Playing in coffee shops can be a thankless experience, believe you me, I've done a few. At it's worst it can be like performing in a morgue, to baristas who wish you weren't even there. At the other end, it was like last night, at Buon Giorno where they at least seem to give a care about having live music (house p.a., assistance, and something in the tip jar), and aforementioned staff who were friendly and helpful.
It's also great when folks actually turn out to listen, and I think an attendance record was broken, as far as BL shows go. Again, infinite thanks to you who did. Was it all the FB pestering I did? Sorry, I hope not. And Ross Retzammer kinda saved my ass. The first set was a bit tepid and uninspired, then he broke out his flute and got me back on my toes.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Open Streets
In what is apparently becoming a tradition, I took the BL rig down to Fort Worth's southside for the semi-annual Open Streets event (I did the one last fall too). As I described in my post for the fall event, I had the battery powered Roland amp in tow, full of freshly charged AA batteries. My fears of being not loud enough were assuaged, as a fellow from the yoga group down the street approached, and very tactfully and kindly asked me to turn it down! They had hired a musician, he said. The wrong one, I thought to myself. Well I didn't turn down, but turned the amp in the other direction, eastward down Magnolia, where my buddy Darrin Kobetich and a DJ were blasting their sounds. When you have an event called "Open Streets" this tends to happen, performance/sound zones bleed into each other and it becomes a bit of a mess. I love it.
Several people stopped and listened, showed appreciation, and moved on. I gave away a few cds. Some beautiful little kids came up and stared rapt, like they'd never seen a guitar. A game of musical peekaboo ensued.
After about an hour I broke down, and moved over to listen to Darrin, grabbed a taco from the truck and did some people watching. The ever-gracious DK invited me to jam with he and Harry (on harmonica) and some properly kozmic blooze ensued.
Several people stopped and listened, showed appreciation, and moved on. I gave away a few cds. Some beautiful little kids came up and stared rapt, like they'd never seen a guitar. A game of musical peekaboo ensued.
After about an hour I broke down, and moved over to listen to Darrin, grabbed a taco from the truck and did some people watching. The ever-gracious DK invited me to jam with he and Harry (on harmonica) and some properly kozmic blooze ensued.
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