K&W at SCP - 21July2006

Bad -- and good! We had the usual crop of studying Asians, and a few people just reading, but nobody particularly wanted to hear us play. SCP is usually that way, but this time even more so. We played to mostly dead silence. Maybe halfway through, some new people came in and clapped, quietly, but we never raised much attention. But...

Since we're trying to build a Live CD, the lack of (a) noise, and (b) need to "connect with the audience" allowed me to concentrate exclusively on getting the song played and sung correctly. I was even able to just stare at the chord sheets, rather than trying to look up, as I usually do, and lose my place and screw up, as I usually do. My voice was in fine form, and I played pretty well. Warren seemed to be doing good work as well.

So, we were able to collect a *lot* of "good takes" of songs. Enough to build the Live CD from this performance alone, though there are a few songs that I'd like to have on the disc that we either didn't do, or that I screwed up. We play again this Friday (in Costa Mesa), and I'm hoping to fill those gaps, and get this Live CD project done.

K&W at Castille - 10June2006

After the resounding success of our gig at the Elementary Arts Academy last month, I asked Acacia's teacher if they'd like us to come down and do the same at her school. She loved the idea, got permission from the principal, and we were all set up for the Friday before the last week of school.

We played multiple lunch shifts again, 1&2, then 3&4, and then the 5th grade, so we started out with our usual kids' stuff, but, based on our experience at OCEAA, we had some rock 'n' roll ready for the bigger kids. I even brought along my electric guitar.

I was a total blast, of course, though not much of an artistic triumph. I was pretty over-excited (i.e., mildly panicked) the whole time -- did some songs too fast, the rest *way* too fast, and sang miserably. One highlight was when I started singing "Fun, Fun, Fun" to the tune of "Roll Over Beethoven" -- an honest mistake since they're the same song (in the guitar), but still...

The kids went pretty crazy for it, I'm afraid. We had them all packed up next to us (good thing the janitor put out some traffic cones!), dancing, screaming, bouncing up and down, and shouting out suggestions for the next song. We got asked to "Do some AC/DC!" a lot -- how are these kids hearing hard rock from 15 years before they were born?!?

But, not so coincidentally, we had worked up AC/DC's "Long Way To the Top", which was featured in the movie "School of Rock". We saved it for the end, and I completely botched it up. It was too fast, badly sung, *way* too much distortion on my guitar (I over-drove my little amp and it sounded great, but when I started the actual song, I played louder and that over-drove the big amp. Distorted distortion doesn't really work.), and to top it off, during Warren's big solo, I stepped on the cable and unplugged myself, leaving Warren truly *solo*. I scrambled it back together, and faded back in, and he shouted out when we were about to hit the next "thing" so we made it through, but I don't know how it could have gone much worse.

But they loved it! Kids are a great audience, especially when you're a not-so-great band. Acacia came home and said that "a bajillion" kids came up to her to tell her to thank us, and/or to ask "was that really your dad?" I guess she'll be famous, at least for the last 4 days of school. Good thing they took it as "cool dad" rather than "geek dad".

We had a great time, too, and will certainly consider doing more of these, even after Acacia moves on to middle school. And, I invited the YMCA Princess Program Director to come by, and she thought we were "wonderful", and that the kids "love you guys and you're great with them". I'm working up to offering to come play at YMCA functions, picnics, etc.

Princess Campout in san Diego

Low turnout for our tribe, but a pretty fun campout anyway. Daleen kinda liked the less-large crowd, which made it more friendly.

First thing Saturday, every year, is the Sand Sculpture Contest. This year, in homage/sympathy to the "theme", we/I built a penguin. He actually came out cuter than the drawings -- usually it's the other way around. I had less time than usual, so it's not as finessed as usual, but I was sufficiently sunburned already, so maybe it's for the best.

At Saturday night's campfire, the Hosting Tribe had decided to try something different, so instead of skits, each tribe had to come up with a video, which were projected in alphabetical order. Most of the other videos were invented mini-movies starring the girls and/or dads, and were pretty cute, if usually overlong to make their point. They each had a flavor of "Ain't our daughters the cutest!", which, frankly, falls in the same category as watching somebody else's vacation slides.

Our "Penguins on a Bus" video (see the "San Mateo Campout with Acacia" blog entry 6 previous to this one), on the other hand, involved the girls only as puppeteers, never showing their faces or names. I came up with that specifically to avoid the "other peoples' kids" syndrome, but I was the only one. I think it was more entertaining this way, but I feel a little bad about it, in retrospect. I could, at least, have put their names in a credits sequence (but what about the girls that couldn't be there?).

Anyway, it was well received, and immediately followed by my "Waltzing With Bears" cartoon. That went over even better, I think. I was watching the audience from up front, since I've seen the cartoon before (several million times by now), and they seemed to be enjoying it. Most of them were singing softly along for the choruses, and laughed out loud in a few places -- especially the scene where the bears "drag him away". I happen to know the guy who runs the Friendly Spirit Nation website pretty well (me), so it's posted up there for future generations to discover.

Sunday morning was the annual hand-off ceremony, ringing out the old chiefs and in the new. Of course, I'm Website and Music Guy for life, but they throw me a plaque every year in appreciation. Rodney said some really nice things about me, and several guys actually stood up during my acknowledgement round of applause. They managed to talk me into One More Year (which is feasible because of Acacia's pretty-good attitude about it), so "I'll be back." But the year after, I think they're gonna miss me.

The Littlest Beatle

Acacia had to do a biography project in school (5th grade), and she chose Paul McCartney. She was doing her research (on line, natch), and playing non-stop Beatles songs in the background, apparently for inspiration. It was too cute to hear her back there, singing along with "Lucy in the Sky" and "Yellow Submarine", etc., while she was searching the web and typing up her report.

They had to build a presentation board with pictures and stuff, and, last Tuesday, get up and talk about their person, dressed up to be them. (Geneva was Ben Franklin three years ago, and I bent her up a pair of "bifocals" out of baling wire.)

So, of course, Acacia wore my old "Sergeant Pepper" coat, and put red tape stripes down her pants. That, along with her "growing my bangs out" retro-seventies shag look, made a pretty cute combination, even if it doesn't look a lot like Paulie. She loves the jacket, and wants to wear it all the time now, even though (because?) her hands don't poke out of the sleeves.

K&W - SCP 20May2006

Good ol' "No Clapping!" SCP. It's pretty hard to get anything out of the "audience" (I use the term loosely) there.

My throat was all kludged up, so I sounded kinda "furry", but not really "bad". I had control and range, just with an uncharacteristic sound. Still, because of the "library" feel there, nobody seems to want to clap. So we got no response except smiles until the last half-hour or so when the atmosphere finally loosened up a little.

The good part was that I didn't bother to record the gig ('cuz of my throat), so I was a lot more loose myself. When the recorder's going, I feel the pressure to try to Make No Mistakes. With a screwed-up-anyway voice, and no recorder, the pressure was off. Liberating, really. Made it a lot of fun, even with no clapping.

But, it turns out, although they "couldn't" clap, they were apparently liking it, 'cuz at the end, I was making the obligatory "There are some CDs and business cards over there" speech, and people got up and went over there! Didn't expect *that*! We made $30, and sold 4 CDs -- probably a record for that place.

An older guy asked if we knew any "Peter, Paul and Mary" songs, and we do, but it's "Puff". He said we "sound like the Sixties". Hmmm. Then I remembered that I learned "Lemon Tree" for Dad's CD, so I pulled that out and managed it pretty well, considering that I don't practice it much and it's a lot more complicated than it sounds. It's fun to be able to satisfy a random request like that, even if it only happens sometimes.

KC at "It's a Grind" MV - 12May2006

A new coffee shop opened up just down the hill from my house, so naturally I offered to come play there, and after some stalling to "get on their feet", I got booked. It was quite low-key -- maybe 20 people over the course of the night, and never more than 10 at a time. But the owner was there (asked for "Georgia"), and seemed pleased enough. As he left, he said he'd get in touch with me about scheduling a next time.

Originally he had me booked for Saturday night, but he called two weeks ago and moved me to Friday, without much explanation. There was a little plastic stand thing there with a printout of the month's activities calendar, showing just 4 things (one was me), and nothing on Saturday, so I just don't get it. Before Friday, my two theories were: (1) He had something else lined up, but it fell through and he was too embarrassed to call and move me again, and (2) Saturdays are really crowded and he didn't want to risk an untried act on his big night (or, maybe, he just didn't want to have the hassle when it's a big night anyway).

But, I drove down there at 8:30 on Saturday night and it was almost empty (3 people and a very bored coffee girl), so now I have a third theory: Saturdays are dead, and he didn't want me to waste my time.

The good part, I guess, is that he set me up just to the right of the door, and I set the amp on my left. There were no little tables, so I put my little sign and the tip jar on top of the amp (on its stand, but as low as it goes so the top was just shoulder height). That meant that everyone passed very close to the jar on their way out, and most folks dropped in a buck, or the change they got from their to-go coffee order, as they left. I made $13.86. Woo-hoo! No more bread-lines for me!

The sound was kind of echo-ey, but nowhere near as bad as the school (of course). Toward the end, four teen-agers came in, and were *remarkably* insensitive to the live music that was going on. They stood right in front of the amp (they kind of had to, to get to the coffee order spot), and shouted at each other to be heard over the music. Never a glance at me. After they got their drinks, they sat down, and continued shouting over the music. I spun the amp a little, to shoot it towards the other people who were there, but even then, they were louder than me. I turned up as much as I could, but hit the feedback threshold and couldn't go any higher, so I just toughed it out until the end.

They struck me as kids who encounter loud music everywhere they go, and are completely comfortable with it, and shouting louder than it, to chat with their friends. Live or boombox doesn't seem to make any difference. Used the back of one of my songlists as scratch paper to write down phone numbers, too. Not the worst behavior that I've seen, but I sure hope my kids never grow up to treat the world with such disrespect.

Anyway, it was Good Enough -- I'll give it another go. My apprehension was clearly unfounded. A lot like Tully's, really. Not many people, not much response -- the "crowd" was just too small to support any amount of clapping -- but there was some occasional genuine appreciation. It may build up some...

K&W - OCEAA, 11May2006

OK, that was pretty weird. We got a call from an Indian Princess mom who works at the Orange County Educational Arts Academy, which is sort of the elementary school version of the High School of the Arts that Geneva coincidentally just got into. She'd heard the "Waltzing With Bears" CD (a few million times, no doubt) because all the Princesses have one by now, and was wondering if we'd like to come down and play during lunchtime. A strange request, but we're in this for the Stories, good or bad, so, sure, we'll give it a go.

They have five lunch shifts, which spread over a too-long time span, so we decided to do the three middle shifts, skipping the Kindergartners, and the 6th graders. We played in the cafeteria, to maybe 50 or 70 kids at a time, while they were eating, shouting, etc. The place was *outrageously* echo-ey, so the sound was really strange. It didn't bother me so much as make me think that the kids weren't really getting the songs, and especially, the words. I wasn't getting any reaction to the Funny Parts, so I had to assume that they couldn't understand any lyrics.

So, I settled on doing songs that they'd already know, like "Puff", and "You've Got a Friend In Me". But as the older kids started coming in, they were asking for "some rock and roll", so we did "Love Potion Number Nine", and "Roll Over, Beethoven", and finally, "Take Me To the River". Those went over pretty well, probably because they didn't require any comprehension of the lyrics to have some rhythmic merit.

The kids were pretty enthusiastic, if only because we were Something Different. Some of them were clearly enthralled, and others were having fun at "pretending to be at a concert", with hands waving in the air, etc. One could take that as "making fun of", but I don't think they were being malicious about it.

Compared to the Indian Princess audience that I'm used to (and that all know me (and my songs)), these kids were less appreciative. But compared to the usual Borders audience, they were worshipful! Warren was pretty pleased by that, and thinks we ought to look into doing more of these. The teachers all know me down at Acacia's school, so I think they'd let us come in sometime and do that. I guess I'll email her teacher and make a proposal.

San Mateo Campout with Geneva, May2006

Back at San Mateo like last weekend, this time with Geneva and the Trailmates. (Good thing it's my favorite campground.)

I had volunteered, somehow, to lead the Talent Show that we (I) decided would work better than trying to get this very-low-turnout group to do tribe-based skits or whatever. I was afraid that everybody would beg off, but I managed to get all 12 girls up there doing something. They seemed to have fun, and there wasn't a lot of anxiety about it, probably thanks in great part to the "team building" games that Todd had set up earlier that morning. Once they were all friends, they didn't seem all that worried about performing for each other.

We had two violins (one of them Geneva, of course), a viola, a flute, a recorder, a guitar, a dance, some gymnastics, a magic show, and some jokes. Then we did karaoke for a while so the dads would get some exposure.

On Saturday we got to go down to the beach to see the tide pools, which Geneva really loves. She'd have explored all day, if we'd had the time. And on Sunday, we finally got to go down to the stables on Camp Pendleton and do the horseback trail ride. And after that we went to Joe's Crab Shack in Oceanside, and I bought her a really cute cowboy hat in the gift store.

Pretty good weekend for her, which made it a pretty good weekend for me.

San Mateo Campout with Acacia, April 2006

Great campout, as it is every year. On Friday night, instead of the usual movie, I volunteered to do a "Kids' Concert". I was worried that I would be less entertaining than "Ice Age 2", but the everybody seemed to be OK with it. The surprise of the night was when I did "Love Potion Number 9", which has been in the Kids Section of the Book for a long time, but never gets requested, so I don't do it much. But I did it anyway, and it went over really big. When I played at the Saturday night campfire, and again at the Sunday morning "Chapel", some kids were calling out for me to do it again. Raucously. Who knew?

On Saturday, we implemented my idea for the "video" that we're supposed to submit to be shown at the end-of-the-year Family Campout in June. Each tribe is supposed to do whatever they want. Nobody in my tribe had any ideas, so, naturally, I had to come up with one, which was to do the "Penguins on a Bus" sketch, but with sock puppets which the kids would make, use in the play, and take home. A craft and a video, all in one. I spent two weeks designing the penguin puppets for cuteness and build-ability, and making the cop and bus driver, and the motorcycle, and getting ready to build the bus at the site, to accomodate however-many girls we ended up with. Planning nightmare, 'cuz whatever I remembered to bring was gonna be it -- no running out to the garage for some duct tape or whatever.

It came out quite well. Took forever, but we had a good long morning to do it in, and the kids could go play while the dads worked on the "set". I was really surprised at the level of participation -- all the dads helped out, a lot. Frequently, on this kind of thing, they all just sort of get a "This is Keith's thing" attitude, and walk away. This time they all pitched in, and it's a good thing, too, 'cuz it was pretty complicated to get it all working.

You can check it out here.

The link is to an 8 megabytes file, but you might find it's worth it.

The original idea was to do it in one take, in the camera, and to submit the tape, foregoing any editing on the computer and that whole can of worms. Didn't happen, but since I had to go to the computer anyway, I was able to throw in some titles and stuff at the beginning that make it a lot more fun anyway.

By the way, the name is a parody of the upcoming Samuel Jackson thriller "Snakes on a Plane", which won't be out until August, but is getting lots of buzz on the Internet, probably only 'cuz the name is so cool/funny. I know nobody will get it, but it's just my little joke.

K&W at SCP - 21Apr2006

Same old sleepy South Coast Plaza. Mostly Asian kids studying again, but we did have a familiar return customer family with a little girl. Unfortunately, she pretty much tuned us out when she got involved in a book she was reading. Then again, good for her.

And my old boss, and Warren's old acquaintance, Tim, stopped by, and seemed to enjoy himself. Stayed for a good while anyway. Obviously woulda rather been playing than listening, but I have that problem, too.

The recording turned out pretty good again, though a bit overblown so the loud songs may be too badly clipped. But I think we may have turned in some decent performances, so we'll see what's useable.

Next weekend is my full-length "Kids' Concert", which has never been attempted before. I've tried to re-work-up the kids' songs in the book, 'cuz, since they shut down RSM for music, we haven't had much call to play 'em. Odds are, though, that I won't have many people there to worry about anyway. Stay tuned...

Disneyland!

We finally broke down and bought our Disneyland Annual Passes, but it was really crowded so we didn't get to do much. So we came back on Sunday, and it was really crowded again. Starting to wonder about my investment, there.

But, it was right around Spring Break, so it's probably not representative of the rest of the year. Our idea is to go over there a bunch of times after work on weekday evenings. The best part about an Annual Pass is that you don't have to "get your money's worth" every time. And you can enjoy the littler things, 'cuz you'll have other chances to get to the "E ticket" stuff.

We did manage to get on "Indiana Jones" on Sunday, and it was Acacia's first time. No problem. It's really kind of too rough, and too fast, and you don't really get a chance to figure out what you should be afraid of before it's gone anyway. They need to learn some subtlety in there.

We also saw the "White Witch" from Narnia. She's the quintessential "Ice Queen", and, amazingly, Disneyland didn't dilute that by making her a Nice Lady, "Here, sit on my lap." The lady they have playing her looks great, moves all "regally", and only barely tolerates her "visitors". There are some pages that are advising the people in line how they'd better act, so she doesn't "get mad" at them. It's quite a hoot.

K&W - CM 08Apr2006

Good night, sedate audience. That Costa Mesa store tends to be pretty quiet, but I had some fun with a few people. The best part was that my voice was working *really* well -- I was doing stuff that I usually can't manage, and hitting notes with ease that usually come out strained. Don't know why, but it's *so* cool when that happens. I usually attribute it to being warmed up, but I hadn't had much chance to sing all week, so I guess it was just the phase of the moon...

Got some more good recordings for the Live Album, too, which I guess I've come to think of as inevitable. Sometimes I wish it were even *more* quiet in the joint, so the recordings don't have chatting, grinders, water running, dishes clattering, or whatever in the background. It's reasonably rare that I'm singing well, and not making glaring guitar mistakes -- it's a shame when some background noise messes up the take. Oh, well.

And there were some new "Borders Coming Events" flyers there, with only the Orange County stores represented -- mostly the book signings and Story Times listed, but filling the remaining space with some small percentage of the bands that will be playing. There were copies of both March and April's flyers, and we were listed in both of them -- one of our several gigs, apparently chosen at random, in each. And in one of them, they printed our "publicity picture", though only our mothers would recognize us in that half-toned postage-stamp sized shot. Still, there were lots of bands that didn't get a mention at all, so somebody must like us, somewhere.

Geneva Made It!

We got the Official Letter from the Orange County High School of the Arts yesterday, and Geneva got in. She was accepted in both of the Conservatories that she tried out for, Creative Writing and Integrated Arts. That’s great for her, and also good news for Acacia, since she’ll be going for Integrated Arts next year for Junior High, and if Geneva’s resume was sufficient, Acacia should be OK, too.

You can’t have a “double major” of course, so Geneva will choose Creative Writing. This will be *so* great for her!

K&W - CM and MV 31Mar and 01Apr2006

Double Header weekend. It was our first time back at Costa Mesa/Newport for a long time. I think they stopped having music, and just started up again. The layout is a bit problematic, facing in to the café, with our backs to the store, but it’s like that at Mission Viejo so we’re used to it.

The sound was pretty good, and I finally got a decent rig to record the live shows with so the recording came out really good. I still don’t know *why* I’m trying so hard to record these sessions, but now that we have both of these nights with decent sound and some decent performances, we’re thinking of putting together a “K&W Live” CD. The sound won’t be as good as the studio CD, but it’s pretty close, and we’re better than we were back in April 2004. Not to mention that we have some new songs that deserve to be on a CD somewhere.

Unexpectedly, my in-laws showed up, as did my brother and his wife. That was nice. There are several songs I carry around in the book, just for my brother to hear, but I tend to lose my ability to remember stuff like that when I’m Up There, so I didn’t play them. Next time for sure...

Mission Viejo was unusually nice this time. There were none of The Regulars there, so we didn’t have to compete with their social club for sonic space. And we always play so much better when we’ve just had a “dress rehearsal” the night before. Unfortunately, I’m also tired in fingers and voice, so I only play better for the first half, and then I fall apart for the second. And, having just set the gear up the night before, we were faster roadies than usual, so we were ready to go early, and played from 7 sharp to 10:30. Looong set. We usually clock 42-44 songs in a night -- this time was 53.

Trailmates in Anza Borrego

Geneva and I went camping with the Trailmates last weekend, out in the Anza Borrego desert. It's been a long time since we've been camping together, so it was really nice to do that.

They have a "must-see" hiking trail to "The Palm Grove" that's supposed to be 1.5 miles, but I think they got the decimal point in the wrong place. Or maybe it just seems that way because a lot of the time you're climbing up rocks so it's like stairs, up and down, all the way there.

But it was worth it -- we saw lots of desert life on the way, cactus and such, and got pretty close to a bunch of longhorn sheep. And the Grove itself is pretty cool, except there's brown water constantly dripping out of the trees. We never did figure out what that was -- but maybe we're better off not knowing.

Geneva brought her new camera, and it was her first chance to point it at something other than silly girls at slumber parties. She's actually pretty good with nature shots -- some of her best pictures are here.

Snow Trip!

We finally managed to cut loose some time to drive up to see the snow. We just drove up to Mount Baldy, which is surprisingly close, really -- only about an hour drive.

We took the dogs, who didn't seem that concerned about running around in the snow. It was nice fluffy "powder", which crunches into snowballs really easy, so we were throwing snowballs at each other, and the dogs were freaking out that we were not throwing the balls for them! So, we tossed some small snowballs to the dogs, who caught them, which shattered the balls except for whatever was trapped in their mouths, which they didn't seem to mind just crunching down.

Just as we got to a good place to stop, it started actively snowing. I think it's the third time in my whole life that I've been in actual snowing-down snow. At first it was little balls, like someone had opened up a beanbag chair, but after a while it turned into these sticky, fluffy flakes. Cool.

And cold! Naturally, the girls were froze to the bone pretty soon, soaking pants and frozen fingers, and the snowing was getting worse, so we packed up and came back down before it got too much to negotiate without chains. Of course, it never did get thick enough to pile up on the road, but what do I know about snow?

Geneva's "Audition" at OCHSA

Yesterday I took Geneva to the Orange County High School of the Arts for her "audition" for the Creative Writing program. We had been to the Open House, twice, and heard about the program from the director (author Jim Blaylock), and he said that this is the first time that the administration is making him do auditions, and he wasn't really sure what he was going to do.

So what he did was bring in all the kids at once, let them ask some questions, have them introduce themselves around the room, and then write a short essay/story/whatever on the topic: "If you could do anything, or be anything, what would you do or be, and why?" This is, of course, about as wide open as anything could be -- pretty much a "soft ball".

While the kids were writing, Blaylock took the parents out to another room and answered questions. There were 25 kids in the audition, and one of the dads asked how many other kids were going to audition. Blaylock said that there were 10 that were transferring in from other departments and so were kind of automatic, and 7 more that couldn't make it that day or something. Since the total he's gonna take is 43, and that totals 42, another dad did the math and asked "exactly how good our chances were". Blaylock said that he's disallowed from saying so, but that if you were here at the audition, you were "very, very likely" to make it in.

In retrospect, he appears to have just done what he's always done -- chosen from the written portfolio submissions -- and he's tacked on this "audition" as a formality, as directed by his boss. Apparently, if you didn't make the grade, you just didn't get an invitation to the "audition". It would probably be *possible* to get cut from the audition -- if, for example, your essay was so much lamer than your portfolio that it was clear that someone had "helped" too much, or if you showed up, I don't know, drunk or something.

Anyway, it won't be official until we get the letter from the school, but we're pretty sure she's made it. I'm pretty thrilled for, and proud of, her. Her, and our, lives are gonna start getting even more interesting, come August.

K&W - MV 10Mar2006

Pretty good night, pretty mediocre audience. We played pretty good, and the sound was (finally!) decent, but the audience was pretty un-responsive. Luck of the draw, probably, though I can't help think that it's as much the performer's fault as the audience's if he can't elicit some response.

But, at least we got some decent recordings. As always, the last hour or so was the best part, 'cuz the sound issues are (sometimes) worked out, and I get to feeling more loose and confident. The recording isn't perfect, but it's pretty presentable.

And, because nobody seemed to care anyway, just to make it amusing for myself, I got out a bunch of songs that I seldom or never do. That made it more fun...

Indian Princesses at the Hockey Game

Our Indian Princess event for this month was a trip to the Mighty Ducks hockey game. We lost, but only barely, and it was a fun game to watch. The girls generally got the idea that we were trying to get the puck in one net, and "they" were trying to get it in the other. The more obscure rules just went by unnoticed. But they all thought it was really funny that the players got a "time out" when they were bad.

Before the game, they have a little "carnival" in the parking lot, with face painting, roller hockey, a giant slide, and a balloon animal guy. And they had supplies to make "Go Ducks!" posters, which was fun. Everybody thought my poster was amazing 'cuz I put the Mighty Ducks hockey mask logo on it, but I was just copying it from the cheerleader girl's T-shirt, so it was all win-win for me...

K&W - Cerritos 04Mar2006

OK, now that was strange. We thought it was gonna be a "Grand Opening" the way it's been at the other ones we've done, where it's really a Opening of the Seattle's Best makeover of the café, but it was an actual Grand Opening of a new physical store, across the street from the old one. It's a big, nice, new building, with the café upstairs on a sort of half-floor, looking out over the main floor with all the books. Unfortunately, the "band spot" is down this 15-foot-wide corridor, hemmed in by walls on one side and behind, and looking out over a glass half-wall into the store.

That was kind of cool, but severely constricted the size of the in-the-same-space audience -- to about 10 people. All those chairs were well-camped-in long before we got there. That's OK, we're used to playing to small audiences, and 10 is better than some we've had, but I had invited my parents to come down, since it was relatively close to where they live, and they invited, oh, everybody they know. Final count, by my reckoning, an even dozen parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and off-spring thereof. None of whom got to like, sit down, and, like see us while we were performing. They had to settle down in various other parts of the café, so maybe they could hear us, but who knows?

On top of them, we had 4 or 5 acquaintances from the Folk Music Jam we used to go to. They were a bit more nimble or lucky, and got some seats where they could see us, at least, eventually.

We played pretty well, I think, but, as has happened *way* too often lately, the sound was screwy, or screwed up. The contained space probably had something to do with it, but we also (for the *last* time! Grrr!) tried to use the store's amp, and it started weirding out halfway through. Fortunately, I had my amp with me, and we switched to that and did OK for the last half -- when nobody was there anymore...

Essentially, it's an un-playable layout, and I think I'd turn it down if they ever ask us to play there again (unless it's for money like it was this time!), but there's not much chance of that, so we probably don't have to worry about it.