I went down at 8:00 just to get in line to take over from the Tommies, and was completely surprised to find the corner empty. Wish I'd'a known sooner, but still, yay!
Warren had another event to go to so I played solo until he got there at 9:30, and had pretty great crowds. I had requests three deep at one point, and sold a couple of CDs. There were long lines out the door of the ice cream shop, and the owner gave me a big smile and wave like it was all my doing. Nice of him to think so.
My little super-fan Natalia came by with her family again. A little boy was there ahead of her and he wanted to hear and sing "Let It Go". Natalia was not to be outdone and she and her pregnant mom came up to (kinda almost) sing "Over the Rainbow".
Angel, the guy who makes the palm frond roses arrived a little after I started. Fortunately, he didn't take over the whole bench like he used to, so he didn't impede the tourists' ability to use the bench much.
Lots of Brazilian people this week. Maybe it's some kind of holiday week down there. Anyway, they're quite the partiers, and one lady wanted me to play a Brazilian song for her to sing. I told her I didn't know any Brazilian songs (though I used to know "Girl from Ipanema" a little), so she just told me to "play along" as she launched into one. Um, I'm pretty good, but not that good, to just guess the chords of a song I've never heard...
Had another wedding party, I guess, by the clothes. I wish they'd'a said something, but by the time I figured it out, they were on their way. I’m all out of tiaras anyway.
There was a pretty big slump at 10 or so, but then it picked back up big time as the late-night bar crowds started to emerge. I played lots of up tempo songs and got some enthusiasm in return.
When it started to die back down again at 2am, I was still caffeined out, so I had fun running through some songs I don't usually get to: "Peace Train", "Behind Blue Eyes", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", "4 and 20", and some others. It was nice to break out of the Top Twenty for a while.
Finally gave up at 2:30, when there was nobody left at all, except Angel, who'd missed the last bus home. I think he was hoping that one of us would offer him a ride, but although he thinks we're friends, I think he's a nuisance (both with the crowd annoying, and the smoking while I'm trying to sing), so, no, I didn't offer.
It rained all day, but was predicted to stop around 7pm. That apparently and happily scared the Tommies off, and surprisingly, didn't really keep everyone away -- the traffic was only a bit lighter than usual. We had plenty of people to play for, although it was tough to get anyone to stay very long because of one homeless guy and his luggage occupying most of the bench. Sigh.
We had a few families come by, including a little Asian girl who volunteered to stand next to me to sing "Let It Go", but didn't actually make a sound. Bravely held her position, though...
The new harmony box, being bigger and smarter than the old one, draws more juice and has been responsible for the accessories going dead before the amp does for the last few gigs. So I got a new, almost twice as powerful, battery for the accessories. Apparently the amp batteries saw the writing on the wall, so they stepped up too, and we played until almost 2am before they cut out.
The late-night crowd is more affable, more demonstrative, and more generous, probably by virtue of being frequently more tipsy. I was hoping that playing dance tunes would capture some of the Woo Girls zooming through, which has worked in the past, but this time I never could get a critical mass to get a party started. I even learned the Chuck Berry song that Uma Thurman and John Travolta twist to for the dance contest scene in "Pulp Fiction" ("C'est La Vie"), but never got a chance to see if the Girls would recognize it as such. Maybe next week.
Around 1am a wedding party came through and the newlyweds stood in the middle of the corner looking like they wanted to dance. I immediately fired up "Wonderful Tonight", and they, and the rest of the party, just melted. The bride even had long blonde hair, as specified in the song. I had a feeling that I'd just created their "Our Song". (And who'd'a thought that Eric Clapton would write the most romantic song of our generation?)
Seeing how pleased the newlyweds were, the maid of honor ran over to the tip jar with a twenty, where it joined several others. Counting the jar out later, it was pretty obvious that the bigger bills were higher up, i.e., later at night. I'm starting to think that going on after the Tommies, starting at 9-ish, might not be such a bad thing. And 9-2 would be a much easier shift than 7-2 on my fingers, voice, knees, etc.
Since I forgot last time and got rescheduled almost two weeks later, it seemed like I'd just been there. Everyone says that the old folks won't care (or remember), but I still feel like they have to be getting tired of the same old stuff every time.
But they never show it, of course. They clap politely at any and every song I play. It's tough though because I can't tell which songs they like more than others. Of course, I try to play older songs that they'll know, but even if it's way after "your time", how can you not know, say, "Yesterday"?
So I've kind of given up trying to stick to songs that they'll definitely know, and am just doing songs that are Big Hits, even if they're not from the 50's or older.
Which has allowed me to loosen up, along with just getting accustomed to the place and people. I'm also trying to mix in more up (or at least medium) tempo songs. Not sure it worked, though -- I still had a half-dozen people fast asleep in their chairs before the third song. (Can't say I blame 'em -- I like me a little afternoon nap these days too, and I'm quite a bit younger than most of these folks.)
Anyway, I felt like this was my best, and most fun, gig there so far. I started off with crowd-pleaser "Country Roads", knocked 'em dead with "Georgia On My Mind", got to play "Cool Water" (which sounds amazing with the harmony box, but I never get to play it anywhere else), and finished with a big, flashy, "Bridge Over Trouble Water". Big fun.
Quite a night! We started on the Fingerhut corner at 8, moved to the ice cream corner when the Tommies left at 10, and played until 2am.
As I was setting up, I realized that I had cleverly decided to pack the iPad music book somewhere other than the guitar case, and then promptly cleverly forgot all about it and left it behind. Fortunately, I have a backup three-ring binder copy that lives in the van, but I played the whole first two hours from memory. Which, since I suck at memorizing songs, meant maybe 10 songs, and some heavy repetition.
It also meant that the obscure songs that are in the 300+ electronic version were unavailable in the 150-ish paper one. Like the Johnny Cash songs that a guy came up and requested (with lavish tip) to sing. We faked "Folsom Prison Blues" anyway ('cuz, let's face it, Johnny Cash wasn't the world's most sophisticated songwriter), and the guy was pretty good. Just hitting those Cash low notes was impressive. He was back a while later to sing "Sweet Caroline" (also not in the book), and "Piano Man". His big personality and bigger gestures gathered the crowd that had been eluding me at that hour.
Same as the birthday girl who asked to play my guitar and sing "Dock of the Bay" earlier on. Maybe I should consider changing the act to all-karaoke -- it seems to attract bigger crowds than just me all the time...
Anyway, I was feeling annoyed that we're apparently eternally consigned to the "late shift" after Tom decides to go home, but although we did OK from 8-10 on the Fingerhut side, we did pretty well from 10-2 on the ice cream side. Of course, we'd do way better yet if we could play the whole time on the ice cream side...
Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, so we thought there would be lots of people down at Laguna to see the firework show. And there were. But they were all preoccupied with their beach trip and, after the fireworks, getting home, so it was actually one of the worst nights in a long time. I keep falling for the idea that holidays will be good nights, but so far, every time I play a holiday: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc., it's been terrible. Maybe I'll finally divest myself of that delusion...
The Tommies were there as usual when we arrived at 8:00, but they packed up in time to watch the fireworks at 9:00. We played on the Fingerhut side until then, and moved over when they left. And when the fireworks were over, there was a tsunami of people swarming off of the beach and streaming past us, but almost nobody stopped. Big hurry to get out there and sit in the traffic trying to get back up the canyon, I guess.
I just kept trying to find something that would slow somebody down, and kept playing to no reaction at all. Finally it paid off -- when the Fourth people were all gone at 10:30 or 11, we were finally playing for the usual Saturday night bar traffic, which works pretty well for me.
I snagged a few couples with the Everly Brothers' "Dream", which I'm going to have to remember to do more often, 'cuz it went over big. The girls captured by that one asked for "Mister Postman" from the list, which also did well, since they danced and even the people walking through had to do it dancing. So for the last couple of hours (we quit at 1am when the battery died) we did OK.
Unfortunately, our old friend Angel has reappeared for the summer. He makes origami roses from palm fronds and "gives" them to girls and kids. Of course, most people "tip" him for them, and he said that he'd made $350 that day, in 12 hours of hanging around the corner. That's pretty close to our hourly rate, but he can keep it up longer, requires a lot less equipment, and doesn't get blocked if someone else already has The Corner. Maybe I need to switch occupations...
