Red Rock Coffee, Mountain View
19/11/07 06:27 Filed in: Performance
My experience of
performing at the Red Rock Coffee house in Mountain
View. It was a blast!
This last Saturday night I performed at the Red Rock
in Mountain View. I am not an expert at this gigging
scene — so I spent the day carefully doing a bit of
rehearsal, but not too much. Taking it easy. Loaded
up all of my gear with plenty of time to spare. Yes,
it all somehow fits into my little Honda Civic. Now
Oakland to Mountain View is about an hour drive with
some traffic. I gave myself an extra 15 minutes and
headed down the freeway. About 20 minutes from my
home traffic was at a standstill. It was like a
parking lot after a Cleveland Browns game (old family
reference). There is a long winding connector ramp
that connects Hwy 580 to Hwy 880 and no one was
moving. Little by little as we came around I saw that
a car was dead with it's blinkers. But beyond that
car traffic was still not moving even out further...
and that's because about 10 miles down the road from
the first car was a massive accident. So much for
"getting into the zone"...
I arrived about half an hour later than I wanted to, and still somehow was able to unload, park, set up and start a few minutes after 8pm!
OK, all logistics aside this is a fun "urban, hip" space to play in. Downtown Mountain View was hopping! My loyal fans grabbed a couple of the tables in front. It was kind of funny as people were coming into the Red Rock they got very polite and conscientious and most of them were doing that ‘walking under the radar’ dance so they wouldn’t block other people’s view. That’s Mountain View coffee shop etiquette for you!
I played a random set of my songs. I had been wanting to see how that felt as a change after presenting my show, "Brave Open Love" which is highly scripted. I have to admit that highly scripted has some definite advantages. While I liked the freedom to pick what I was going to play next, some of the time I felt a bit unsure. There's so much going on as I'm a solo performer. I think I will probably develop more definite sets of songs to play going forward.
I was intrigued to see who, among those I didn't know, would be interested in my songs. The Red Rock is lined with these nice big low windows so folks on the street can see in and gauge if they want to go inside. One couple outside was looking so intently, in between chords I tried to waive them in! They got a bit embarassed and walked on.
Introducing my new gift strategy. My theory is that if more people knew what Home Concerts were all about, they would turn their next party into a home concert! So I have put together a gift bag with my CD, "Might Be You" and a kit of goodies to inspire the imagination and set expectations for a home concert. I asked the audience to sign my mailing list and told them I would select someone from the mailing list to win my gift bag. One young lady at a table of three won and it was gratifying to see the tables eyes light up as they opened up the gift bag and looked at all the goodies. As she left for the evening I showed her the international hand sign for 'telephone' and said, 'CALL ME!' in my best New York accent.
My PA system. I brought down my PA system, which is just complex enough that I can misplace one cord and get some interesting results. Well…, this is just what happened. For the first few songs I didn't have everything patched the way I wanted it and I had to plug and unplug once I found it. I was spoiled by being able to play acoustically for lots of my performances recently where I didn't have to think about anything more electronic than my tuner.
Audience responses were great. If I played an upbeat song, "Remember Who I am" I saw heads start bobbing. If I played a ballad, everybody kind of leaned into it with me. This is why the Red Rock is a great venue. It is very close to the awareness and attention of a home concert. Although at a home concert you don't get quite as much steam sounds from the Barista. But being a coffee lover I love the smell and ambience of a coffee shop.
Afterwards I got an email from a great guy who said, "I enjoy hearing your songs. I especially like hearing the evolving changes in your performance. Your singing seems more confident on some of the more familiar songs."
I arrived about half an hour later than I wanted to, and still somehow was able to unload, park, set up and start a few minutes after 8pm!
OK, all logistics aside this is a fun "urban, hip" space to play in. Downtown Mountain View was hopping! My loyal fans grabbed a couple of the tables in front. It was kind of funny as people were coming into the Red Rock they got very polite and conscientious and most of them were doing that ‘walking under the radar’ dance so they wouldn’t block other people’s view. That’s Mountain View coffee shop etiquette for you!
I played a random set of my songs. I had been wanting to see how that felt as a change after presenting my show, "Brave Open Love" which is highly scripted. I have to admit that highly scripted has some definite advantages. While I liked the freedom to pick what I was going to play next, some of the time I felt a bit unsure. There's so much going on as I'm a solo performer. I think I will probably develop more definite sets of songs to play going forward.
I was intrigued to see who, among those I didn't know, would be interested in my songs. The Red Rock is lined with these nice big low windows so folks on the street can see in and gauge if they want to go inside. One couple outside was looking so intently, in between chords I tried to waive them in! They got a bit embarassed and walked on.
Introducing my new gift strategy. My theory is that if more people knew what Home Concerts were all about, they would turn their next party into a home concert! So I have put together a gift bag with my CD, "Might Be You" and a kit of goodies to inspire the imagination and set expectations for a home concert. I asked the audience to sign my mailing list and told them I would select someone from the mailing list to win my gift bag. One young lady at a table of three won and it was gratifying to see the tables eyes light up as they opened up the gift bag and looked at all the goodies. As she left for the evening I showed her the international hand sign for 'telephone' and said, 'CALL ME!' in my best New York accent.
My PA system. I brought down my PA system, which is just complex enough that I can misplace one cord and get some interesting results. Well…, this is just what happened. For the first few songs I didn't have everything patched the way I wanted it and I had to plug and unplug once I found it. I was spoiled by being able to play acoustically for lots of my performances recently where I didn't have to think about anything more electronic than my tuner.
Audience responses were great. If I played an upbeat song, "Remember Who I am" I saw heads start bobbing. If I played a ballad, everybody kind of leaned into it with me. This is why the Red Rock is a great venue. It is very close to the awareness and attention of a home concert. Although at a home concert you don't get quite as much steam sounds from the Barista. But being a coffee lover I love the smell and ambience of a coffee shop.
Afterwards I got an email from a great guy who said, "I enjoy hearing your songs. I especially like hearing the evolving changes in your performance. Your singing seems more confident on some of the more familiar songs."
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