I was hoping/expecting to have my fiddle-playing guest star there again, but she'd had finals the week before and hadn't had time to practice, so she begged off.
Still no sign of sweetie-pie Manager Sally, for several gigs in a row now. Maybe she's on the day shift now, or maybe she got transferred. It was fun to play with her there - she's a huge James Taylor fan, and was on the verge of getting the nerve together to come up and sing something with me. That would have been fun. Oh, well.
I was hoping for a great night, musically at least, since the last two gigs were out where it's loud and obnoxious. But it takes a decent audience to make a good night, and we were little short in that department.
We did have a young family come by, but the kids were too young to know any songs -- although the little boy had apparently heard some James Taylor, oddly enough. Other than that, nobody was very interested, so we just plugged away for awhile. I did get some decent takes of a few songs on video and posted them to YouTube, so, not a complete loss. Just kind of disappointing.
I guess the other silver lining is that, since nobody was listening, I got to try out some new songs: "Peoples Parties" (might be OK, but very obscure), "Suzanne" (pretty, fun to sing, but I think it's kinda boring to listen to), "We Can Work It Out" (works fine when I play it on electric, but my un-strummable Ovation makes it unlikely), and "Imagine", which I learned specifically because a lady asked for it at this store a few weeks ago. I'm trying, only partially successfully, to imitate the piano part on the guitar, but it's pretty tough. Might work out, though, with more practice.
Well, not as good as last time, that's for sure. We had a sudden cold snap, and the turnout was a lot smaller, since this is an outdoor mall. We made about half as much in tips, but it was probably half as many people, so maybe that's OK.
The bigger problem was that I didn't expect it to be quite that cold, and hadn't brought a jacket. I'm usually OK up (down?) to a point, just from the excitement, but towards the end, I was shivering, and my fingers were getting too stiff to play. The upside is that my fingertips were too cold to feel the pain of playing for 3 hours straight, and my stomach muscles were so tight that I had great breath support for singing -- although you could hear the shivering in my voice at times...
When we played at Brea Downtown last November, I brought a space heater -- I'll definitely be sure to do that again when we play on November 1st.
We did have a few people tuned in. A guy from work promised to come by, and actually did. And a nice couple sat down for the last hour or so, requested several songs, and hung out until the bitter (cold) end. The husband even went out to the car and fetched their jackets so they could stay and watch me turn blue. And a couple with a baby girl were there when we got there and stayed for a really long time, until the baby was yawning and clearly needed to get home to bed.
I'd learned a few new songs during the week to try out, and did so with Joni Mitchell's "People's Parties" and The Searchers' "Needles and Pins". But I usually keep untried and imperfectly-learned songs until near the end when there's less people around, but last night my fingers were too frozen to even attempt anything tricky, so I didn't try out "We Can Work It Out" and "Imagine". I guess I'll get to those next week at South Coast Plaza.
My voice was pretty ragged most of the night for some reason, but the acoustics are terrible anyway, so I'm not sure it mattered. Having to play so loud makes it impossible to really put any finesse into the songs, though I'm not sure why. It would seem like you could just play and sing like always, but have the Master volume knob up higher, but there's just so much background noise, the people and the fountain and all, that it's more like a shouting match than a song.
But that's OK, it's fun in a different way than the gigs where I get to feel like I'm really making music. And, especially at this place, I keep flashing on the wonder of what a shy boy like me is doing in such a public place, making such an amount of noise, in front of all these people.
I took some video, but there's nowhere to put the camera, so I hung it from the amp itself, and the audio was blown out. But I had also recorded the audio with my new iPod, as an experiment, so I laid the iPod's not-bad audio track onto the not-very-good video that my little camera grabs, and made a barely-passable movie of "Peaceful Easy Feeling", which is available here. (That's http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_mi2wZEMLzA if the link doesn't work.)
The night went pretty much how it usually goes, until a bunch of people (5 or 6, mostly ladies) came screaming up, clearly pre-lubed, rockin' out to the song we happened to be playing at the time. They whooped and hollered and half-danced, and perched on a bench/planterbox, waiting for more. I obliged with what passes for rock-n-roll in my repertoire: "Here Comes My Baby", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", etc., some of which they chose off the list.
It was great fun to have somebody actually actively rockin' with us, and they even went so far as to encourage the other people to "get with it". Wow. Unfortunately, they were bound for other destinations, and left too soon. They got the show kicked into high gear for a while there, though. Even after they'd left, other people were energized and asking for songs, 4 deep at one point. It's amazing how the same songs, played the same way, can be completely different depending on how the audience reacts. Those girls certainly made our night.
We made $78 plus a $5 check made out to "Keith and Warren" which I haven't tried to cash yet. Sold a handful of CDs in there, too. We've consistently made more than $50 there, so it's conceivable that we could pay the $50 "setup fee" to play the more public, heavier trafficked, location in the middle of the shopping center, and still come out ahead. It might be worth a try, just for fun -- we'd probably go home with less than if we'd played at the Food Court for free, but it'd be a different experience.
But, bad news, we got permission to play again on 10/10 and 11/01, but after that, they're gonna start charging $50 for the Food Court gigs, too. So we can either quit playing there entirely, or go ahead with the mid-mall location, since it's 50 bucks either way. I suppose we should give it a try -- once, at least.
It's an interesting trick on their part, though I doubt that they mean it to be: charging the band $50 is a clever way to weed out bands that people don't like. The management doesn't even have to audition the bands -- any band that is likeable enough to cover the $50 will play. Bad bands won't (unless they're desperate enough that they're willing to go negative for the night). I guess we're just barely good enough...
So I packed up left. First time I remember bailing early on a gig. Usually playing for quiet people is still better that being home doing nothing, but this was just humiliating.
Of course, I find out later that my brother came by at 9:00, and must have missed me by only a few minutes. That only made it worse...
Anyway, it was a little strange, but OK. There were maybe 8-10 adults there, family, gramma, some friends, and half a dozen kids of varying ages, one of which was the birthday boy, turning 4, I'd guess. One of the adults was also celebrating her birthday, too.
The mom that "won" me knew about the auction in the first place because her daughter also goes to OCHSA, in the Opera conservatory. She was there too, of course, and I could see her quietly singing along with some of the songs, so I invited her up to sing one for real. I strapped my head mic onto her, had to clip the cable to her bathing suit bottoms, but she totally went for it, and knocked "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" out of the park. It was a little odd, because she has this opera-trained su-per ac-cu-rate e-nun-ci-a-tion, and I'm used to hearing it in a more casual pop style. Later on, I asked her to come up again, and we did "When You Wish Upon a Star". On "Will come to you", she practically trilled the L's. Pretty cool. Her dad was apparently traveling or something, 'cuz while she was singing, her gramma came forward, holding a phone out like a microphone, with dad on the other end.
It's kind of odd singing to a dozen or so people who were trying to have their own party, with visiting and swimming and kids running around playing. But I've gotten used to being ignored, I guess, and just carried on. After a spell, we all got comfortable with the situation, and they got brave enough to talk to me, and start asking for songs, and it got more fun as it went along. The lady seemed very pleased to have me -- certainly not your normal backyard birthday party.
I guess Daleen intends to auction me off again this year. We'll see if anybody wants me this time.
Back again at my "local" store, with a promise from part-time fiddler Melina to step up and play again. I had my little camera set up taking movies, but I don't think she was aware of it -- and since she's kinda nervous anyway, I didn't mention it for fear of spooking her even worse.
Like last time, I played solo for a while, and then she showed up and played along for a few songs. She had learned the "real" classical intro line from "Whiter Shade of Pale" and that worked out really cool. She had learned, or already knew, "Ashokan Farewell", but she does the rhythm differently (wrong), so it was pretty baffling for me, trying to follow her. We'll have to have a look at that, and agree on something. We did a couple more songs that I can't remember, and she also played along with "Don't Think Twice" this time, which worked pretty well. I've posted the video, and will try embedding it here.
Overall, pretty fun, but not as magically connected as last time. I had a bit of a fright when the Regulars arrived and, lacking anywhere else to sit, settled into the only empty table there -- the one right in front of me. I was sure it would get ugly and I'd have to fake an emergency phone call from home or a heart attack or something, but they were somewhat well-behaved -- only one woman was talking with her outside voice. It didn't completely derail me, but it's still too distracting to get any magic going. Oh well, still a pretty good night, altogether.
Started off slow, as usual, but got pretty good at the end. I played to dead silence for most of the evening, with a few smiles to keep me going, but there was that "Library" vibe to contend with. But near the end, some families came in, and some other friendly folks, and I started getting some back-and-forth going.
For some reason, there were two big, old, trashed, "school tables" out in the room, taking up space 'cuz nobody wanted to sit at them. The probably had had some kind of event earlier. Anyway, I went ahead and put the CDs, cards, songlists, and tip jar on one of them, which made the setup far more prominent than usual. I was a little afraid to do that, 'cuz this is the one store that's ever enforced the "no CDs, no tip jar" rule, but I didn't see that particular picky manager this time, so I chanced it.
But that apparently made a big difference, because when I finally got some friendly people, lots of them saw the CDs, sign, and jar, and I sold 5 CDs (usually, none), and made $34 in tips and CD payments. Not a record or anything, but not bad.
I set up my little camera to take some movies, but I haven't had a chance to look through the results yet. With the dead silence, and the great acoustics there, I might have gotten some good stuff -- I'm just too busy to find out...
It's a strange place to play, with some people coming by just to eat dinner, and some people coming by on purpose, drawn by the music. Lots of youngsters, some too cool to acknowledge us at all, some bent on being smart-alecs, and some who seem to recognize that we're pretty good, really.
It was kinda surreal -- playing and singing while watching the big full moon rise up over the Edwards 21 marquee...
Near the end, though, a pair of Asian women (a mother and her 20-something daughter) came in, and while they were in line for coffee, the mother was totally getting into the song, which happened to be "People Get Ready", the only overtly religious song I do, requested by a guy who was genuinely listening and getting interested. When the song was over, she said, loudly, "Play that one again!" Huh?!? That's a new one! I said, "But everybody's already heard it!", and she said, to the room in general, "Oh, they won't mind. Will you?" Of course, nobody wanted to answer, or even acknowledge the crazy lady, so they all got really busy with their books and/or coffee all of a sudden, so I said, "How about I do the last two verses over again?", and started them before she could object.
She and her daughter sat down in the table that's right in front of us that's generally empty because it's right in front of us. They were wearing the same bright green T-shirt dress, though the mom had a pink sweater over it. Turns out the daughter is slightly retarded, and the mom is doting over everything she see, touches, or says -- she's also holding her hands across the table and singing along with the song, right into her face. Really odd, but super (over?) friendly, and loving the music.
She asked for some songs, and some more, threatening to hijack the evening, but I tried to let the other guy get in some requests, too. Then she asked for "You've Got a Friend", so I started it up, but she was singing along, as loud as me, at her daughter, but doing the Carole King version, not the James Taylor one, so she was singing sometimes way different stuff than I was, and it was *really* throwing me off. I was ignoring her as hard as I could, but she was too loud, and too wrong.
She was reminding me of a lady that used to work at Toshiba who was similarly Asian, and loopy. We used to call her "Crazy Jean", and a lot of people avoided her, but she was great fun to talk to. I used to go up and talk to her sometimes, just to get a dose of surrealism, 'cuz she had this amazing talent for unexpected tangents and connections -- and her own way of looking at the world. I miss her.
So it was getting close to time to quit, and who should come walking in? Speak of the devil: it's Crazy Jean! She's unmarried, but she had a 12-year old girl (her neighbor's daughter) with her -- they were on their way home from the beach. We happened to be in the middle of "Love Potion Number Nine" when they came in, so she started "bop-walking" to the rockin' beat, and came right up to the front of us. The *other* crazy lady, also right in front of us, jumped up and grabbed Jean's little friend's hands, and started dancing, too. Jean was a bit taken aback, but it looked safe enough, if weird, so she let it go. We just kept playing...
So the other crazy lady starts talking to Jean's friend, gets her name (Alyssa), has her sit on her lap (!), and Jean kinda goes along with it all. Turns out she's a teacher, "owns a school" in San Louis Obispo, and, as she told us while we were packing up, wants us to come up and play sometime. I said that it's kinda far, and she said, "Oh, you just sit down... on a train! You don't even need any baggage..." (a reference to a line in "People Get Ready"). What. Ever.
Weird night...
But it went really well. The acoustics there are nice, and the people are friendly. I think we literally made $4 (to split) in tips, but it's still nice to play to nice people.
I'll miss that place. But not the drive.
Anyway, I went over to the Info desk to get somebody to fetch the store's equipment, and as the guy went off to get it, the college girl behind the counter suddenly asks, "Are you Keith?". I said yes, and she asks, "Are you ever looking for a violin player?" Huh?!? That's pretty out of the blue, and strangely worded, but I recover and say, "Sure! But we don't get paid or anything." She's aware of that, but wants to sit in anyway, and says that she's "classically trained, but I can improv". I'm thinking that anybody with the guts to ask, probably knows what they're doing, or thinks they do -- and if not, what have I got to lose? Anything to shake it up.
So I start setting up, but thinking about it, I realize that since I only play there once a month, and it's 50/50 whether Warren will be there too (which would complicate the issue, with two "lead" players), that tonight's a pretty good chance for her to do it, if she's gonna. I found her at the cash registers and told her as much, but she said that she's working until 10:30 (a half hour past closing time). I presumed she'd get a dinner break sometime, and suggested that she go home and fetch the violin then. She said she'd think about it.
Well, she must have decided to go for it, 'cuz an hour or so in, she showed up with her case. I asked her what songs she thought she could handle, and she started with Paul Simon's "America", to my surprise -- not really an "easy one". But she kept up, and played around in the right key, and it sounded good to me. Then she chose Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", which has a signature Stratocaster riff, and I thought she meant to play it on the violin, and she said, no. Huh? Then why this song? But I played it anyway, and she did better, 'cuz it's a more obvious chord progression, and slower.
Then she asked for "Whiter Shade of Pale". Cool! It's got a signature Hammond organ line that's based on a tune by Bach -- she can play that line, and it'll sound great! But, again, nope. And again, why'd you pick it, then? But she played some stuff that was similar, and it sounded OK anyway -- though the official line would have been more impressive.
She said she'd have to get back to work after one more, so I suggested "Let It Be", 'cuz it's pretty straightforward, and she's bound to know it. And it did work out well.
Between the songs, I tried to impress upon the audience how cool this was, but I guess it was just "some people playing" to them, and nobody seemed as excited as I was to have her there. Oh well. I had to ask her name so I could introduce her -- it's Melina. I talked to her at the end of the night, and she had fun, and I told her that she's welcome any time. I don't know if she'll be wanting to come to any gigs that aren't in the store she works in, but we'll see what happens.
Of course, Daleen thinks that if I want a violin player, I should recruit Geneva. And I love that, but she just doesn't have the time, nor inclination. I guess I should have been working on her, and with her, over the summer...
Anyway, after Melina left, I kept playing, and after a while, some new people filtered in that, for some reason, were really enjoying the music. I had 3 or 4 people around the room that were really into it, and asking for songs, and clapping -- for real, not that "polite" stuff. Their interest seemed to be contagious, and for the last half hour or more I was more connected to an audience than I've ever been. By far. It was amazing. And of course, it's a loop where I play better and better, and people start listening more, and around we go. Exhilarating.
And, for a while at least, I knew why I keep doing this...
Pretty fun. We started off strong due to the crowd of teens who watched us finish setting up, waiting to hear some tunes, and were then very appreciative once we started up. It's always nice to have somebody to start playing for, right off the bat.
We had lots of people stop for a while, all through the evening, and pretty good feedback, generally. But I felt sort of "out of it" for some reason -- like I wasn't really running the show, but that it was running me. Hard to describe, but it just didn't feel right, a lot of the time.
Daleen, Acacia, and all three dogs came along, which made for a pretty tightly packed van, but they walked around the area a lot, and then spent some time near us, attracting more people than the music was, it seemed.
There were a lot more very loud cars and motorcycles going by, and sometimes stopping for far too long right in front of us, due to the crosswalk there. Loud mufflers, and cars with very loud music coming through open windows. Probably more of a Summer thing.
Anyway, it was fun, and different. Don't know why I couldn't get "into it", but I guess there are good nights, and bad nights. Still, I was playing and singing well enough -- that wasn't it. We made pretty good tips, though -- $63 (we'd thought it was $70, but Acacia (who, for some reason, just *loves* to count the money) neglected to subtract the $7 "seed money" that I'd put in). We were thinking that we ought to make a bunch more in the Summer than we had last November, but it's not materializing. Maybe it's the economy...
Huntington Gardens is Daleen's "favorite place" -- they have more plants than you can shake a stick at. Not exactly *my* idea of a good time, but we walked through a few hundred miles of paths through plants, and Daleen and the kids loved it. Must be a Girl Thing.
They have a big Desert Plants section, and some nice Japanese Gardens. Recently, the Chinese, not to be outdone (especially by the Japanese), put in a section of their own, which is even more elaborate.
After the plants, we went into the museums to look at the paintings, which are more interesting to me -- to a point. They really mostly have portraits, and they all start to look alike after a while with the rosy cheeks and lipstick and mile-high wigs and frilly satin and lace -- and that's just the men...
So after the obligatory half-hour in the gift shop, and the obligatory droppage of 75 bucks, we were off to lunch on the way to the Griffith Park Observatory. It was famously recently expensively renovated, and looks exactly the same. They wanted to leave the iconic building alone, so they jacked it up and added an underground "second story", with more exhibit space and another little theater.
I was kind of disappointed that it's still all at elementary school level -- I was hoping that they'd get beyond the "how much you weigh on Jupiter" stage, but I guess schoolkids are their target audience. The planetarium show (with the new comfy seats), on the other hand, despite being "for beginners", was excellent. They really put it together to illustrate the concepts perfectly. "How to explain stuff" is kind of my "thing", and this was simply amazing. Brilliant, even. And well presented too, with a live Actor Guy doing the narration.
So that was pretty fun, too. We had arranged to meet the Spencers there, so the kids had friends to hang with, and from there we went into Hollywood to have dinner, which was a special time, too. A great, if long, day.
A pretty typical outing for Costa Mesa -- some people listening, and some people completely indifferent. I felt good though, singing and playing well, and feeling loose.
But we were cut pretty short, because the store's hours changed and, of course, nobody told us. So we arrived at 7:30 thinking that we were playing 8-10 (or 10:30) for an 11:00 closing time, but the coffee girls told us that they now close at 10, so we only really had from 8-9:30, and even at that we were pushing this cranky crew by cutting close to their "get out of here" time.
It wasn't so bad -- it would have been nice to have been told beforehand, but it wasn't the end of the world. But I could have done without that particularly unpleasant coffee girl's "nyah nyah" attitude. She seemed evilly delighted that we had gotten screwed out of our play time, and that was uncalled for. I get it that we offend her hard-core punkette sensibilities, but she doesn't have to be a jerk about it.
Turns out, she was right. I don't know how long it's been, but it was all *very* familiar to me. The kids must have been pretty young, though, 'cuz they didn't remember any of it.
We walked around all the usual exhibits, but I'd gotten a time-specific ticket for Geneva to see the plastic-ized skinless people. Acacia and I opted out -- we didn't feel the need to see the insides of people. For one thing, it's kind of expensive -- for another, I'm not sure it works both ways -- they probably wouldn't pay *me* 18 bucks to see the insides of *my* stomach. Acacia and I went over to the space museum and looked at the satellites and space capsules instead.
After that, we saw a really cool 3D IMAX movie about prehistoric "sea monsters". It was pretty amazingly realistic, and big fun. We had a little more time after that, so we sped through the Natural History museum. They've refurbed the stuffed animal dioramas by cleaning them up, and repainting the backdrops, and they're *really* good. They're incredibly realistic, and the transition from the real dirt, rocks, and plants to the painting is almost completely invisible. It's pretty amazing.
Anyway, a pretty fun Dad-n-Daughter day.
(Who's that way-too-skinny kid in the back?!?)
OK, I was never actually in Drama at high school, but they'd do a musical every Spring, and they needed singers, especially *boy* singers, so they'd raid the music department to get some. My senior year, I was in the Concert Choir and the "song and dance" 12-kid group, The Mariners, so I got shanghaied into "Mame". I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but I let them talk me into it.
It turned out to be great fun. I never actually saw the play itself, so I have very little idea what it's even about, but we had fun learning the songs and dances for the "production numbers", and I met a lot more girls, and that's what counted, back then.
So, every 5 years or so they throw a Reunion of all the kids that were in Mr. Meyer's (now called "Bob") Drama productions. He taught there from '65 to '74, and all the kids loved him (I didn't actually get to know him at all, but whatever). It works out really well since Drama productions tend to be mixed-grade so you got to know people older and younger than you were -- and of course, by now, the few years' differences are invisible anyway. And the Drama Reunions also kinda serve as Mariner Reunions, since most of us were in the musical, at least.
At every Reunion, they have a long slideshow, using the old round slide tray projector, and everybody sits around and makes cracks at their friends' previous selves. This time, since the slides are starting to dissolve, a guy volunteered to scan all the slides, pictures, programs, yearbooks, and anything else he could dig up, including some previously unseen black and white stuff taken for the school paper and yearbook, and made an incredible "Ken Burns" style slideshow, complete with music. I had access to a projector, sound system, and screen, so I volunteered to be the tech boy. Again.
Anyway, the slideshow was really well done, and everybody loved it. Funny part was, we had to wait until around 9 to start the show so it would be dark enough, so it was over a little after 10, and (most) everybody got up; said "That was terrific"; and went home. Buncha old fogies. So much for that "wild drama party" reputation...
I had a great time seeing a bunch of old friends -- though several that I wished were there didn't make it. Laura, Dawn, Craig, Todd/Dirck, Clark, Saskia, and Michelle were there, but no Johnny, Dave, Ken, Sherry, Mindy, Leslie, David, Janelle, or Denise -- even though I had personally talked, I thought, those last two into coming. I guess I'm just as easy for pretty girls to lie to now as I was back then...
But it's always nice there with the good acoustics, and with the room nearly empty and deathly quiet, I had fun playing in the crystal clarity. And it was nice to have the Spencers see me in such a good acoustic setting for once. Todd's mostly heard me out in some campground someplace...
We were suddenly OKed to play at the Irvine Spectrum Food Court, and since Friday was the only free weekend night we both had free in August, we jumped on it. No pay, of course -- but at least they don't *charge* you, like the $50 you have to pay to play down in the middle of the mall.
It's a bit challenging, but it was fun anyway. There are a lot of people, but many of them are just there to eat their pizza, not to hear some music. Of course, that gives us the opportunity to turn them into fans, assuming we're interesting enough. We had old people, parents, teens, kids, and babies. It was unusually eclectic -- we'd bounce back and forth between "Sweet Baby James", "Hey There, Delilah", and "Rubber Duckie". Had some kids that were fascinated and got themselves lists so they could make requests, and other kids that showed their coolness by showing their contempt.
The biggest problem is the acoustics -- it's outside, so we have to be really loud to start with. But back behind the audience is the kids' fountain, with "spitting" giant turtles and the "jumping water", all programmed in loops so the noise comes and goes -- but mostly comes. I had it turned up *really* loud (*I* thought), and a dad in the first row of tables comes up between songs and asks if we could maybe turn it up a little. "Up"?!? I thought he was about to complain about it being too loud from where he was sitting. So I floored it, which brought even the vocal up to the point of clipping distortion from the speakers. But, oh well.
I had (foolishly) thought that I might get away with playing the electric guitar all night (4 hours! 6-10), 'cuz I use it to practice as I walk around the block twice a day at work, and I'm getting pretty used to the string spacing, and the sound. But the overall acoustics and bad settings made it pretty awful, so I gave it up after 8 or 10 songs. Too bad, though -- it sounds better to be on an electric for the "rock and roll" songs (such as we have), and it's a lot easier on the fingers, too.
At about 9:20, I suddenly wondered if the effects processor was being overloaded by the sheer volume, and looked to see if the caution light was blinking or not. It wasn't, though it should have been, which made me notice that the reverb was turned almost all the way down. That was because I had last used the amp at the wedding, and there was a lot of natural echo in the room, so I turned the amp's reverb way down. After I noticed that and turned it up where it belongs, the whole sound was *way* better -- too bad I figured that out just when it was almost time to quit.
Anyway, it was fun, and different, (and we made $64 to split) so we'll do it again -- a few times anyway.
Way back in February, a young lady and her boyfriend sat listening until the end of my solo gig at the Tustin Borders, and as I was packing the equipment, came up and asked if I play weddings. I hadn't really thought of that, but, sure, email me the particulars. I didn't really expect her to, but she did, and I was on.
I told her to go though my song list and choose which ones she wanted, and she picked all the cheesy love songs from the 70's, and even asked for some more that weren't on the list. I was starting to get the impression that this was gonna be some kind of "retro" wedding, but she never presented it as such, and it wasn't really any different than any other wedding I've been to. On the other hand, all weddings are shamelessly "retro", with the tux and long white dress, etc. Worse than a "hippie theme" birthday party, if you think about it.
Anyway, I made a list of all the love songs I know, and decided to add some more to fatten up the thus-shortened list. I asked her about the new ones, just in case she had an aversion to, say, John Denver (and who could blame her), but she liked them all -- except I specifically pointed out that Paul Stookey's "Wedding Song" was pretty religious (i.e. Christian). She hadn't asked for anything remotely religious, and had pointed out that her brother was "officiating", so I was afraid that she was aiming at an entirely religion-free wedding (like mine!).
She replied that it probably wasn't appropriate, since she's Jewish, and her fiancé is Buddhist. Whoops, scratch one "Wedding Song". A shame, though, since I'm one of the very few that can play it right, despite the thousands who try...
I showed up good and early to the ritzy country club in Yorba Linda, 'cuz I was supposed to play at the outdoor ceremony, and then for the "cocktail hour" between the wedding and the reception proper. That meant that I'd have to tear my stuff down and move it, and I wanted to do that as efficiently as possible.
Turned out that the club provided a P.A. for the outdoor part already, and it had free channels. So I just plugged my mic and guitar into that, and set my amp up in the lobby. After the service, all I had to do was grab the mic, guitar, cables, music stand and book, and go to the country club lobby, and I was ready to play some more.
Esther wanted to walk down the aisle to the Beatles' "Something", which is an odd choice, but, it's her wedding, and I kind of like my strange arrangement of it. She wanted "In My Life" and Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" as the parents, etc. were coming in, and "Somewhere" from "West Side Story" as the walking-out song. The trick (for me) was trying to wrap-up those songs as the events they were to cover ended. But the timing worked out pretty well -- I managed to make the songs end pretty close to perfectly synced.
Everybody seemed to like the music, and several people came up to say so. One guy asked me if I had a CD of "music like that". I told him I had a CD, with *some* stuff "like that", but other songs. He wanted one, and handed me a 20 for it. People are feeling pretty friendly at weddings...
After I was done and packed up, I went and found the country club's wedding coordinator, and gave her a business card. She liked my stuff, too, so maybe she'll recommend me to somebody that comes in and wants some live music but doesn't know where to find any.
So, it went pretty well -- I played reasonably well, sang OK, and got through all the transitions. Esther and her now-husband were walking over to the pictures-spot, across from me, and she gave me a big thumbs-up.
All-in-all, it worked out good, despite my nervousness at playing something a lot more "significant" than a coffeeshop with a dozen people in it. And any gig where you check after it's over and your zipper wasn't down counts as a success in my book.
