Union Square – 2/27/08

Last night Baby Soda played at Union Square up on the mezzanine above the N and R trains. Skilz told me that someone had listed our street hit on their facebook and dancers were expected. I love that our street hit was hyped up! Whatever happened it worked. About half a dozen dancers showed up including Eve and it was really helpful to have them there. The band assembled: Patrick Harrison – Accordion, Jared Engle – Banjo, Debbie Kennedy – Bass, Luke Winslow King – Resonator, David Langlois – Dishes, Jesse Selengut – Trumpet.

In no time at all we (around 8:45) had a good crowd and were having a lot of fun in the music. Two rhythm players certainly helped create a good pocket for the improvs. Patrick and I kept trading off and doing most of the blowing.

Our second set started off weird. Dancers and crowds but there was a bug or a tiny mouse that was out there on the mezzanine. People were trying to step on it and show it away. It kept moving around and hiding and then scooting back out and getting people all agitated. Soon enough we all realized that it was a dude with an invisible string who was moving this thing around. Ha ha ha. A homeless women got freaked out and started to yell. Everybody is looking at this dude running around with his fake bug. After the song, I went up to him and asked him to stop. Patrick wanted to give a tip because it was actually a pretty fun gag.

After that we got really focused and played three very hot tunes and drew a huge crowd! Bourbon Street Parade, Millenburg Joys and Putting on the Ritz. Patrick got into this really choppy aggressive rhythm thing that I jumped on and it was tight.

Right at the end of Ritz a cop came up and asked us to shut it down. 🙁 He was cool about and even let us finish the tune. “Too many people” “Obstructing the pathway” etc… It was about 10:30 at this point.

As we were milling around and selling CD’s after that tune a sergeant waves me over. I’m in good mood so I go up to him with a handshake outstretched and a smile, “What’s up, man” and he says: “It’s ‘Hello, Officer’, not ‘What’s up, Man’. I’m not your friend.” Ok, then. He tells us that we could get a summons for a variety of reasons and we could get arrested for selling CD’s. I didn’t try to reason with him or persuade him. He was basically telling us to move on and we shut it down. No one really got too bummed out or took it too personally. In fact, we are a little proud, I think, to have gathered too big a crowd. Jared and I started to talk about it as a skill to develop: what music to play to keep the crowd just right. A simmer not a boil, when to play a ballad, how much time between tunes etc… so it doesn’t get too hot. A great problem to have!!!

Debbie said that she could play some more and Jared and I decided to go with her to the Bedford Avenue stop on the ‘L’. No one was there and we got to it right away. The acoustics there are great. I can play with my pixie mute and plunger and it is loud enough. The open horn sounds great too. Debbie doesn’t have to push too hard and the vocals carry really well.

The music over all was very satisfying and happy and light and we got a good response throughout the night. We sold 30 of our “Early Jazz and Americana” CD’s