Roosevelt Island show report

Stacy Rock and I played a shared set in a festival on Roosevelt Island on Saturday, which was really less a festival and more a comedy of errors. First we learned that our set was to be reduced from 10 or 12 songs to 4. Then we started an hour later than planned. Sound/tech issues included a PA that we discovered couldn't handle our 4 modest inputs (2 mics, 1 keyboard, 1 uke) only after we began our first number, along with mic stands that can only be described as comical: no boom stand for Stacy, who had to straddle the straight stand holding her mic and play keyboard around it, and my mic stand was wrapped in tape that secured it at a height more suitable for a small child or an average-sized monkey than a grown woman in high-heeled boots, forcing me to affect a profound stoop. Finally, after our third song (of four), an old man wearing hearing aids and a navy blazer rushed the stage to brandish a flyer at Stacy, bellowing at her that the event after the one we were in was supposed to have started already and we needed to hurry up and get off the stage. We graciously performed our final number and beat a hasty retreat.

Oddly, for all that, it was kind of a good gig. The audience loved our four songs; one woman kept closing her eyes to listen with a look of great pleasure on her face, and all the people milling around the gallery stopped in their tracks to hear us when we started to play. We sold CDs, people signed the mailing list, and Stacy and I may have even scored a couple more gigs out of the experience (at different venues). And I got to visit Roosevelt Island for the first time. My only big regret was that the tram is still undergoing repairs, so I didn't get to take a ride.