K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 11Mar2017

Despite playing long hours at the Dana Point Whale Festival on both Saturday and Sunday, it was "our turn" on The Corner in Laguna, and I can't pass that up. So I quit Dana Point at 4:00, drove through some fast food and up the coast to play some more.

Traffic was terrible getting there, but I got lucky with parking and The Corner was empty when I rolled up. I set up and tried to play, but my amp was all but dead -- and I knew exactly what was wrong. Earlier in the week, I had opened it up to replace the dead battery inside, and, by the symptom, I'd clearly knocked one of the wires to the speaker loose while I was in there. Fortunately, the guy in the ice cream store had a screwdriver I could borrow, so a field-strip right there on The Corner later, I was up and running again by 6:00.

It was strangely foggy down there, and still not a lot of foot traffic (but why were there so many cars?!?). Unfortunately, the bums were out in force. I don't know where they spend the winter, but they're apparently back. When I started playing, I could have thrown eight rocks and hit eight bums. Including good ol' Josh, who sits at the side bench mumble-chanting "Aloha, aloha!" and holding up his Legalize Marijuana signs. Somebody should really tell him that he's won that one and can go on home...

Warren had a guest visiting from Back East, so I was solo for the first two hours until he showed up with the wife and guest in tow. I tried to play songs that would let him show off a bit for his friend, balanced against the not-so-showy tunes requested by other people and his wife.

And my Vietnamese superfans, Christopher and Phuong, showed up again after an almost two-year absence. They had apparently come by last week looking for me, and Tom told them to try next week. So they did -- such dedication! I tried to play new songs that they hadn't heard before, but Phuong kept requesting classics from the CDs. They're such fans that they always ask if I have any new CDs, which is fair, since I recorded the "Favorites" one six years ago...