Back Into Hiding or On Tour
The next 2 weeks I’m on tour with my regular rock band Led Zeppelin2 (www.LedZeppelin2.com)
I made a huge (for me) breakthrough on Monday when I went out to the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building in SF and played for an hour. Made $35, highest per hour take in a single setting.
This really was the biggest challenge for me, mentally. And I’m not usually mentally challenged.
It’s really the bare bones of the busking gig. Can/Will you set up in a highly populated spot and really make it happen?
It’s one thing to set up in a park in a moderately populated spot, with easy, free parking and no buildings around. People walk by, but they can walk away if they want. Setting up in the middle of a busy walkway in the middle of the city is the real deal.
Found a parking spot. Paid $8 (meaning I went in the hole if I made nothing) for 1 hour 20 min. Jumped out. Ran 1/2 way through the park so I could see the spot was open. It was. Back to the car. Piled the drums on my shitty cart. Bungee strapped them down. Started pushing it through the streets. “I must look crazy to these people” running through your head the whole time.
Pulled up to the spot. Started unpacking while hundreds of people walked by. A couple of guys stood there waiting for me to start.
Its hard to explain the sensation of having just finished setting up your drums in the street. Because once you’ve come this far, you can’t stop. You have to start the next thing immediately. And that means playing. NOT “warming up” or “sound checking”
So I started and I kind of sucked, was tense, couldn’t remember if I ever played the drums before. Seriously weird sensation after probably thousands of gigs played in my life.
After a minute I found my sweet spot and relaxed and started rocking it. Whew.
So, this week I’m back into the safe zone of sound checks, people paying in advance to see by band. Getting on stage in front of 1000 people…safe.
