Keith at the Fête de la Musique -- Saturday, 18June2016

This actually turned into three events this time. There's a party the night before, the Fête itself, and I played at the reception after the Fête. In order:

The party is always at a mansion up on the cliff overlooking the city and ocean. All the musicians are invited, and the members of the Sister Cities Association that puts on the Fête. Some of the performers play at the party, and the talent recruiter, Ken, always asks me to. The first year I came to the party, the sound system was terrible, so last year I brought my own. This year I told Ken I'd be bringing my own stuff and he swore that I didn't need to because another group (gypsy music) was bringing theirs, and it's a good one. It wasn't. Yes, partial fault of the loud and boomy room, but I did a lot better with my own stuff last year -- and I won't fall for it next year, neither.

The performers stand against the all-glass wall, with paper shades blocking the blaring sun. But as I was playing, the sun was finally setting, and the owner opened the motorized shades so people could watch it. While the little motors were grinding away, I quickly fired up the guitar parts of "Here Comes the Sun", which everyone recognized as Pretty Clever. But then they turned on me when the shade opening was done and I quit playing it. Sorry folks -- it's a great song of course, but I only have time for 5 or 6 songs, and it's regrettably not one of my best.

Inexplicably, I spent most of the night hanging out with the youngest people there, a 5-piece R&B (!) band called "Caramelle". The singer just graduated from high school, and the rest are early collegians. Nice bunch of kids. A subset got up and did a few songs, including their trademark mashup of "I Will Survive" and "Fly Me to the Moon". Very clever.

This was my fifth year at the Fête, and I was at the same spot in front of Johnny Rockets. We're having a heat wave, so there were lots of people out for the beach, but it was more fun than last year because this time they seemed to be more willing to stop and listen for a while. Several couples that were at the party came by to hear a bit more, which was flattering. One Russian guy straight out of a John Landis comedy stopped and made his wife endure several songs before she was able to drag him away.

Two years ago, I just moved from "my spot" to The Corner after the Fête was over and played some more. But this year, Tom let us know that he was going to bogart The Corner, again, so I had an idea: I asked the Sister Cities lady to ask the restaurant if it would be OK for me to play during their after-Fête reception. I figured it could be a back-door audition to maybe play there for real, or at least more opportunity to see if these Laguna Beach society people might know of any coffee shops or wine bars or even just private parties that I could play at.

And that may have worked, a little. But the playing itself fell squarely into "Be careful what you wish for" territory. It was *really* loud in there, with the live room and all the people having their party -- which is fine, but it's no fun to stand at the edge and play into.

Afterwards, my friend made a point of introducing me to the Manager and General Manager, and they both smiled and nodded and made "Yes, yes, very nice" noises, but clearly they have no intention of dislodging George who's been playing there for, literally, 20 years.

But you know what? You're welcome to it, George. That doesn't look like any fun to me at all, and I'm glad to have it out of my system.