Keith in Belmont Shore -- Saturday, 19Sept2015

Tom offered us a deal that if we didn't come down this week, he wouldn't come down next week. That seemed like a good deal: not having a bad night (on the "wrong" corner until 11) this week in exchange for a good one next week. But since I hadn't played last weekend, I needed to play someplace, and took the opportunity to give Belmont another try.

There's been some discussion about the confusion of amplifier ordinances in Long Beach (they literally have laws on the books both ways), so it's a little scary about whether or not you'll get busted. So every time a cop came by (and they come by a lot to keep the drunk partiers in check), I got really quiet, and paranoid. But, so far so good -- no hassle this time, at least.

The "usual" busking spot is in front of the Chase bank, which is closed at night, and has a nice wide sidewalk. But there was already a guy playing slide blues kinds of stuff (with no amp) there, so I set up across the street in an alcove of the Bank of America. Unfortunately, that's the "less fun" side of the street, so I didn't get much attention. Quite a few people passing by put money in my jar, but I'd'a preferred that they stop and listen a while...

I did have a family stop and I gave the little girls the Kids' List, and they chose "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" from "Frozen". I said OK, but somebody needs to feed me the Elsa line, "Go away, Anna!". I thought the big sister would find this fun, but watching her up to that point in the song, she was freaked out by the dread responsibility of being able to hit her cue. But her mom helped and after we got through that part, she relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the song.

Around 10, the slide guy inexplicably moved up the street, so I moved over to where he had been, since that's the "fun side". And it did get a lot more traffic, but still not a lot of people stopping to listen. Except a surfer guy who recognized "Hotel California" as he went by, and came back to plop on the ground to listen. His remarkably scantily-clad girlfriend and other friend had to stop and come back, too. I gave them my song lists, and they stayed for 5 or 6 songs, and helped attract some other people to at least slow down.

But it really only started to get good at 10:30 or 11, when a lot more people came by. But again they were mostly putting money in the jar and moving on. Finally three kids stopped, mostly because the guy like my hat. He wanted to wear it, and get a picture, so I gave my phone to the girl so I'd have a copy, too. Then the other girl wanted to get in on this, so we got another picture, with her in the hat.

I told them that they could pick a song, and the blue-haired girl said that, since she was having a bad night, she deserved to pick. Fine with me... But then she picked "Let It Go", and I figured, what the heck, nobody else is stopping anyway, and went ahead and played it. And, boom! *Everybody* (guys and girls) passing by jumped in to sing along, run up to get a picture or video next to me, dance through (with castle-making gestures), and, yes, throw money in the jar. Biggest song of the night, by an order of magnitude. I shoulda just played it back to back, all night.

Just after 1am, a fire truck came and parked right in front of me, with the loud diesel engine running. I couldn't play against the noise, so I sat on the bus stop bench and waited. Pretty soon some cops pulled up, and then more, and more, until there were five cop cars lined up. Dunno what the problem was (maybe something about a lost drunk girl?) but I was unwilling to give all these cops an opportunistic "amp law" bust, so I packed up.

A lady who had been playing a ways down the street also decided the sudden cop swarm wasn't conducive to street music, so she packed up and introduced herself on her way past. She was Lisa Stryker, who's a minor celebrity on the "Long Beach Musicians" Facebook group, mostly because of her continuing experiences and complaints about the unclear amp situation. We talked for a while about that, and I was a bit surprised, 'cuz her Facebook posts don't have that Australian accent...