I had my scheduled concert from last Thursday (threatening rain) moved to Wednesday, as a sort of quickly booked gig. This was a good thing, especially since I could use the check now.
It was a beautiful, warm September day in this cavern in the middle of Allentown, an open plaza with some tables set up, the fountains on and a few folks stopping by for lunch. Otherwise it was PPL employees trucking on by on their way to lunch. It’s always amazing to see folks walk by live music in the middle of a city, as if it happens all the time.
I am grateful that some folks stop by and take in a few songs. I started out with some of my adult material with commentary. It was pleasant, for sure. I also knew that Grace Montessori was going to show up after 12:30. And they did.
Grace Montessori is the school that Jaimie, my son, went to as a wee lad, so there’s some nice history with these folks. I have done some benefit concerts for them as well as some teacher training sessions. I gave them a call to alert them that I’d be nearby and they said they had heard it through the grapevine. Wonderful.
They showed up with the kids in their rope harness – I felt I should have broken into ‘Workin’ on the Chain Gang’ and spread out on the grass lawn to the left of my concrete performance area. Immediately, they started to dance. Since it was pretty hot on the concrete, they tended to stay off the area in front of me, and occasionally one of the teachers would let some of the older kids come up and interact with me.
At that point, I decided to take the mountain to Mohammed, leave the sound system under the tent and go play for the kids on the grass. I don’t need no PA for this, especially with the dearth of audience at the tables in front of me. I did several trip over to play for them, sans sound, and it was fine. It was actually neat to see kids dancing on a lawn in the middle of Allentown. I’m sure the school really appreciated this opportunity, though it was swallowed up in the anonymity of big city. That’s when I do my best work.
I got the check, didn’t get a ticket and headed back to the Southside for my after-school gig at Holy Infancy at 3:30.