First show of the year!

Last year’s weather was much more accommodating to playing music on the street, so that by April I’d already played quite a few shows. This year has been more of the usual Portland weather, and it wasn’t until actual spring time that I could dare to venture outdoors with my kit.

And because it was such a consistent location for me last year, it was natural to return to my most frequented spot to kick off the 2016 one-man-banding season. So there I found myself, on one of the first nice Friday evenings of the year, playing in front of the furniture upholsterers shop on Alberta.

I got kind of a slow start, but then, so did the passers-by. It took a while for anyone to even notice me. There I was, fully decked out, playing to empty benches. It was just like last year!

Although I’ve been practicing in the basement all through the cold rainy winter, there was definitely a little rust in the legs, and I wasn’t even sure how long those legs would hold out. But I set myself the goal of playing until sundown and happily, I managed to stay on my feet until dusk.

And a few people did hang out for a while here and there. Mostly parents with kids, even though I don’t think of my music as particularly kid-friendly. In fact, if I were aiming for non-threatening pure entertainment that’s fun for the whole family, I wouldn’t play obscure sidewalks on Friday nights, I’d be at farmers markets and such.

But an audience is an audience, and I’m grateful for the chance to bother someone with my ideas for a while. And I hope some of those kids grow up to do the same.

Note: I’m going to stop including maps in my posts, which makes them impossibly huge to read on mobile devices. Instead, I’ll just link to a map for the curious.