Those down-home parties with the small crowd never really happen much outside of the movies. But there was one at Dania Beach today. Here is a photo of me actually letting somebody else touch my Danelectro Longhorn bass. That is only because he owns one himself. The PA and gear seen here belongs to that bass player, and he sure does like to play loud.
The most religious of the holidays left in America, Thanksgiving. Even Millie is dining on pork today. Of course, there has to be a few ants at the picnic. One is Nokia, and have they ever gone downhill. Their new phone lasted ten months. I noted inside the sticker said “Made in China”. Yeah, well, they’ve lost my business in any language. Nokia is supposed to be doing great things for the Finnish economy. From now on it will be without my help.In worse news, I may have to close up the computer rental business. Now that e-mail is instant, my core income is down 64% with no other prospects. This is the first month I had to cross-subsidize (something I am loathe to do although people with credit cards seem to have no problem there). The security cam business has not moved a single product.
My November income from performing is down to a third of October levels even with the extra cash from Bingo. Yes, bingo is considered performing when you are the caller. It’s a good thing I’ve got a job, but that job is to keep me above water, not to take cruises on it. (For the record, I am getting paid for today, a holiday, something few Florida employers see fit to do except on Xmas and Easter.)
I missed an excellent photo/video shoot by not bringing my camcorders along. It had been a blustery morning and nobody likes humping gear in the wet. Too bad, as this party turned out as one of the definitive Florida cook-outs, the kind only seen in the picture books. Around fifty people came and went for the afternoon. It was the music that set this party in its own league.
One thing the videos would have shown is the gigantic gap between the styles of The Hippie (him) and Da Bassguy (me). It is comparing apples and oranges--but those differences are valid even though they are not opposites. When the Hippie plays, musicians get up. When I play, the audience gets up. Today showed that beyond any doubt. The Hippie took a break after four tunes, I kept playing, just as a guitarist might.
Whereas we had been playing musical favorites, I switched to crowd favorites. “Gimme One Reason”, “Fire”, “Stand By Me” and I had the dance and stage areas instantly flooded with people. I had people up that had been sitting all afternoon. The crowd was dancing to my bass lines and nothing else. (I purposely stopped a couple of times to emphasize that point.) I just know a country band would be a killer draw around here, and I should have tried out my new backing tracks at this party.
[Photo delayed]
Interesting. I thought I’d show you a picture of said dancers, but I don’t have one. Yet, I took 128 photos at this event, half of them at random. Why do I not have a single snap of the crowd at the stage, even by accident? As this photo shows, I had no trouble taking frontal shots of the [rest of the] band from front row center. The dancing area was therefore vacant when I was not playing. This is a very revealing contradiction.
Bear in mind, this was not a contest. It has always been my inclination to analyze the overall presentation rather than the musical quality (although I can get picky about choice of tunes). This was a little Thanksgiving gig in a Dania Beach tiki hut that turned into a first class mini-festival. I would rate this gig for audience effect as one of The Hippie’s best ever. Free food helps. I’m still going to steal his accordion player. (The accordion player wisely disappeared on his own.)
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
