2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #7 (day 33)
Driving Stats (these have not changed, as I have not driven anywhere since the last post):
Miles Driven - 3362
Average Speed - 42 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5
On Friday the 7th of October, I had my only 3-show day of the tour. 2 of these shows were on campus at The University of Pittsburgh. The first was at the Hillman Library, where the "Emerging Legends" Series is held during the school year. I find it a little humorous that a music series is held in a library. It's not that uncommon of a thing, though, as many public libraries around the country have regular music series. And people come out to listen to music here, so it's a great atmosphere. Today was no exception, and it was a good show. And it's an hour-long show, which means that I don't have to worry as much about straining my voice with an early show. I just added a radio appearance to the last Saturday of the tour, and though I am only doing 2 songs, I need to pick ones with a lower range, so as not to agitate my voice. But this first show on the 7th started at noon, so it was less of an issue.
I went back to my folks' house to grab a late lunch - around 3, actually. The second show of the day was at a nearby coffee shop. And though it was nearby (maybe 15 miles away), it took me about 45 minutes to get there through South Hills Pittsburgh traffic. Doh. I started that show a few minutes late, but everything went well, and a good little crowd came out for the show, including some old high school friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It's always great to see old friends at shows, especially when it's people I haven't seen in a long time. The owner of the coffee shop was kind enough to let me eat dinner after the show (and after their closing time), since I had eaten lunch so late in the day.
After this early evening show, I had some time to kill before heading back to Pitt's campus, for my "showcase" appearance at Friday Nite Improvs, the area's only audience-participation comedy show. I ate a banana and called my wife before starting the car up again. I got to Pitt rather early, which is kind of nice, because I usually arrive there later than I want to, because I am always coming from another show to perform at this one. Attendance was good, and again, I got to see some old friends. The Showcase is just a 3-song performance towards the end of the show. I had been asked to do something Halloween-y for the show, and had been working on figuring out "Thriller" over the past few days. But I really didn't have enough time to memorize all the words, or get the music to where I wanted it. So, it being a comedy show, I decided to do something that I thought would be pretty funny: I interchanged lyrics from each of the three verses to make one verse. Consequently, the lines no longer rhymed with each other, and the words didn't make sense most of the time. But it wasn't as funny as I was hoping it would be. I still think the idea was pretty funny. But the way the lyrics mashed up, it didn't result in anything weird enough to be really funny. But I had a guy come up and dance during the song, and he also did the spoken word part at the end of the song rather well.
Then I played a couple of my songs. I'm always a little nervous about how things will be received here, or rather, how and whether it will translate into CD sales, especially since most of the audience is college students. But it went well, and I sold 5 cds after the showcase (not bad for only playing 3 songs), and 14 on the day.
By the way, the CD sales number is up to 108 at this point in the tour. With 5 show dates left (6, counting the radio show), the total number will be close to the all-time high reached this spring. But this tour also has 13 more days than that one, so the comparison would not be fair.
On Saturday, I would play my final western PA show of the tour, at a restaurant where I performed in May. There were a good number of people who came out, and the venue was happy with the turnout. I finally sold the first t-shirt of the tour at this show. T-shirt sales have been unusually low; maybe it's because of the unusually-high temperatures this fall in the eastern U.S.
It was, again, a great week in western PA. Thank you, Pennsylvania! I love you.
Miles Driven - 3362
Average Speed - 42 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5
On Friday the 7th of October, I had my only 3-show day of the tour. 2 of these shows were on campus at The University of Pittsburgh. The first was at the Hillman Library, where the "Emerging Legends" Series is held during the school year. I find it a little humorous that a music series is held in a library. It's not that uncommon of a thing, though, as many public libraries around the country have regular music series. And people come out to listen to music here, so it's a great atmosphere. Today was no exception, and it was a good show. And it's an hour-long show, which means that I don't have to worry as much about straining my voice with an early show. I just added a radio appearance to the last Saturday of the tour, and though I am only doing 2 songs, I need to pick ones with a lower range, so as not to agitate my voice. But this first show on the 7th started at noon, so it was less of an issue.
I went back to my folks' house to grab a late lunch - around 3, actually. The second show of the day was at a nearby coffee shop. And though it was nearby (maybe 15 miles away), it took me about 45 minutes to get there through South Hills Pittsburgh traffic. Doh. I started that show a few minutes late, but everything went well, and a good little crowd came out for the show, including some old high school friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It's always great to see old friends at shows, especially when it's people I haven't seen in a long time. The owner of the coffee shop was kind enough to let me eat dinner after the show (and after their closing time), since I had eaten lunch so late in the day.
After this early evening show, I had some time to kill before heading back to Pitt's campus, for my "showcase" appearance at Friday Nite Improvs, the area's only audience-participation comedy show. I ate a banana and called my wife before starting the car up again. I got to Pitt rather early, which is kind of nice, because I usually arrive there later than I want to, because I am always coming from another show to perform at this one. Attendance was good, and again, I got to see some old friends. The Showcase is just a 3-song performance towards the end of the show. I had been asked to do something Halloween-y for the show, and had been working on figuring out "Thriller" over the past few days. But I really didn't have enough time to memorize all the words, or get the music to where I wanted it. So, it being a comedy show, I decided to do something that I thought would be pretty funny: I interchanged lyrics from each of the three verses to make one verse. Consequently, the lines no longer rhymed with each other, and the words didn't make sense most of the time. But it wasn't as funny as I was hoping it would be. I still think the idea was pretty funny. But the way the lyrics mashed up, it didn't result in anything weird enough to be really funny. But I had a guy come up and dance during the song, and he also did the spoken word part at the end of the song rather well.
Then I played a couple of my songs. I'm always a little nervous about how things will be received here, or rather, how and whether it will translate into CD sales, especially since most of the audience is college students. But it went well, and I sold 5 cds after the showcase (not bad for only playing 3 songs), and 14 on the day.
By the way, the CD sales number is up to 108 at this point in the tour. With 5 show dates left (6, counting the radio show), the total number will be close to the all-time high reached this spring. But this tour also has 13 more days than that one, so the comparison would not be fair.
On Saturday, I would play my final western PA show of the tour, at a restaurant where I performed in May. There were a good number of people who came out, and the venue was happy with the turnout. I finally sold the first t-shirt of the tour at this show. T-shirt sales have been unusually low; maybe it's because of the unusually-high temperatures this fall in the eastern U.S.
It was, again, a great week in western PA. Thank you, Pennsylvania! I love you.
posted by Jeff Miller at 6:13 PM
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