Keith at The Sawdust Festival -- Wednesday, 20Aug2014

My last Sawdust gig this year was on a Wednesday night, which I expected to be pretty slow, but there were quite a lot of people there at the Tavern. And all about the right age to appreciate my song list.

The layout of the place is a little strange, with three tables right up front of the stage, and some "stand up" tables behind them, demarking the pathway through to the Beer Window. And beyond that, more tables. The far-away tables can hear, mostly, but they're too isolated to interact with, either by applause or requests.

There were two nice ladies at one of the close tables, who were on a bus trip from San Diego to do the Sawdust Festival in the daytime, and then go over to the Pageant of the Masters when it got dark. They were apparently done with Sawdust, so they were just hanging out in the Tavern, waiting. Fortunately for them and me, they liked my stuff, and stayed around for three of my half-hour on, half-hour off sets.

Near the side of the stage attached to the front of the bar building itself is a small TV set, running random stuff, with the sound off. I, and everyone else, ignored it, until a show called "Dating Naked" came on. Suddenly, six or seven 10 or 12-year-old kids appeared out of nowhere to watch the naked people, even though the naughty bits are blurred out. One of the san Diego grandmas couldn't take this, and went up to the window to tell the guys inside to "turn off this X-rated television show". That suited me fine, 'cuz I don't need my audience distracted by a TV, naked or not.

There were a couple of guys on the main stage, and they were pretty sloppy with following the half-hour schedule, but they were nice and quiet, so it didn't really bother me. In fact, it would have been fine for both of us to play the whole time, but the Sawdust people don't want the customers to get comfy and not be up buying art.

Anyway, I love playing there, even on slow nights. There's no traffic noise, and the people are there to browse and don't mind sitting a while to listen.