This is a one-shot downtown Allentown summer gig which I love to do. Normally, I’m set up in a large plaza in the shadow of the PP&L building. Folks do stop by but most of A’town’s biz class strolls right by, on their way to lunch elsewhere.
Today had a substantial threat of rain so I moved to the raid site in the Hilton Hotel across from the plaza. Nobody really knew what to do other than set up in the bar. The bar wasn’t open so we rearranged some chairs, moved some tables and I set up a small sound system. Turns out I didn’t need it.
Surprisingly folks started to show up, include a nearby day-care center with motley assortment of kids, including some tweens in the back. Several families, a woman and her mom in a wheel chair, some familiar hippies faces, moms and little kids. A nice assortment to work with.
Since it was mostly kids and families, I did pretty much the kids stuff. Some of the day-care kids knew stuff off my older albums, so I mixed in some tunes I don’t play a lot recently.
It was fun to play off the fact we were in a bar with a whole lot of children. I also was reminded of my days of old, walking on a sticky floor. I don’t miss it at all.
It never really did pour, but it was enough to be glad we moved inside. It also got the audience up close and personal, something that hadn’t happened in vast expanses of the plaza. I did miss cranking it up in the middle of Allentown and bouncing my music off of city buildings. Bouncing it off people in the Hilton Hotel bar was cool, though.