't have a prayer of competing. On their way out, they walked by us and told us how, a few days before, Sanchez had cranked it up directly across from them, and when Tom went over and asked if he was deliberately trying to drive them away, he said, "That's why I'm here". He had also told them that he "owns" Thursday and Friday nights. Presumably that was before the cops showed him differently...

But rather than give him what he wanted, I just started playing my loudest strummy songs: Mrs. Robinson, Cinnamon Girl, etc. I was in the middle of one of those when Devon, the homeless ex-Marine came over and urgently told us to "cool it" while "they" were there. I turned around to see four cops around Sanchez -- Devon had called in a "citizen's complaint".

I figured, it's late anyway, let's just pack up and leave while the cops hassle Sanchez, so we're not here, or at least not playing, if they decide to pass out tickets all around. I was almost done packing up when, incredibly, Sanchez started up again! The cops were gone, so he fired back up and was playing just as loud as before. Amazing! Devon immediately borrowed Warren's phone and called the cops again, but from experience, he figured they wouldn't respond a second time to his call.

Meanwhile, just 'cuz there wasn't enough drama yet, a looking-for-trouble homeless guy started hassling Devon about a cigarette lighter he'd supposedly taken. That dispute spilled over to the ice cream corner where Ruby's Diner Girl got involved and ended up calling the police on Troublemaker. I looked up the street, and Warren was on his way home, but simultaneously calling the police about Sanchez!

Five minutes later three pairs of cops showed up, but it was hard to tell for which complaint. Some of them broke up the cigarette lighter dispute, and some of them talked to Sanchez again, though they didn't give him the promised second ticket. Still, he obviously couldn't play with all these cops around "taking statements", so after a half-hour or so, he decided there was no point in playing anymore anyway and packed up, leaving Neo-Hippie Guitar Guy, who had been waiting out the Tommies, to take the late-night shift as best he could. I had been waiting to hear his stuff, but he was terrible: crazy melodies over wildly out of tune random chords, so I went home. What a night!