I was asked to do a 3:30 set at this benefit festival for the Quakertown Food Pantry at St. Paul’s Church in rural Quakertown/Springtown. It was a whole afternoon of music under a big tent, with a big sound system and a whole variety of music acts including my friends Two of a Kind, several local rock bands, a solo guitarist noodling behind loops, and a steel drum band that couldn’t make it for the last set. It paid well, and the church community does it’s best to put on a good afternoon of entertainment.
I made it in plenty of time and set up for my 45 minute set. Once again, I was booked to do family/kids music but there were very few kids when I started. I have to negotiate these sets, playing to the adults while trying to establish the fact that I’m doing kids material. I have to engage the adults as best I can.
I did get to start out with I Can See Clearly Now, a tune that I have recently worked up, but needs some public performance for me to start to own it. Eventually a family settled in, finished the packed supper they brought in. They finished up and asked the dad, the young daughter and son to come up for Giants. It was a good way to engage them and the adult audience. It worked well and the rest of the set kept folks attention, with the help of the children dancing in front of the stage.
Once again, I played for twenty or thirty folks, worked them as best I could and entertained those who were there. It’s hard work, and, between the NJ gig and this PA gig, I was totally spent when I got back to Fourth Street.
I was amused by the other local bands who played before and after me. All the guitarists and bass players brought in incredible effects boards, some having eight or so pedals in front of them. It seems to be the state of the art to have “My Sound” available for these guys, with only secondary thought about the material or stage presentation. This is the world of entertainment, nowadays…. Curious.