I left Providence a little before 7 pm and hit a little bad traffic, but didn't think I was doing too bad, and was rehearsing possible little entertaining things to say during the show. (I don't think I ended up using any of them.) I had a moment of panic when I saw a clock on a bank that hadn't be adjusted for the end of daylight savings time, so that I thought it was almost 9 pm instead of almost 8 pm, but a little sanity check with my cell phone's clock reassured me that I was doing OK.
This was the first show that I had ever set up all by myself. I had three instruments (piano, 6 string guitar, and the 12 string guitar I bought from
manfire) and of course I sang. I was sore for several days afterwards from all the lifting and carrying, but really it all went quite smoothly, and I think that I set the relative volumes of the instruments, etc. OK -- or at least the people I asked about it said it sounded all right.My parents and their partners all came to the show and stayed for the first set, which was also the set I was most nervous during, but I think it went OK. To give you an idea of how preoccupied I was: During the first set, a gentleman passed out on a couch in the back of the coffee shop (he was drunk), the staff called 911, an ambulance came, and the medics got the guy up and walking and led him out. I was so preoccupied that I didn't notice any of this, a fact which came as a bit of a shock to my parents when they told me about it later.
During the second set, which was about an hour and a half long, I was much more relaxed.
The surprise hit of the night was C-H-I-C-K-E-N, which got a fair amount of hooting and hollering and also a request for Sesame Street songs. Unfortunately I don't know any.
I had printed up a few copies of a list of all the songs I knew how to play, thinking that if people recognized any of them they might request them. This didn't really work, except that two people requested Waterbugs, one at the beginning of the night and one at the end.
I was worried about running out of material, but I ended up playing from 9 pm to 11:45 with one 15-20 minute break and still had a few songs left in the bag, so it worked out OK.
I ended up making about $21 (plus a Big Y token and an English 50p piece), which is pretty good for a Thursday night and which I hope indicates that people really did enjoy hearing me perform.
It will be nice to play some more shows with Chris again soon. The two solo shows were a fun challenge, and I think I did OK, but I think I play better when I play with him; my soloing in particular didn't seem to have the same spark when I play alone.
Well, my pizza has arrived, and I think I've run out of stuff to say, so I guess that's it!
