Keith Plays a Party -- Saturday, 16May2015

When I played at the bar/restaurant in downtown Huntington Beach, a guy came up and asked me to play "Puff" for his daughter, and later came up again to hire me to play his party. The party was to commemorate his graduating from USC dentist school, and was at his house. Turned out there's a tiny private island at the tip of Balboa Island with 8 houses on it -- his is number 6.

I played on the back patio toward the water, and had a dozen or so of his friends at a time out listening to me. Along with several boats full of curious neighbors that came by to listen in.

Problem was, I was catching a cold, and was pretty scratchy at first. But I've played sick before, and usually get away with it. But this time is was a true throat infection, not just stuffy sinuses that I can treat with medicine. I got better as I get warmed up, but then it turned around and by the end of the three hours, I was barely able to sing at all. I started doing my songs a whole step lower by leaving off the capo, but I still couldn't hit the high notes.

So, although I always play way past "quitting time", this time I had to stop, just because I was embarrassing myself. Or so I thought -- people were all, "Oh, are you quitting?!?" Considering I can barely muster enough voice to answer the question, yes, sorry, I'm quitting.

But apparently they liked me anyway. The guy's wife came up to hand me a wad of bills as my payment, and they'd overpaid me by $50 (which I *presume* was deliberate - guy lives in a $2M house). I didn't even bring my tip jar, but the guy found one and put it out for me, and I collected another $32 from the party people.

Unfortunately, on the way home, I could barely swallow, and the day after, couldn't speak at all. I have some gigs coming up in the next week -- so I hope my throat heals fast.

Anyway, it was fun, and *finally* an example of what I've been hoping would happen for the last 13 years -- somebody hears me playing at a place, and hires me to play at another place. That's how it ought to work, right?