Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 30Nov2009

I usually only play at the Spectrum on Saturdays, but this Saturday was Halloween. Since I like to play somewhere at least once per weekend, at the last minute I asked the Spectrum people if I could play on Friday instead. I appear to be the only sucker they have playing in the Food Court these days, so I got it.

I got there a little late, 'cuz it's hard to get there at 5:30 on a work day, but nobody was exactly there waiting for me -- there were literally 2 people in the whole outdoor area. I expected it to be lighter than on a Saturday, but not *this* light. More people eventually showed up, but it stayed pretty quiet. I figured it was a lesson well learned -- stick to Saturdays.

Still, it was pretty fun. I had some people listening most of the time, and the usual packs of roving teens. At one point, a small group showed up and a girl was on a "dare hunt" of some kind, and needed to come up and sing a song. Fine with me -- what have *I* got to lose? She turned out to be even worse than she'd claimed, completely tone and rhythm-deaf on "Yesterday" (even with me singing in her ear), so I shut it down after two verses.

Then another girl (from a different roving pack) decided that she wanted to sing too, and did almost as badly on (a similarly-shortened) "Hey There Delilah". I was surprised because usually people with the guts to get up have a little talent to back it up.

I wore my "Shaun of the Dead" costume, which consists mainly of a short-sleeved white shirt, a red tie, and a red nametag (sorry no pictures -- I forgot the camera), which had gone over big-time at OCHSA earlier, but it's a bit subtle and obscure and nobody seemed to recognize it with a guitar in front of it. Admittedly, you've either seen that movie or you haven't -- but I ended up asking a few people directly if they'd seen it, and once reminded of the movie, they suddenly understood that I was wearing the costume. Not nearly as satisfying as having someone recognize it spontaneously -- and a bit painful to think that everyone else just figured that that outfit was just how big a geek I was...

I also brought some little Tootsie Rolls to give away, but since my hands are both busy most of the time, didn't really get a chance to do so much. And it turns out that throwing little candies at people in the semi-darkness doesn't work very well, either.

I had worked up "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (again) for the occasion, and played it a few times, with the harmony box chiming in on the "Yip-ee-i-ay" parts. Sounded really cool.

There was a group of teenage Asian kids who brought their dinner out and inexplicably sat at an up-front table. They were studiously-too-cool to acknowledge me, and ate and smoked and talked for a long time without so much as looking up. But apparently they were listening closer than they pretended to be, 'cuz when someone else took me up on my offer to play requests from the song lists available on the table, one of the girls couldn't help herself, got a list, and started requesting songs -- which they ended up staying around quite a while for. It's pretty satisfying when you can visibly turn some people around.

And towards the end, I had a 20-something couple come by who were *really* into it, for no apparent reason. They sat for a long time, asked for several songs, refused to ask for more ("All your stuff is great -- play whatever you want!"), and clapped and "Whoo-ed" at the end of any and everything. Then some teens came by and dragged some chairs around to form a "front row", and they were asking for stuff (and, typically, not listening to the songs they asked for), but being enthusiastic in between songs. Between them, they made my night.

It seemed like there wasn't very many people there, so I wasn't expecting much in the tip jar, but it totaled $85! The really odd part (and, I guess, explanation) is that there was a twenty, 3 fives, and 3 sets of 5 ones folded together. That means that I made the first $50 off of only 7 generous people -- without selling a single CD, or even noticing anyone who seemed particularly (twenty-bucks' worth) entranced.

It's becoming pretty obvious that people tip a single guy more (sometimes a lot more) than a "band" (even of only 2). I'm obviously basing that on a very limited data-set, but I certainly don't think that "we" (when Warren's there) sound worse than "I" do, and the set list and "performance" is nearly identical. I can only guess that people feel either (a) sorry for, or (b) more personally connected to, a single guy standing there playing. Not that I want Warren to stop coming -- I'm not in this for the money -- but it's an interesting bit of psychology.

We're really rockin' now!

We've been having way too much fun with "The Beatles: Rock Band" since I got it for my birthday. And spending way too much money on it, too. I "invested" my unexpected windfall tips of two weeks ago on a set of drums and the optional cymbal kit, which arrived yesterday.

We played with it for a little while without the cymbals, and all three girls are better at it, from the get-go, than I am. But I'm getting the hang of it. And once I added the cymbals (which really just substitute for the pads, but are more "realistically" placed), it's really fun. You really do feel like a drummer, especially when there's a recognizable "pa-dum-dum, pish!" sequence that you nail.

Anyway, Daleen won't play guitar or sing, but she seems to like the drumming, so we may have ourselves a four-part family band going, with drums, guitar, bass, and a singer. Pretty cool!

K&W at Irvine Spectrum - 24Oct2009

Well, not nearly as great as last week, but still better than sitting at home...

It was a bit colder at first, moving to way colder at the end, and there weren't as many people out, and far fewer children. We got some packs of teenagers, including a big group that had just come from their Homecoming Dance -- the girls in their tiny slinky dresses, and the boys in ties but with their shirt-tails out, as is the style.

I learned the 80's power-ballad "Don't Stop Believing" a while ago, thinking that since it was prominently featured in the pilot episode of "Glee", and a bunch of the kids on our cruise knew (and karaoke-ed) it, that it might go over. Suddenly it's my biggest hit! The teenage kids ask for it every time, and since we get various roving packs of kids, we did it at least 4, maybe 5, times.

One pair of 15-ish girls wanted to sing along with it, and one boldly asked if she sang the song with me, could she have one of the tip-dollars. I said, sure -- I'm willing to support anything out of the ordinary these days. She started out OK, but got distracted and they were both gone before the end of the song! Without her dollar! That's some short attention span! I guess she remembered later on, 'cuz after a while they did reappear so she could claim her "earnings". (I should have told her she could only have 50 cents, 'cuz she only sang half a song, but I didn't want to get into that. I'm guessing it's best not to get all "Papa Don't Preach" on your audience...)

Her friend started singing along this time, so I told her to get on up on the stage and sing, which she did, but she was too busy texting to keep up with the song. Dude, really?!? You can't put down the phone until the end of the song?!? Kids these days...

Anyway, the other unexpected Big Hit is "Hey Jude", which I would never have expected to even "work" with just me and a guitar (and, occasionally, Warren), but it does, and gets requested a lot. I think we did that one 4 times, too. It gets asked-for by people of all ages, not just the teens.

The new songs of the week were Heart's "Alone" and Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", both taken from recent episodes of "Glee". "Alone" went pretty badly, but I'm just learning it, so it might be OK once I get "my arrangement" figured out. "Sweet Caroline" was a little better, but to make the low, low note singable, I had to make the high notes pretty darn high -- in fact, technically out of my range. But with a few hours of warm up, I hit 'em OK, so maybe that one will work better over time, too. I do get asked for Neil Diamond songs from time to time, so it'll be good to have that one on the list, if it works out.

The night started off pretty slow, with really terrible sound (especially with the second speaker accidentally not-plugged-in). It's quite a bit more confusing and difficult to get anything to sound right when Warren's there -- I don't know how they do it when there are even more guys and instruments. (I suppose to start with, they have Sound Men, and better equipment...) It's probably just me -- I learn those songs by myself, and by the time I drag 'em out "in concert", I've heard them a few zillion times with just my voice and guitar, so when Warren layers on his stuff, it sounds suddenly very complex to me, and the sounds I'm used to hearing are lost in the mix.

Anyway, I managed to defeat most of the feedback and get some acceptable tone dialed in eventually. For some reason, there's usually a big(ger) crowd that shows up at 8:30 or 9, so it gets better/funner then, but it was dead again by 10:00, so we quit on-time for once.

Only made $40 in tips this time (or 41 minus 1, I guess) -- quite a drop from the $110 last week. I hope the attendance isn't going to be this bad all the way through winter...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 17Oct2009

OK, wait. A hundred and ten bucks?!? In tips?!?

A whole lot of ones -- I can understand that. But 4 fives -- OK, we get those sometimes. But a ten? And a *twenty?*?!? Who puts in a twenty?

And what was I doing right?!?

It was a *really* nice night, especially after how unseasonably hot it had been all day. But the evening was just perfect, and there were a *lot* of people out. There were a few stretches with nobody really listening, but most of the time I had someone at least partly interested. Started off really well (and there's nothing better (and rarer) than a good start), with a group of 6 or 7 teen girls who were there already when I was setting up, so I handed them a song list before I started, and they asked for several songs before they left.

The rest of the night went pretty much as usual, except there was this stint in the middle where a bunch of little kids were coming up with dollars to stuff into the jar. It had apparently become some kind of instant fad, 'cuz they just kept coming, sometimes the same kid more than once. (What dad gives the kid another and another dollar to feed the jar with? Apparently much better dads than me...) That clearly contributed to the world-record tip total, but I didn't do anything to actually cause it. I wasn't even playing kids' songs at the time, 'cuz all these kids were way in the back and sides, and didn't appear to be part of the action. Shows what *I* know...

Had a tiny little dancer for a while at the beginning. Probably 4 years old, she kept coming up and giving me those classic little-kids' most-important-word-missing sentences: "I got a mmsumgm at home!" "A what?" "A mmsumgm." "Um, sounds nice (I guess)", and "How come you got a thaslmumm? "Um... because?"

Had a guy watching from the close-by planter-box bench, for a long time. I assumed he was waiting for something or someone, but after an hour or more, he finally got up, put some money in the jar, and went and sat back down. After another half hour or so, he got up again, and left. Musta just been enjoying the music, I guess.

Anyway, I was singing good, and playing good, and hitting the foot button on the harmony box with halfway decent accuracy, so I think I may have gotten some good video. Nothing much more to report, but...

A hundred and ten bucks?!?

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 16Oct2009

A really good night, because of the really good audience (for once). Usually we play to a lot of disinterested people, but this time we had a several people right up front, really listening. It makes a big difference. Having somebody to play for sharpens up our game, and ropes in more people, and round and round -- hopefully, anyway.

My brother came by, which is always nice because I trust his judgement of whether a song is working, or even worth pursuing. I've been working on several songs lately that I wanted him to hear. I even sent him a message on my way to the gig telling him that we'd be there -- which is way I wasn't completely surprised when he walked in, though he hadn't actually gotten that message...

I guess most of the new songs were working pretty well, though I'm pretty sure it's time to give up on "Africa", at least for indoor venues, and until I've practiced it quite a bit more. On the other hand, I'm really liking the way "Lucy in the Sky" works in my arrangement and key.

We had a little family with a toddler early on, and my brother and a young guy who seemed completely into our stuff later. And towards the end, there was a pretty lady who was looking around for a place to sit with her coffee, so I gave her my usual joke of, "There's no extra charge for the comfy seats up front" and she actually took me up on it. Turns out she was Australian, and really got into the music, asking for several songs and apparently staying quite a bit later than she'd intended.

We made $32 to split, which was quite a lot for this place. Not sure how that happened -- I didn't see many people coming over to contribute...

I had my movie camera all set up, but never managed to actually fire it up. I usually wait a while at the beginning 'cuz there's no point in capturing the early not-warmed-up yet songs, and then we were being "accompanied" by the happy little baby, so those takes wouldn't have been much good, either. And then I just kind of let it go -- maybe 'cuz it's nice to play without that pressure for a while.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 10Oct2009

Another great night at Spectrum -- not as good as two weeks ago, but close. Pretty good sound (considering), quite a few sympathetic listeners, and some outright "fans".

It started inauspiciously -- when I got there, the food court was literally empty, not a single person at the tables. It was chilly (compared to previous weeks), and I thought that nobody would show up at all. But as it got darker, it didn't get colder, and the temp seemed appropriate to nighttime activities, and people *did* start to show up.

I played to some indifference at first, as always, but much of the time there was at least someone to play to. And later on, a couple of groups of teens showed up that were open to some fun. I played their requests for a while, then went for my show-stopper, "Don't Stop Believing". When I hit that last "Don't Stop!" and cut off suddenly, they burst into spontaneous "Whooo!"s, shown above. Then we went into "Hey Jude" (by request), and I got some actual participation on the "Na na na na" part at the end. I think it helps that I've been kicking on the harmony box after the first Na na, which I think sounds like people are joining in, and convinces others to do so.

I tried out my newly-worked-up "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" again (now that I can play it a little better). It's surprising to me that such a distinctive song sounds OK in my simplified acoustic guitar version. I expected it to flop horribly, but it actually sounds good to me. Check it out on YouTube, here. I love the little trill that the harmony box does on the very last "Ah!".

Conversely, "If You Want To Sing Out", which I can play and sing really close to the original, just kind of lays there in concert. You just never know...

I made $40.40 for the night, plus a single piece of Korean candy, carefully and somehow-significantly laid in front of the tip jar by a cute apparently-Korean girl. I'm not sure of the customs there -- if I eat it, are we married?

Trailmate Camping at Oso Lake - Oct 2009

We had a Trailmates campout at Oso Lake over the weekend. It's a kinda lame campground whose best characteristic is that it's incredibly close -- about 10 minutes from home. But we have fun hanging with our friends, regardless of what else is going on.

There's a "lake", of course, but it's really a reservoir for reclaimed water, so there's no swimming, and we don't fish. (The guys that do fish didn't catch anything anyway.) We could have gone out and paddled around in a canoe, but, for some reason, the girls didn't want to -- sounded boring, I guess.

The camp is owned and run by the boy scouts, so there are "badge earning" activities that we could do: archery, BB guns, slingshots, and tomahawks. We've done the first three before, here two years ago and also at other places, but we'd never tried tomahawks before. But because it's run by the Boy Scouts, their program is designed to impart as much Safety as possible, by extracting out all the Fun. The kid they had running the tomahawk area was apparently a zombie (he sure had the "shamble" down), and worked under the philosophy that the slower he moved, the fewer tomahawks would be thrown, leaving fewer chances for anyone to get hurt. Or have any fun.

On Friday night I set up all the equipment so we could have a movie, but this time I also brought along our Wii, 'cuz I'd gotten "Beatles Rock Band" for my birthday the day before. There weren't many girls there, 'cuz most of them went out for dinner, but we had some fun playing that for a while, and then we watched "Across the Universe", a movie based around a bunch of Beatles songs. Kind of a theme going, there.

On Saturday night we had our "Trailmate Talent Show", which of course failed pretty miserably since none of the girls knew about it, nor would any of them have wanted to demonstrate their talent even if they had. But I managed to get several of them to come up and tell jokes into the microphone, and Geneva and Acacia played their Canon, and Geneva and I played "Ashokan Farewell". Then, since there wasn't anything else, I played for a while: "Waltzing With Bears", "Lollipop Tree", etc. It was great fun for me -- the kids are enthusiastic, and most of the dads seem to enjoy it. The sound was good out there in the quiet, and I was singing quite well. But it was getting cold, so people started to adjourn to the campfire, and I quit before I was all alone out there.

So all in all, a pretty good, if low-key, campout.

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Sept2009

Well, no repeat of last week's magic. All the knobs should have been set the same, but the sound was strange and harsh, and I couldn't get into it like last time. Halfway through, my guitar started getting distorted, and I remembered some strange sounds coming and going toward the end last time, and was thinking that the amp was going bad. (I had even brought along the Trailmates amp as a spare, just in case mine completely went out.) But Warren thought it might be the battery that's mounted up inside my guitar to power the pickup's pre-amp (which I'd completely forgotten about, and would never have thought of), and once I'd swapped that, it was all good again. And a good thing, too -- sending the amp in for (no) repair would have been a lot of trouble... Thanks, Warren!

But even when it was working, I still couldn't seem to get the sound right, and messed with it most of the night, trying to. Part of it is that the whole thing is more "complex" when Warren is there, and since we swapped the amp channels around (because of the harmony box), he's been able to be louder, and is doing so, which is throwing me some, too. But toward the end of the night, it seemed to finally get somewhere close to reasonable so I could focus on the music, and not only the sound thereof.

We didn't get a lot of response for most of the night, but finally a pair of women came and sat for a while. They both had little dogs, and one had brought her mother, too. We finally convinced them to have a look at the song list and pick a few. Oddly, there seemed to be far fewer roving packs of teens this time.

I did bring a few new songs, and with nobody listening, had ample time to try them out. I get asked for John Denver songs, and "Leaving on a Jet Plane" specifically from time to time, and since it appeared in the new hit (with geeks) TV show "Glee", I thought I ought to finally work it up. Not that it's very complicated, with its three chords. It took longer to type it than to learn it. Anyway, I thought it went OK, despite its extreme cheesiness.

I also tried out Neil Young's "Helpless", to see how the harmony box would work for the chorus. It did seem to work, but I'm not sure it's a song people really want to hear much. Seemed to be fun for Warren, though.

The third try-out was "Father and Son", which went just about as badly as I'd expected it to. The "son" verses are sung an octave above the "father" ones. At home, I can hit the low notes of the father part, but the son's high notes are pretty screechy. Once I'm on stage, my range slides up a step or two, making the low notes out of reach on the bottom, and the high notes, well, not quite as screechy. I guess I'll leave it in the book, but it'll only work on nights when my voice is working extraordinarily well.

I tried to remember to "accidentally mention" the CDs for sale, but since nobody was really listening, there was no one to mention it to. So we only sold one, to one of the dog ladies, for her grandson. Made $38 overall -- pretty low for this place, but not bad. Heck, that's nearly five bucks an hour, for each of us! Good thing we're not in it for the money...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum Center -- 19Sept2009

I was a bit worried that having two gigs in a row would only serve to show me how old I'm getting by crippling my knees and trashing my throat -- but I did OK. More than OK -- it was as if the previous night's performance was just a warmup to this one. I was singing better (and higher) than in a long time, the whole four hours. I was also somehow mentally sharper than I'm used to being -- the songs seemed easier to play than usual, and the extra apparent bandwidth let me do things that I'm usually to "busy" to attempt. I think I was just a lot more relaxed than usual, and that "throw it to the wind" feeling is amazing.

So I had a blast, feeling "invincible" somehow, even though I played to abject silence most of the night. There were plenty of people out there, and there were an occasional few that seemed to be listening, but there was scarce little interaction (clapping, requesting, etc.) But I didn't mind, oddly enough -- the sound was inexplicably clean for this notoriously noisy outdoor venue, and I was having fun just playing for myself.

I did have some little first-grade dancers for a while, but their parents were too busy with some kind of big get-together to pay much attention themselves. I played "Here Comes My Baby" and dragged out the "Twist and Shout / La Bamba" medley again. Much later I discovered that they were Spanish speakers -- I hope my accent on "La Bamba" isn't too atrocious.

But finally, after almost three and a half hours of near-total apathy, four high-school kids showed up and (re)made my night. It was just a shame that they showed up so late. I told them that I didn't have much time left, but we could play until the guys showed up to chase me out of there. They sat down and listened for a while, and then asked if I knew "any *popular* songs". I was taken aback by this sudden turn, until they clarified that they had said "Bob Dylan" not "popular". Whew!

I said that, yes, I knew "Don't Think Twice", and one of the girls said "Oh! That's my favorite song ever!", to which I said (without thinking), "Then get up here and sing it with me." She (Brianna) was flustered, but came on up and sang along, quietly, even when I leaned over so she could sing into the mic. Not choir kids, then.

So I did several songs they wanted, and while they were thinking about what to ask for next, I launched into "Don't Stop Believing", which they totally dug, and which also roped in another set of high-schoolers who were hanging out farther back, out of range. This Party was definitely Started. Unfortunately, it was getting pretty far after 10:00, but Brianna asked, at exactly the right time, for "Golden Slumbers", which wrapped it up just as the maintenance guys appeared.

(Half and hour later, as I was walking out with my guitar on my back and the amp in tow, some of the further-back girls sang out "Just a small town girl..." (from "Don't Stop Believing") at me from across the patio. Nice.)

An odd but maybe not surprising thing happened halfway through the evening. A kid, maybe 15, came up and asked how much the CDs were. I told him "Whatever you want to put in the jar", but pointed out (on mic, since it's stuck to my head) that the ones on the left are for kids, and the ones on the right are for grownups. He thought about that for a while, and took a grownup one. 10 minutes later he was back to apologize and swap it for a kids' one -- apparently he doesn't know right from left yet. But the more remarkable thing is that, clearly because of the accidental "announcement", other people started coming up to see what this was all about, and ended up buying out all the kids' CDs (OK, there were only three of them -- but I've been carrying those three around for months without selling them). I even had someone ask me if I had any more -- but they looked familiar so I told them that I'd get some more for next week, and that seemed OK with them.

I've been under the (apparently quite wrong) impression that if people can see me, they can see the table and sign, but I guess that's overly optimistic. I'll have to try to mention the CDs earlier in the night, perhaps as an "educational" announcement like this accidental one was, so that people know about them. Sales will undoubtedly go up, if this was any indication. There is a rule against "aggressive solicitation", and another about "You may not direct attention to the tip jar before, during, or after your performance", so I'll have to be careful, but I'm probably not the "aggressive solicitation" type. Maybe an unobtrusive solution is just to mention that "this song is on our CD" when I'm introducing them.

Anyway, I had a great time for some reason, and my knees were OK, and my voice was OK, and I made 47 bucks. You shoulda been there...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Sept2009

Another nice but quiet night at South Coast Plaza. The highlight was the arrival of a family with a 9-year-old boy who had a wild variety of requests: Al Di Meola, "House of the Rising Sun", and the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes". He's been learning guitar himself, and these reflect what he's heard and is learning. (That's him in the bottom right corner of Warren's picture, playing "air chords".) I've played through that last one before, and half-remembered some of the chords, but even with the kid's help, couldn't get through much of it. He settled for "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "You've Got a Friend in Me", though, and his dad asked for more usual (and on-the-list) stuff, like "Old Man" and "Bus Stop".

The sound was, as always, clear and clean, helped by my trying out (at Warren's suggestion) a different (and far less obtrusive) "effect" setting on the Harmony Box. I thought the harmonies themselves were working pretty well -- partly because I've abandoned using it at all on some songs. I killed some of them because the box can't track my fancy guitar work and sings "mistakes", and others because the original recording's harmonies run *below* the melody, which was fine when the melody was up pretty high (like in Beatles songs), but since I've had to transpose them down, those lower-harmonies are more like bass lines and sound terrible. But all of these songs were do-able before I had the harmony box, so I can go back, no problem. I haven't yet started working up the harmony-required songs that I couldn't touch pre-box. Except "Cinnamon Girl", which I've been dying to play, but sounded weak without the harmony. It may not work *with* it either, but...

Later on, a nice older lady that we've seen several times before (she calls us "Sweetie") came in, and asked if I knew any songs from the 40's. Oddly, I have more from the 30's, but I played all I had of both.

Anyway, it was pleasant, and we made ten bucks each, which is quite a lot for this place.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12Sept2009

It was quite a bit cooler than last week, so I expected more people to be out, but it was actually even worse. It was like "Borders Night" -- I played to dead silence most of the time.

Started off interestingly, though -- a little boy, maybe 7, named, apparently, Solomon, came right up while I was setting up the equipment and asked if he could sing a song. I said, "Sure, go ahead". Of course, he wanted to have a microphone, not just stand there singing, so I got the head-mic connected and put it on his head, and told him to go for it. But that wasn't good enough, either -- he wanted "music", too. I asked him what song he was gonna sing, but he didn't really know, but just wanted me to play anyway. So I set up the rest of the stuff and we started playing -- him singing something unintelligible and inaudible, and me quietly strumming a couple of chords at random. He really thought he knew what he was doing, and punctuated his singing with some vaguely karate-like stage "moves" -- and his mom was thrilled and taking movies on her camera.

We did four songs that way, but it was getting close to my actual start time, and I thought I'd better get started for real -- this was music only a mother could love. While he was waiting for me to set up he had told me that he was a "great singer, and actor, too", and that he'd been in movies, which turned out to be only the one, though he didn't know the name of it. That was actually semi-believable -- he was a darn cute little kid, and had enough "moxie" to have gotten into a movie as an extra.

The only problem was that his family (gramma and two sisters) stayed around for a long time having dinner and chatting, and he kept coming up and asking if he could sing another song. I had to keep telling him no, 'cuz, really, we'd all had plenty of it, I think.

I never really did get anything "going", though. About halfway through, three teenage boys came and were completely stoked, but they only stayed for a few (Beatle) songs. Their interest sparked a small spate of attention from some other diners, which apparently chased them off when they didn't get first crack at the requests, and which died out pretty quickly. They came back a while later, and asked me if I gave guitar lessons. I was flattered, but had to turn them down.

Geneva, Acacia and her friend came by, briefly, and I guess Geneva met some friends and went to a movie, and Acacia and her friend shopped, and came back by later on. That was nice, because I've recently learned "Come On, Get Higher", a new song that Acacia says is her favorite song ever, so I wanted to play it for her. Apparently acceptably, too. I also used her being there to try out "Don't Stop Believing" again, which went over well with lots of previously-dead-silent people, so I took a chance on "Africa" too, which, OK, not as much, though I played it a lot better than last week.

I took home a disappointing $31, though that's still, what, three times better than even a "good" Borders night, so I shouldn't complain.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 05Sept2009

I guess the heat (though it was quite nice in the evening) and the three-day weekend kept most of the people away. But I wasn't really at my best anyway, so maybe that's OK. I'm not sure why I go so brain-dead once I'm standing up there, but now, way too late, I'm pretty sure that the vocal enhancements (reverb, compression, etc.) in the harmony box were accidentally turned off the whole time. It sure sounds "flat" in the video, anyway, and I never did seem to Get Into it like I usually do. And half (or more) of what makes you feel like you're singing well is reverb – ask any karaoke fan (or don't -- I don't think they realize why they sound good (to themselves anyway) at the karaoke place (and the shower)). How I can be so clueless as to go the whole 4 hours without realizing it, is the mystery.

Anyway, I had only occasional groups tuned in, though towards the end the usual crowd of shy quiet listeners way in the back by the restaurant developed again. Maybe it's just too loud up front for the actual grown-ups...

A small group of young black kids sat down right at the front table, way too cool to acknowledge me, of course. So I played "Hey Ya", with no introduction. It was fun to watch the pretty girl in the middle as she started to realize that she knew those words from somewhere, then eventually catch on to what song it was, then whisper it to her friends.

Later on, a family was eating nearby and their little red-headed kindergartener was dancing to any and everything I played. So I started playing my most danceable stuff for her. Another mom dragged her even-smaller little boy over to dance too, and the adults in the area started to notice and watch them. She just danced and danced until I ran out of fast tunes, so I was obliged to drag out my "Twist and Shout / La Bamba" medley, though it's kind of embarrassing. It actually went over pretty well...

I had been learning two new songs all week -- the first one is "Come On Get Higher", which is a new song that I've been noticing from different directions, so I figured it might be popular enough that I could play it and a few of the younger people might know it. I played it twice, the first time when almost nobody was there, and then later on when I played it, a girl at the table behind me said "That was good!" right out loud. So I guess that one's a keeper.

The other new song is "Africa" by Toto. I'm not sure how that happened, but I was messing with the chords and they really sound great played on guitar, so I just kept hammering at it until I had something reasonable -- maybe. It's clearly not the kind of song I usually play, but the other Power Ballad I recently added (also maybe), "Don't Stop Believing" seems to amuse people, so...

I was shy about dragging it out, though, but at 9:45 I decided I had better try it anyway (although way too many people are out then), if only to satisfy my own curiosity of whether it's worth pursuing. It turned out to be way too low to sing, but the chorus is way too high. That's the problem with trying to sing songs that are sung by multiple guys by myself. I'd already capoed 2 -- I guess I'll have to go up another one and see if that works any better, 'cuz the song did seem to basically go over OK, even though I completely forgot to kick on the harmonies, and fumbled here and there. I'll keep practicing, and see how it works next week. If I can get it to where I can sing the low notes, and let the harmony box take the really high ones, it might work out.

I did clip two songs from the evening's video, and posted them at: http://www.youtube.com/user/y7alanzo Oddly, they're my only two medleys, the aforementioned "Twist and Shout / La Bamba", and "Over the Rainbow / When You Wish Upon a Star", which I did for another cute little girl who was staring at me from down front early on. Everybody says that they learned the guitar to impress girls -- I just thought I'd impress a few that were over 18...

I did OK though, even with the light crowd -- 57 bucks in the tip jar. Imagine what I could'a made with a little reverb...

Trailmates at Camp Surf, San Diego -- Aug2009

While Orange County was sweltering in a heat wave, the girls and I took off for our annual Trailmates trip to Camp Surf, an "all-inclusive" YMCA almost-resort, on the beach, 4 miles from the Mexican border.

We got there Friday evening, and went to our traditional Friday-evening restaurant with most of the other guys and girls, but they've added "Live Entertainment", in the form of a guy with a guitar. He was pretty good, and did several completely unexpected songs (like "Tainted Love"), and newer songs that I've never heard before. He played everything from memory, which impressed me, since I'm terrible at that. But his main problem was the sound of his guitar, which was one of those semi-hollow electric Fenders, but it sounded like a plastic Casper guitar.

When we got back to camp, I set up the projector and showed the movie "Silverado". Only about half the girls wanted to see a western, but the dads all liked it. It's long, though, so we were up 'til midnight.

After breakfast on Saturday, we went down to the beach, where Geneva surfed on the full-sized boards, and Acacia and friends went out on Boogie boards. The water was really cold (especially after Mazatlan 4 weeks ago), but we had wetsuits, so we were OK. They drag everybody out of the water for lunch, and afterwards the girls all crashed for a nap until the afternoon beach session.

Saturday night dinner was (as always) build-your-own Taco Bar. Then comes "Skit Night", where the camp counselors (college kids who serve as lifeguards, arts-and-crafts teachers, rock climbing and surf instructors, etc.) and the kids do skits for each other. Each of the groups that were there (us, a small Cub Scout group from Desert Hot Springs, and three Princess tribes out of Newport Beach) signed up to do a skit or two, and I usually sign up to sing some songs, too. I did "Waltzing With Bears" (of course), "Lollipop Tree", and "ended" the show with my Indian Princess-ified "Goodnight Irene". But when I finished it, all the Trailmates clamored for "The Indian Princess Song", so I guess I had an encore.

Of course, I had my new harmonizer box with me, and used it, sparingly, on each of the songs. It was especially welcome on "Goodnight Irene", which absolutely *begs* for a harmony line through the singalong chorus, and I've been wishing that somebody out there would find it, but nobody ever has. Finally, the box took care of it, to my great relief.

After the "show", we went back to our own campfire, and the girls got to singing some silly Girl Scout songs (Geneva ran one or two of those, quite well), and some of them were trying to sing pop songs, especially, for some reason, "Sweet Home Alabama". I thought it would be fun to jump in with my guitar , but as soon as I got back with the guitar, they started asking for lots of other songs. We had lots of Misses -- songs they'd suggest that I'm too old to know, and songs I'd suggest that they're too young to know -- but we found a few that they knew, and that I managed to fake, even without my Big Book: "Let It Be", "Hey, Jude", "Desperado", some others, and most fun of all, "Don't Stop Believing". And of course, ""Sweet Home Alabama" which none of us actually knew the verses to. It was really fun -- it just seemed like a weird campfire to do all those kinds of songs instead of, say, "Comin' 'Round the Mountain" and "Home on the Range". But it had been a long day, and by 11:30 everybody'd given up and gone to bed.

But between the guy playing at the restaurant on Friday, and these girls asking me for new hip songs, I'm somehow inspired to go learn some new stuff. I've been reticent because I couldn't figure out how to find recent songs that several people would know (the girls provided me with a list), and I was afraid to be "that old guy" playing "young" music. I'll remain sensitive to that, but I think learning a few new tunes might be worth a try.

On Sunday, we were glad that we'd done sufficient beach play the day before because an amazingly thick fog rolled in and they closed the beach because the lifeguards couldn't see the water from their towers. So we took it easy, did the crafts, and went home after lunch.

All in all, a great weekend.

K&W at Borders SCP - 21Aug2009

Another good time at South Coast. My voice was good, the sound was good, the Harmony box worked (pretty) good, and a good "crowd", of, mainly, two. I always pass out song lists before we start, to (a) give fair warning of what we're about to perpetrate, and (b) help people call out songs that we actually do know, as opposed to random stuff we don't.

This time, two older ladies actually took it to heart just the way I've always intended it -- they started right away commenting and cooing over this and that song on the list, and almost immediately moved to a closer table to listen better! They stayed tuned in, asking for songs and generally appreciating the music, and even moving even closer when a pair of comfy chairs opened up, and hanging out way past their expected "goin' home" time.

Of course, I wanted to try out the Harmony box, here where I can actually hear what it's doing, and was quite happy with it. I didn't mess with the "room" effects at all (though I should have), 'cuz the initial settings sounded pretty good just as they were. I proceeded sparingly with the harmonies, but nobody cried "foul" when I started using them, though one music-loving gent immediately sussed out what was going on, and how.

At one point, the ladies were whispering to each other and eyeing me suspiciously, and I thought that surely they were starting to wonder about where the "other singer" was coming from. (That, or my zipper was down...) I asked them directly if they had a question, but they were wondering if my guitar played without being plugged in (Huh?). I said that, sure, it works fine, and they seemed satisfied once they'd decided that it was "a six-string, then" (Double Huh?). They never mentioned the vocals, which possibly/hopefully confirms my theory that most people will just hear the harmony as "sweetener", not as some mysterious "other person".

As the night went on, I got bolder about employing the harmonies, and played songs where it was more and more integral/blatant. And despite his initial reservations, Warren didn't seem thrown or distressed by it. (An incidental big upside for him is that he gets to move to the more powerful amp channel, so he gets more headroom to get louder, or "cleaner".)

Towards the end, a nice lady who's seen us there several times before came by, and after a few songs, she asked "What's that reverb? It almost sounds like a harmony." Exactly!

I set up the movie cam and got some decent takes of the box in action. The "poster child" is the Everly Brothers' "Dream", and Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Teach Your Children" shows off the 3-part harmony really well. Check out any or all of:

Dream
Teach Your Children
The Boxer
Sweet Baby James
Southern Cross
Cinnamon Girl

"Sweet Baby James" is an example of judicious use of the harmonies, where they only come in occasionally (requiring me to kick the button accurately -- so far, not so easy). On the other hand, "Cinnamon Girl" is kind of botched up (I mixed up which part goes where, and undoubtedly confused Warren in the process), but it's still a good example of the harmony working well. It's also an example of the danger -- I'm liable to make all manner of other mistakes while I'm trying to work the box. Although in this case, it's no excuse, since it's an "On at the beginning, off at the end" song. I guess I can screw up a song without any help, after all...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15Aug2009

Mostly healed/cured up from my throat infection all week. I was a little scratchy, and tried to take it easy, avoiding the really high screechers. It helped that Warren wasn't there (he opted to join Jim on a streetcorner in Laguna instead), 'cuz I could play my capo-2 songs just without capo to put them down a bit, easing the burden on my voice. But about half-way through, I was warmed up enough to do the original keys again.

And it was my first time out with the new TC Helicon Harmony-G box, (which I'm thinking of naming "Harmione" -- get it?), which is basically a harmony-singing robot. It takes the mic and guitar as input, and, based on the guitar chord it's "hearing", it adds a cloned second (or third) voice track, pitch-shifted to an appropriate harmony note. It's simply amazing, and works really, really well for many songs, (though not so good for others, due mainly to misleading-ness in the guitar part).

I'll admit to having some trepidations about getting it in the first place -- first because it was unclear whether it could actually work at all, and second because it can certainly be seen as "cheating" in some way. But, the ends justify the means, and desire begats rationalization, so: (1) Very few people in the audience give you any points for "purity" -- they're just there for the music. I'm always hyper aware of *how* the music is being made, and am quick to detect "bogus" (i.e., taped or MIDI) tracks. But even then, I don't walk out -- I watch/appreciate the live human for the pieces he's contributing. Most of the bands on our cruise were using MIDI backup tracks, but nobody on the dance floor seemed to care. (2) When used sparingly (i.e., quietly) (which, admittedly, I can't promise I'll always do), most people won't recognize harmony as "another guy" -- they'll just hear it as "that guy's voice sounds really good". You get the same reaction with reverb (and compression, etc.). Which (3) (and I know this may be stretching it, but like I said, this is all just necessary rationalization), this is really only a (big maybe) step above. Reverb is supposed to be the sound bouncing off of walls, but, when there's no walls, the same effect is faked, at first with analog methods, and now, digitally. Which led to "digital delay", which sounds like a full-on echo, and is really a "cloned" track, played back a bit later in time. These harmonies are that, taken another step, and pitch altered, too.

OK, enough conscience-assuaging, how did it sound? I thought it was great. In fact, at times it sounded so cool that I could hear myself performing better in reaction to it -- like the way I perform better at SCP because of the great acoustics there. This whole pushing buttons with my feet thing is new, so I'm clumsy at it, but I got the hang of it from time to time, and only really blew up a song once.

The weirdest part was that, apparently because of my newfound sensitivity to harmony, there were times that I was hearing (hallucinating?) harmonies over my voice, even when the box was off. I had to keep checking the lights, but nope, it was off. That got me thinking that, if I could hear 'em in my head, that must mean that they'd sound good for real, so sometimes I'd take a risk and fire up the box on a line here and there of a song that I hadn't previously "marked" for harmony. And got a away with it, too. Pretty magical. Or mind altering. Or both.

Anyway, the whole first half was pretty dead, which was OK 'cuz it let me experiment with the box a bit. It also adds "effects" to the (even solo) voice -- essentially different kinds of reverb (big room, small room, echo, etc.). It changed "the sound" quite a bit at first, but I got it dialed in to sound "right" (or I adapted to it) after a while. By the half-way mark I was wondering where everybody'd gone, and thinking that I'd only had like three tips in the jar. But then it busted wide open -- it got dark, which seems to improve my mood, my sound, the "atmosphere", something. And people started to show up -- and stay a while. Had a big group in the back clapping loudly for 50's tunes. I couldn't see 'em way back there without my glasses, but they walked past me to drop in some tip money and say thanks, and turned out to be several middle-aged Asian couples. You just never know.

So I ended up with $67 in tips, and a great time. The box is a huge success as far as I'm concerned, and I've only scratched the surface -- adding harmony to my currently-deliberately-harmony-free set list means it's only used on some songs. Once I get good at it, I can add songs that I couldn't do before, because of their reliance on vocal harmony to "sound right". And it has advanced features that let it do songs that won't "work" with the predefined presets, so there's all that to investigate.

I guess I'm excited to have something else to play with/learn about. Until now, learning a song was all about learning the guitar part. Now, there'll be that, but there will also be a "how do the vocals work" component to figure out. More puzzles = more fun. And I daresay that I'll/we'll sound more like a "real band". The near-record tips seem to say that nobody was particularly put off by the "fakeness". I will have to try not to go overboard with it, though...

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 08Aug2009

I started the evening with a scratchy throat, and ended it with almost complete laryngitis. But it was a pretty fun night -- lots of people out, many of them friendly.

Had some teens that sat in for a long time -- the girls requested Disney tunes, and one of the guys was a big Cat Stevens fan, which had me dredging up all that I could find, including the recently revived but still unstable "Trouble". Warren's really fond if this one, though, so I guess I'll see if I can smooth out the rough spots in it with some practice.

It was also the first outing for Journey's 80's power ballad "Don't Stop Believing", which I'd'a never even considered but for its appearance in the new surprise-hit TV show pilot "Glee", and its evident popularity among the kids on our cruise a week ago. Works kinda OK as an acoustic number, and even better in Real Life, when I'm more liable to get to really pounding on my guitar than I am in the bedroom.

The second time through it, though, my throat was completely blown out (I should'a known better), and I had some pretty embarrassing cracks (to wild (ironic) applause from the teens) on the high note. Still, it's fast, loud, and fun -- something the act needs at times.

Oddly, despite the good response, it was pretty light, tip-wise. I still have no idea what makes a good or bad night in that regard. I haven't detected any kind of pattern at all. Guess I'll keep looking.

Harmony Box -- Do atheists get prayers answered?

On our cruise last week, I spent a bit of time watching a guy named Bruce play and sing in various places around the ship. He's from Memphis, and played the same kind of stuff that I do, though a lot more of it since he has to fill lots of time on those cruises. It's always interesting to see other "takes" on the songs I do, and to hear other songs that I might want to add.

Oddly, he played 12-string guitar, only. That's kind of rare. He also had more electronics than I do. One box was a "looper", where he could stomp a button to have it start recording the guitar chord "track" as he played and sang, say, the second verse of a song, and then he could play lead guitar over that track's playback as a third verse. He also had an effect pedal to give him some distortion or whatever to make the lead stand out. But the third box was the most fascinating.

I noticed that he had occasional vocal harmony backup, but there weren't any other people up there. It's possible to sing to a tape, but *really* hard to get the timing right and match the speed. I ran into him taking a break in one of the lounges late at night, and asked him how he got those harmonies. It's that third box -- an electronic harmonizer that duplicates your voice, modified (up or down) to a harmony note, based on the guitar chords that you're playing. This is, of course, genius, amazing, and I had no idea that such a thing existed, but there it was, turning only-child Bruce into the Everly Brothers.

It's also the answer to my main issue with my performances -- no vocal harmony. But even if I found someone that could/would sing with me, I'd have to make time to rehearse with him, and I couldn't learn new songs with abandon the way I currently do. This robot harmonizer will learn as fast as I do, know all the songs I already know (making the same mistakes I make), not be bored on songs that don't have/need any harmony, not complicate the gig scheduling, and no rehearsals required.

When I got to play "with" Bruce, he apparently had wired me through it, and reached over and kicked it on during the chorus of "Let It Be". Wow. Seems to work. Needs a lot more investigation of course, but, wow.

As soon as we got home, I looked it up, found one on eBay, and bought it. It's on its way, but it looks like it won't quite get here in time for Saturday's gig. But next week, look out.

Cruisin' to Mexico -- 7/26-8/2 2009

I'm not gonna try to document the whole week's vacation, but here are some impressions...

First off, for a country whose day and nightime temperature is always about two hundred, and whose humidity needs to be written in scientific notation, they have an alarming lack of Mountain Dew. 'Nuff said.

The ship is, frankly, astounding. I will give them that. I'm amazed at the audacity it took to decide to build something that big and that complex, and get away with it so well. But it comes off mainly as a Vegas hotel/casino with very low ceilings (much to the delight of the adolescent "Look! I can touch the ceiling!" boys).

And it's got gaudy on its gaudy. They apparently had decorators come in, and then had other decorators come in to decorate the decorations.

Anyway, the cruise takes you down to Puerto Vallarta for a day, then Mazatlan, then Cabo San Lucas. You can get off the boat and shop at the unique little shops to be found at each one:

Puerto Vallarta

Mazatlan

Cabo San Lucas

But, it turns out that I already have as many dirty joke and/or alcohol dependency T-shirts, brightly painted ceramic iguanas, serapes, pre-aged cowboy hats, hand carved running horses and fish, and, for that matter, blue diamonds and Rolex watches, as I need.

That's OK, we all had a really great time, on the boat and off. Nobody got sick, and there was always plenty to do, or not do.

The kids joined the 15-17 teen "club" (although Acacia's only 14), and hung out with the other teens most of the time -- dancing (or whatever) 'til 3, sleeping 'til noon. We're not normally the "set 'em loose" kinda parents, but they couldn't get lost or abducted, couldn't run out of money, and couldn't starve, so it seemed OK to just let 'em do their thing. We saw them every night at the mandatory 6:00 dinnertime, and ran into 'em occasionally around the boat, so we kept in touch, somewhat. And of course, they joined us for the shore trips.

Without 'em, we swam a little, relaxed a lot, saw some movies, watched the karaoke (I sang twice), and there was always musicians for me to go watch, scattered around the boat. To keep the band sizes (and pay) down, there's a lot of singing to MIDI tracks going on, but there was one guy (Bruce) that played (12-string) guitar, and sang over it, very similar to what I do, so he was the most interesting it watch.

I ran into him in one of the lounges, late one night on a break, and we got to talking about playing and audiences, repertoire, and such. After a while, he said, "Gee, it's too bad you don't have your guitar -- I'd like to jam with you." I told him I *did* have my guitar, and he said, "Go get it!"

I tried to play songs that he could join in on, but the songs that I think are "impressive" are always somehow "tricky", so he was pretty lost most of the time. But he was enjoying it anyway, as were the dozen or so people scattered around the lounge, who were clapping and whooping it up. One (apparently well-lubricated) guy shouted out, "Hey! You're good!", and later, "You're fired, Bruce!" to big laughter. I hate to say it was the highlight of my trip, but it kinda was.

Anyway, we all had a great time -- clearly the best vacation we've had in a while. It's cool that you don't have to "travel" to go places, and that you just drive to Long Beach, and you're on vacation already. When we went to Disney World, there's the pain of at least a day of traveling, twice, with the actual vacation in the middle. This eliminates that hassle. Admittedly, Mexico isn't my favorite place to visit, but it's the voyage, not the destination, right?

I've posted some pictures -- I know, what's more boring than other peoples' vacation pictures, but it's a gallery of thumbnails, and you only have to click the ones that look interesting, and I won't be there to have hurt feelings if you just scan through 'em. Check it out, here.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 17July2009

Well, that was pretty dreadful, so here are some pictures of our new kitten:

I suppose I've performed worse -- I imagine those first few, or dozen, or hundred, performances were pretty awful -- but I'm pretty sure that the ratio of Artistic Capability to Art Delivered has never been worse. I played pretty badly, and not only was my voice not cooperating (until about halfway through), but I wasn't focused enough to ask it for much anyway. I won't go on about it -- let's just say I had an "off night" and move on.

Roy and Keri came by, and brought friends, which left me with the quandary of whether to do new songs that aren't very solid yet, but that my brother hasn't heard, or to do old favorites that are good and solid, to impress the friend. I guess I ended up doing a little of both -- the friend asked for "Pancho and Lefty", and Roy asked for "Hallelujah". I also played my new "Billie Jean", and some others.

But, like I told Warren, the upside to playing badly all night is that I don't have to comb through the 3 hours of video looking for "good takes" -- 'cuz I already know there aren't any.

Next week we're going on a "Mexican Riviera" cruise (me and the family, not me and Warren), so I'll be off of performing for two weekends. Let's hope I get my mojo back during the break.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 11July2009

Wow. I had thought that after the big night we had at the Myrtle Court the night before, that this solo gig at the Food Court would be (a) a disaster 'cuz of my trashed voice, fingers, and knees, and (b) a disappointment 'cuz of the huge crowds that the other location gets and the usually dismal (and disaffected) turnout that this one does. But I was way wrong. Mostly.

It started out really good -- lots of people's dinnertime, I guess. I started on time at 6:00 (for a change) and had a good response for a while, but then it emptied out and I was left playing to mostly empty tables, and no response at all. At 7:30 I decided to give my knees a rest and, wait for it, Took a Break (gasp!). I wasn't really even sure *how* to take a break, but since there was nobody there who was even gonna notice, I just turned down the amp and walked away. Wasn't that tricky, after all.

After some of the crowd had "turned over", I got back up there and got to have a fresh start. Newly-arriving members of the audience tend to emulate the behavior of the already-there people, so once dead silence sets in, it's hard to break. But with the fresh start, you get to try to "get it going" again. I'm gonna have to use this trick again.

The really surprising part was that my voice, although completely trashed the night before, was in outstanding form for the second half of the show. Really high and clear, and responsive. I really had no right to be able to sing at all, after the four and a half hour show on Friday, but it was the best I've sung in weeks -- maybe months. Was Friday night's beating a "warm up"?!? Mysterious.

I had lots of appreciative people, all the way through. Families, single guys, teens, some little kids. Had a cute little gonna-be First Grader, Camilie (?), befriend me, and request a bunch of songs she'd never heard of, just because she'd recently learned to read and was having fun doing so. And a little Kindergarten Cyndie Lauper dress-alike who just wanted to dance and dance with her grandpa.

Weird moment early on: a pair of apparent military guys came right up and stood 3 feet away as I tried to finish "Homeward Bound". I'm trying to sing and wondering what the heck this is about. At the end, the Big One said something appreciative (whew!) in his Texas drawl, and then asked, "Can I play one?". That's a new one, so I said, "I don't know -- are you any good?" He said "I ain't *bad*", so I asked the Little One, "Is he any good?", but of course the friend wanted to see this happen, so he said, "Sure!". There weren't many people there then anyway, so I gave him my guitar (he declined the head mic), and I sat down with the friend to see what would happen.

He started with some song I'd never heard, strumming some chords and eventually singing, but without the mic that was completely inaudible. He quit that after a half a verse, and tried again with Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", but he didn't really know the chords, and messed up the words, too. So after a verse of that, he just wanted off, and apologized for being too nervous. I told him that everybody has to start somewhere -- it gets easier. And off they went.

Anyway, lots of people dropping lots of little bits of money in the jar and guitar case. I made $66 -- half again more than the "Main Stage" the night before. 66 bucks looks like a lot of money, when it's almost all ones and quarters. But it's apparently all about the "connection" -- and I'm beginning to think, counter-intuitively, that people tip a "full" jar more than an empty one, so I started the jar with several bills in it, instead of the usual two, and 4 bills in the guitar case. Seems to have made a difference. Or maybe I'm just good...

Naaahh...

K&W at Irvine Spectrum (MC) - 10July2009

The girl who books the gigs at Irvine Spectrum offered to let us play the "Main Stage" (called, inexplicably, the "Myrtle Court"), one time only, without the usual $50 "setup fee". I've been wondering why other bands would play over there when it chops 50 bucks off of their "take", so we jumped at the chance.

Wow -- it's a lot different. It's basically just a wide spot in the (outdoor) mall, with a long rectangular fountain/pond running down it. They put up a stage at one end of the pond, and there are tables and chairs running along the sides. It's not the Food Court, so the tables fill up with people who are just sitting, or have found some coffee or juice to drink. The traffic, and there's a lot of it, flows around the stage and pond, and the band has the quandary of playing facing west toward the pond and the sitting-people, or facing east toward the flow of transient walking-people.

We decided to play toward the pond -- wrongly, I think now. It seemed like the only actual definable "audience" would be the sitting-people, and it would be rude to play with our backs to them. And they were largely appreciative, but they were also fairly distant, and the "connection" was hard to hold on to. Playing the other direction, we'd be the stone upon which the current breaks, but even if we'd only "captured" a couple of percent of that flow, that'd be a pretty big audience in itself. The video is pretty funny -- since the camera is pointing at the two of us, it catches us playing away, oblivious to the constant traffic flow and social interactions happening behind us. We did capture some of them -- there are a few sit-able planter-boxes back there that had people listening most of the time, but I think we'd'a connected better, and made more in tips, if we'd'a played the other direction. Next time -- if there is one.

The other problem with playing westward was that the sun was shining, hard, right in our faces when we got there. Twice as bad with the reflection off the pond. It was pretty ridiculous at first -- I couldn't see a thing, even with my sunglasses, and it was baking the wood of my guitar and warping it out of tune in nothing flat.

But the sun went down behind a big archway after not-too-long, and it was pleasant the rest of the night. The "hallway" is narrow enough to have a nice reverb effect on the sound, when it was quiet enough to hear it. And we had *lots* of people, who were really "there". It was pretty terrific. I tried to stick to the upbeat songs, but you know I have to throw in a crooner once in a while. And because of recent events, I worked up an acoustic bluesy version of "Billie Jean", which I wasn't so sure about but seemed to go over pretty well.

One odd coincidence: I'd been flipping through the "in-process" songs in my Book the afternoon before, and came upon "California Dreamin'". My chordsheet isn't quite right, and I needed to work up the correct chords for the flute solo section, so I tore it out of the book to work on it. I didn't get to it that afternoon, but, sure enough, somebody asked for it at the gig -- maybe the third time, ever. But I knew exactly where the sheet was -- on the floor in the bedroom, so I knew I couldn't play it. For fun though, I strummed out the first verse from memory before stopping cold and saying, "Nope. I don't know that song" to some scattered laughter.

We started about 6:20 -- stalling in hopes of losing some of that sun -- and had plenty of audience to keep playing past 10, so we just kept on going. Of course, by then my knees were shot, my fingers were hamburgered, and I'd lost the bottom fourth of my vocal range, but whatever, right? But at 10:45 the "house music" came on from the speakers along the walls, and we couldn't compete, so that was our last song.

Tips came in at $42 -- not even enough to have covered the setup fee. This was no doubt mostly on account of playing "backwards". The tip jar was behind us where we couldn't even watch it. I think people are intimidated somewhat by having "the artist" see them putting money in the jar, but they also seem to need the "credit" for having done so. If you're not watching, they don't "need" to tip. Also, the people who were really listening -- at the tables -- were far away from the jar, so they'd mostly just get up and walk away.

But that's OK -- we're not in it for the money. It was a terrific night. We probably played "at" a few thousand people, and "for" several dozen, at least.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 27Jun2009

It's finally nice and warm, and a lot of people were out. Unfortunately, it's also warm enough that the kids' fountain also has lots of people, making lots of noise. Hadn't thought of that.

Daleen's birthday was on Tuesday, so her parents met her at the food court to have dinner with her, and marginally, see me. Geneva came by a little later, since she was gonna meet up with some friends and see a movie later. Apparently, she's the only one in my family that understands the job description of "shill"...

But that's OK -- like I said, lots of people out. And, later on, a friend from work, who's always thought that my walking around the block twice a day with my electric guitar and headphone amp is the most hilarious thing she's ever seen, finally showed up to see what all that practice is for. Fortunately, she came late enough that I was past the "can't quite find the groove" phase of the night, and I was hitting a lot of home runs.

She'd brought her husband and two little kids along, and the 3-year-old boy went straight from the stroller to soaking wet in the fountain, while his 2-year-old sister watched carefully (and dry) from the sidelines. Vickie got to hear a lot of my best tunes while her husband walked all the way to the other end of the mall to buy some towels at Target. And I guess she thought I was pretty OK, 'cuz she said later that she thought that they ought to come and do that more often -- the music is good, and the kids had a blast. She'll bring towels and dry clothes next time, I imagine.

Near the end of the evening, a guy, his wife, and 14-year-old daughter were having a late dinner at the table right in front of me, and the adults were clearly in my Target Audience, and liking my stuff. Finally the wife finishes eating, and between songs comes up to me and says, "Do you know 'Carolina'?" I said that I did. She said, "You want me to harmonize it with you?" I have a basic policy/belief that anybody with the guts to ask something like that, can probably handle it, so I said, "Absolutely!" I dug out a second microphone (kept in the gig bag for just such an occasion), and we fired it up.

Her name was Joy, and unfortunately, although she professed to having "harmonized" to JT songs for 30 years, I think she can really only "hear it" if someone else (on the record) is reinforcing her part in her ear. She seemed about to sing, many times, but held back most of the song (and "Sweet Baby James" which we tried after), seeming to be waiting to hear where her part was. She was about to give up, but her husband yelled, "Let her sing 'Over the Rainbow'!", which I was happy to do. And, since she was on melody, she powered through that one, with only a little confusion since I've added back the "missing second bridge", cut from the movie version, which she'd never heard.

Anyway, it was fun for both of us to try, and it made her evening. I think she may even come back for another go, some night.

And I must have been doing something right overall, 'cuz I made $63 in tips, which I think is a new record for a solo gig. Some of that was CD money, 'cuz two ladies came up and bought one of each, each. Said they were preschool teachers, so they wanted the "grownup" record for themselves, and the "Waltzing With Bears" one for their classes. Flattering.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Jun2009

Very nice. Not a lot of people, but somebody really listening at least most of the time.

My new boss at work came by. She's Vietnamese, and sang in a "family band" back home, apparently many years ago. But she has a webpage with some recordings of her singing some Vietnamese songs, and some "Foreign" ones, including "Yellow Bird", which I play sometimes. Her husband spotted it on The List, and requested it, so I asked her if she wanted to sing it, and without too much fuss, she came up, and after a bit of confusion about what key I should play it in, did a pretty good job singing it -- though she has a much more "formal" vocal style than I do, and we had some kind of disagreement about how fast it should go.

Later on, Warren's son and his girlfriend came by for quite a while, and requested some good songs, and gave us a reason to play them well. Luc is a local music entrepreneur (runs a rehearsal studio business), and has more of an idea of what it takes to make those sounds come out of those boxes than the average person does, so it's nice to see him impressed.

And for the last hour or so, we had a somewhat shy couple listening in, so I asked the lady if she had any requests off the list. She replied in a heavy but wonderful accent, and her husband tried to "translate", showing off his equally outrageous one. Warren finally asked them where they were from -- he was from Israel, she from Mexico. But they live in Chicago, and were out here for vacation. Wow.

They stayed all the way to the end, and apparently thought that we were some kind of Real Band, 'cuz the guy came up and talked to us a bit while we were packing up and told us that if we were ever "touring through the Chicago area", that we should let him know. Unfortunately, I don't think that our Nationwide Tour of Borders Coffeeshops is coming up anytime soon...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Jun2009

Finally, it's staying warm enough through the evening. All those Easterners who think it's always warm in California are dreaming...

Had a low-key, but pretty good night. Long periods of total silence between songs, but still people watching. Kinda like those inflatable crowds they use in movies these days.

But I played and played, and the sound was pretty good, for some reason. Seemed clearer than usual. Maybe I was just louder -- I was getting some feedback that I don't usually get. Anyway, it was pretty fun to just keep playing, and see what happens, see who turns up. Unfortunately, nobody very enthusiastic ever did, until about 9:40, when a couple of groups finally got the idea that I was a real live person. There was a group of 4 teen-age girl Beatle fans (more and more common lately), and some couples out listening, too.

All of a sudden, it was twice as fun as it had been the first three-and-a-half hours, so I just kept going, hoping the maintenance guys wouldn't be too upset. I played all the way 'til 10:30 when they showed up. They were cool about it, 'cuz I quit immediately at the end of that song, and moved my stuff quickly so they could take the table and lights away.

I guess I was doing better than the response indicated, though, 'cuz I made $53, and only one of the bills was a 5, so a lot of people threw in a couple of bucks. That's kinda cool.

One interesting thing: I was kind of trying to remember how "Hallelujah" goes, tinkering with the two intro chords, and a college girl looked up and gushed "Oh, I love that song!" I was surprised that (a) she knew it, and (b) she recognized it from just the two chords, played not even right yet. I'd been wondering how well-known it is, and I may have just gotten my answer.

Keith at Cancer Relay -- 06Jun2009

Well, the good news is that they had a big stage with lights, and huge sound system and everything set up like a full-scale rock concert. The bad news is that it *was* a full-scale rock concert -- except for me, of course. The schedule was: rock band, rock band, rock band, punk band, rock band, rock band, punk band, me, rock band. It was like a brain teaser for 4 year olds: Which of these is different?

It's suddenly very clear why they switched me from 4:00 to the 9:00 hour, when the "Luminaria Ceremony" is traditionally scheduled. If you want somebody to play soft background music during your mushy sentimental speeches, who from the list above would you choose?

After my experience with the Chalk Festival and how lame it was compared to how I thought it was gonna be, and since I was getting really nervous about this one, I thought I'd go over there in the morning to confirm the layout and presumably alleviate my anxiety by seeing that it was also gonna be lame. When we got there and there was a 7 piece rock band, audible from a half a mile away on the dozen Volkswagon-sized JBL speaker cabinets, my little plan backfired, big time. I mentioned my apprehension to several people, friends and the organizer-lady, Ashley, but they all said, "You'll be fine!". That is, of course, easy for them to say...

So I spent the afternoon freaking out over just the magnitude of the sound system, but still thinking that the other acts (after the first Classic Rock, "get 'em warmed up" band) were gonna be, like the chalk festival, local dance academies and high school choirs. Fortunately I was still ignorant of my "odd man (very) out" status in the lineup, or I may have not shown up again that evening.

But I did, and listened to very loud rock bands while trying to talk to my friends over the din. It was at the local college's football stadium, with a running track around it that the Relay-ers were walking. The stage was at one end, and even at the farthest end, it was Really Loud, so much that I had to stop trying to talk to my friend for fear of blowing out my voice before having to sing. And, of course, near the stage it was almost unbearable. All the adults I talked to complained about having to spend all day (this is a 24-hour "endurance" relay kind of thing) with that too-loud noise.

Which actually helped eliminate some anxiety, 'cuz, despite being Completely Different (*because* of it), maybe I was gonna be the respite that the adults had been waiting for all day. I was feeling a little weird mixed in with these rock-n-roll kids, but, hey, nobody likes every kind of music -- never apologize for being not-that-stuff, right?

Problem was, as the day went on, they were falling farther and farther behind in the schedule -- of course. Especially since they'd allotted 10 minutes between bands to tear down one band's stuff, and set up the next, with sound check on a dozen channels. Not bloody likely.

The original plan was for me to play background music for 20 minutes worth of Ceremony speeches at 9:00. At the end of the speeches, they had a bagpiper to lead the audience around the track to look at the luminaria, while playing "Amazing Grace". I know. Hard to imagine. But worse, at that point, I get to play a 35 minute set to the now-empty chairs. Gee, thanks. I'm like, you're kidding, right?

So, I complained and they managed to shuffle the schedule some and get me 45 minutes *before* the ceremony, then play background during it, and then I'm done when the bagpipes start. A bit short of a set, but I can live with it -- it's a good cause and all.

But that all went out the window when I got there, because the only thing that was set in time was the Ceremony is supposed to start at 9:00. So, I agreed to go back to the speeches-then-me ordering. Not ideal, but if the audience actually does the full lap, they'll be back at the stage for my set.

So I get set up after the punk band is done, and the stage manager has the rock band that's on after me setting up behind me as well -- probably wise, to save some time. They finally clear off, so the speeches start, with me playing "Over the Rainbow" in the background. Then the second set of speeches, and I played "You've Got a Friend", over and over for 15 minutes, 'cuz I couldn't very well stop in the middle of the speech to turn the page. Didn't seem to bother anyone. Then the closing remarks, with me back playing "Over the Rainbow", and then the bagpiper takes the audience for a walk.

I'm ready to start singing when they get back, but, whoops, almost nobody actually comes back. They're all pretty tired by this point, and apparently just stopped at their respective tents to get away from all this noise -- this being the first quiet minute since 10am. (The bagpipes, known for being obnoxiously loud, sounded hilariously quiet after all the amplified rock.) So, when the bagpipes quit , I start singing to maybe a dozen or fifteen people, almost all of them my old Indian Princess friends. The kids all wanted to hear my kid songs, of course, so I started with "With a Little Help From My Friends", and then did 3 kid songs, starting with "Waltzing With Bears", of course. Then I thought I'd try to bring some adults back over, so I did "Sweet Baby James", which can also be thought of as a kid song, kinda. So, 5 songs in, I was thinking of what to do next, and the stage manager whispers "One more song!" at me. Say what?!?

So, because I was the only guy there who could play quiet nice stuff, and the guy who bent over backwards to get the Ceremony started on time, I get my already-short 45-minute set cut to less than half of that to reset the schedule. But I can't actually stand on stage and argue with Ashley over the microphone, so I play "You've Got a Friend in Me", and get out of the way so the rock kids can start their one-hour set.

Now, I will say that none of this was malicious on Ashley's part. She's probably 25, and just green and naïve. But when it came time to figure out how to fix the schedule, she shoulda remembered who her friends were, 'cuz it's gonna be pretty hard to get me back there next year.

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 30May2009

Pretty fun, for some reason. Maybe I was just in a good mood. We did have a reasonably constant stream of people paying at least some attention, but nobody ever really enthused. But, it was still a fun one.

It was gloomy all day and I was afraid it would be freezing in the evening. And even though last week the guys promised to bring a heater this week, it wasn't there when I got there. When the guys finally came by, they told us that they'd sent all the heaters out for maintenance! But the cloud cover apparently "kept the heat in", as they say, 'cuz it never did get very cold at all. Maybe that's why I was in a good mood -- I wasn't shivering.

I cleverly put my second camera battery in the charger to "top it off" before I left, and then cleverly forgot it. So I only got one battery's worth of video (about 1:40). And I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, so no list of posted videos this time. Kind of a shame about that second battery, though, 'cuz I really felt like I was "on" for the second half, after the camera was dead. Or was it *because* the camera was dead...? Oh, well.