The lady who books me for the city's Santa's Workshop gigs asked me to play at the annual "Arts Alive Festival" (formerly known as The Chalk Festival). There are 68 chalk artists doing street paintings as you watch, and a bunch of booths with arts and crafts kind of stuff for sale.
They put up a nice big stage, right at the entrance -- but I wasn't on that one. That was reserved for weird stage bands and amateur jazz combos. Not sure why they always almost vindictively book music nobody wants to hear, but there you go.
Nope, I was on "The Little Stage", in the back corner as far away from that one as possible. Which is smart, sound-interference-wise, except that they'd set up big wireless speakers broadcasting the Big Stage bands Way Too Loud everywhere around the festival. Fortunately, the speaker nearest me had a volume knob on the back and was poorly supervised...
When she asked me to play, I said that I only had two requirements: AC power for the amp, and shade. And of course, when I got there, there was neither. The shade thing wasn't really her fault -- the night before was a freak windstorm that blew away and broke all the Easy-Ups they had installed. What was left of them were collapsed over by the building, so I snagged one of them and set it up by myself (no easy feat) to find it only had one broken and mostly non-essential strut.
And there was power coming from a distribution box out on the grass, but there were no free plugs on it. I negotiated an extension cord away from a nearby booth that had snagged two lines, and I was up and running. Good thing I always show up plenty early for a new-venue gig.
The windstorm presaged Santa Ana conditions, which meant it was *hot*. The Easy-Up provides shade, but it seems like the canvas itself gets so hot in the sun that it becomes a radiator of heat in its own right.
But it was fun, plenty of kids to play for, and people were friendly and generous with their praise and tips. Not willing to stand in the 90-degree heat very long of course, but the little patch of shade across from me was almost always occupied -- hopefully as much because of the music as the shade. Maybe it was just that my recognizable stuff was more agreeable than the annoying jazz band stuff coming from the other side...
All of the people on the Mission Viejo Activities Committee came by over the two days, and each of them said something about "I didn't know you did non-Christmas songs!" All I could do was point out, "You know, there *are* eleven other months..."
And fortunately, the artists and vendors that were stuck listening to me all day long seemed OK with it. Many of them came over to request songs. Some college kids a few squares over were hooting and hollering after some of the songs and came over to claim that I was what was keeping them motivated and buy a CD. One vendor lady came over to thank me for being there and the "great songs", and put a twenty in the jar to show her sincerity. Even the kids in the Kettle Corn booth next door gave me a free bag at the end of the day, so they must not have been too annoyed.
I sold lots of CDs, gave away lots of business cards, and it was my first chance to use the vinyl banner reproduction of the cards that they threw in for only $16 when I reordered a while ago. So maybe I'll get a party gig or two...? Nah...
Finally, nice weather and lots of people out. Spring has sprung.
But not at first. I got there early again, and for the first couple of hours it was mostly grumpy old foreigners on the bench. Am I disturbing your grump-fest with my happy songs?
But after it got dark, it weirdly swung all the way the other way. Lots of people came by, and stayed for lots of songs, and attracted more people to stop -- it felt like the old days. And just in time, too -- with as good as Dana Point has been, and with the uncertainty of even getting The Corner to play, bums, cops' curfew, and general passer-by indifference, I was beginning to wonder if Laguna was even worth the trouble.
But it certainly was this time. I had several kids' parties with "Let It Go" singalong, and there was no wind at all so I was able to fire up the bubble machine without making too big a mess.
Inexplicably (and happily), no bums -- except Willy who was sober and on his best behavior. Warren had some friends over so he got there very late (~8:30?) which conspired with the big friendly crowds to encourage me to break the curfew, so we played until 10:00. And got away with it. Warren's theory is that, since universally-despised Sanchez and his too-loud droning guitar has given up entirely, the cops are backing off on enforcing the curfew. Hope so!
You'd'a thought that a Saturday a week in front of Easter would be a "good one", but it was freakishly windy in the daytime, and freezing-cold windy once the sun set. It was pretty hard to get anybody to sit for a song or two.
So it was a pretty slow night, and that was reflected in the worst-in-a-while tip jar results. Good thing we're not in it for the money...
The guy who runs the annual "Fête de la Musique" street music festival came by and whined at me about having to miss it this year (due to a nephew's wedding). That's flattering, but it's actually not a very good gig anyway. I'm gonna miss the night-before musician's party more than the festival itself.
Anyway, it can only get warmer and better from here.
