K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 13Sept2013

This was our first Saturday since the official end of summer, and the lack of traffic and ease of parking were omens of how few people would be out, at least for the first few hours.

But around 8:00 the after-dinner crowd started to arrive, and it turned into a terrific night. The palm frond flower guys are gone, and we had almost no distracting homeless people -- just that one large woman who doesn't so much *like* my songs as worship them, and insists on miming every bit of the lyrics, scaring tourists and small children in the process.

My voice was in inexplicably terrific shape, and I could hit the high notes with incredible ease. I think that the amp was up too loud as well, since there was nobody else out playing to be bothered, and I can sing so much better when the monitor is good and loud so I can hear myself.

My cop "buddy" Darren came by on a bicycle, and listened from across the street for a while (so I played "You've Got a Friend", *really* quietly), but I think he was mostly interrogating Crazy Josh over there. He eventually rolled right on through, and didn't say a word. Later on a different cop came by, but he didn't say anything either. Still, it's unsettling to have so much Law Enforcement attention. But probably "Chilling Effect" is what they're there for.

Still, overall a great night, especially after the discouraging nights we've been having lately. Plenty of nice people listening and putting in requests, and a few of them with foreign accents, so not all of the tourists have gone home yet. I sold 10 CDs and there was an unexpectedly lot of money in the jar.

Around 9:30, there was an empty space, so I tried out the new song I've been messing with, "Sultans of Swing". It sounds pretty cool at home, but totally lame out in real life. But two groups of people (embarrassingly) showed up while I was playing it, and sat down to listen, so maybe it wasn't that bad after all. I might give it one more try...