I guess it just goes to show how variable it can be. Although two weeks ago we had plenty of people to play to, this time we were basically alone the whole five and a half hours we stood out there. But it was awfully cold out, and all the young women are invariably dressed in impressively skimpy outfits so I can't really blame them for not wanting to stop. Though they did frequently dance through the corner on their way past, so that's something.
Part way through the evening my wife's sister's ex-husband (my ex-brother-in-law?) and his new fiancée and friends came through. He stared at me on his way through, probably recognizing me somewhat, but since I was in the middle of a song I nodded at him but couldn't say anything. Later on they came back through again the other direction and he stopped this time to be amazed at running into me this way, and to request "God Only Knows".
I had built a new electronic drum pedal, but even though it sounded OK at home, it was way too quiet to use out on the corner even with the volume turned all the way up. On top of that I was having terrible feedback problems, so I had to turn the bass down on the guitar which made it sound terrible. And at the end of the evening, the microphone started fading out and then causing a really strange distortion. I think that may have been caused by the new amplifier battery running down, but I'll have to chase that down before my next gig. (OTOH, maybe five hours is plenty...)
Anyway , it was a pretty lame evening, and has convinced me not to pursue my previous idea of going down on "Tommy Saturdays" and playing the 11 o'clock to 2 a.m. shift. At least not until the warmer days of Spring get here. But by then I hope to have the option of playing in Dana Point instead.
I'm basically playing this place every other Friday for a while, which is great, though it might have been nice if it had fallen antipodally to the weekends that we're on in Laguna. On the other hand, this gives me every other weekend free. Like I have somewhere else to be...
Anyway, it was a little sparse this week, but pleasant. And the owner doesn't seem to hold it against me that the place isn't packed.
Which makes sense since I dropped by last Friday to drop off some posters for her to put up, and of course, check out the competition. The guy was even older than me, barely competent on guitar, and trying unsuccessfully to get people to come up and sing, karaoke style, to his ancient folk songs. I believe I’m certainly a better bet for her in the long run than that guy...
One nice couple requested a bunch of songs and finally got up to leave, and asked me on their way out when I'd be back. The guy said, "You play our kind of music". I know, right?
Another lady had also requested a bunch of songs, and finally asked for "Stardust". She asked me to confirm that that was the Hoagy Carmichael song, which, yes it is. She said that she had done a paper in college about how songs from the Great American Classics were so easily made terrible, and that her example had been "Stardust" as rendered by Regis Philbin.
That pretty much put the pressure on, but when it was done, she proclaimed my version "beautiful". Whew!
Well, that went pretty great. Back in "the big room", with the terrific acoustics, so the sound was good, not much feedback from the guitar, the replacement microphone works good, and the new battery seems to be OK, too.
I was somehow less embarrassed than usual there, and managed to talk a little between songs. This is actually a daycare for oldsters with memory issues, and last time it became pretty clear that although some of them are reasonably together, most of them don't remember yesterday, much less the last time I was there playing.
I try to play songs that their generation might recognize, and there may be something to the rumor that even if they don't remember much else, songs have a way of sticking. But I'm torn between old songs that I don't do that well, and newer stuff that I'm really good at. So I kind of split the difference, and play some of each -- which suits the younger ladies that work there just fine.
And the old folks are either very appreciative, or very polite. Nice applause after every number, and at the end several people come up to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Including a visitor who was there with his sister to visit his other sister. He was from Tennessee and appreciated my rendition of their waltz, and his sister is from Georgia, who was glad to hear "... On My Mind".
And a dapper gent named Carlo came up and was telling me how much he enjoyed it, but *very* quietly, so I smiled and thanked him, and got a little closer as he went on, and then realized that he was speaking Italian the whole time. But the big gestures and smile told me everything I needed to know...
Quite a night! I got a new Li-Ion battery for the amp that carried us through six and a half hours of play before giving out. I hadn't realized how the old battery arrangement was keeping me from overdoing it -- now I can play until my back is *completely* destroyed! Yay?
Anyway, it was pretty thin at first, though I roped in a pretty big bunch of older couples with a James Taylor run. But as the evening goes on toward 2am, the average age of the passers-by asymptotically approaches 21, in inverse proportion to blood alcohol level, so in the later hours it got pretty crazy.
I brought the drum pedal and it sounds pretty good for some of the faster songs, and I built a tambourine accessory that sounds good for some others. Unfortunately, I could only use it for half the night...
Around 11, Warren was off on a break and two young dudes showed up while I was playing "American Pie". One of them asked "Can I join you?" and I said "Sure" in between lines, expecting that he meant to stand up by me and sing along. But he grabbed Warren's guitar and strapped it on! I couldn't very well stop him, and wondered what made him think he would know the chords anyway.
Turns out he didn't actually play guitar in the first place, and was just pretending to play it, and trying to sing along too -- but he was massively drunk and couldn't keep up at all. His perceptive and sober friend, James, managed to get the guitar safely away from him before Warren came back, but couldn't convince him to step away from the "stage" where he kept entreating me to teach him how to sing. I wasn't sure how to do that, then and there, even if I had wanted to, but managed to eventually tell him that the first step would be to try it when he's sober.
James then asked if he could play a song, and I said that I couldn't let him play Warren's, but he could play mine. He played "Blackbird" quite well, and was an astonishingly fast learner when I pointed out two small errors in his version. I was impressed, and when they started to leave, I thought I'd give him a card. Unfortunately, while we were talking I had hooked my head mic onto my pants pocket, and in the process of chasing James down, it fell out, and I stepped on the wire and yanked it out, dead.
Which put me dead in the water for the rest of the evening -- except! I have a spare handheld mic in my bag for the occasional guest singer, and once Warren fetched a mic stand out of his car, and we were back up (though drum-less -- too much for my little brain to try to work the drum and a strange mic setup at the same time). And a good thing we figured out a way to keep going, too, 'cuz it was just starting to get interesting!
We had a big batch of Woo Girls come by -- perfectly timed as I was running through their National Anthem, "Sweet Caroline". Sadly, they were gone as quickly as they came -- my "place" has a great band, but without a liquor license...
But the unforeseen problem with using a boom mic (versus my head-mounted one) is that crazy people (or drunk ones) assume that they can come on up and take over the singing chores. It's disruptive, and hardly ever works out well (since drunk people tend to sing as well as they walk), but it's fun if it doesn't go too far.
Anyway, it was a crazy, long, fun, night. But finally at a little after 2, when the streets were nearly empty again, the new amp battery ran out and gave me permission to go on home.
Apparently the owner likes my stuff 'cuz when she had a cancellation, she called me to fill in. That's a good sign, right?
This was my third time here, and it went even better than before. With familiarity, the sound setup was much better (less feedback). And with increased confidence, I can let my guard down a little and actually play.
They've apparently embraced my Song List passout idea now -- I heard one of the guys telling some customers that I was a "human jukebox" and for them to request some songs from the list (along with making lame jokes about Black Sabbath songs, etc.). And the owner was encouraging people at the far-away bar to make requests, and shuttling them up to me by coming over and pointing at a song on the list while I was still in the middle of the previous song. She apparently doesn't realize how hard it is to read, process, and remember the name of a next song while continuing to sing the words of the current one, but I managed. And it's so cute that she's helping out like that.
My neighbors from up the hill evidently had fun last time 'cuz they came by again. And my brother came too, so I introduced them so he wouldn't have to sit there by himself.
Anyway, it went really well -- knowing that the owner and staff like my stuff and my methods made me able to be more bold about asking people to make requests, which causes more involvement, and gets the party going. Having my neighbors and brother there helped, too.
So I was getting requests several deep from all corners, including notes carried over from the bar. A lot of couples there were on pre-Valentine's dates, and at one point a lady was looking for something appropriate. I recommended "Wonderful Tonight", which she immediately approved and she and her husband, and the couple that were with them, both got up and danced in the tiny space between tables. Added fun: toward the end, the twenty-something staff guy started making "out of the box" requests -- "Watching the Detectives", "Whiter Shade of Pale" and such.
I already had one more gig booked there, but since it's going so well, I went ahead and asked the owner if she wanted to schedule some more, and she set me up for two more gigs beyond that, so I'll be there every other Friday for the next six weeks. And she asked if she could call if/when she gets any cancellations, too. Absolutely!
