I decided last night that I need to get back into street performing. Growing up in Hawaii, I would often take off from the North Shore of O’ahu so I could play guitar and sing on the streets of Waikiki. It was so much fun to watch so many different kinds of people walk by as I played and sang. I’d usually make enough money to buy some food and pay my cell phone bill for the month.
I’ve also been inspired by a musician named Dub FX who is primarily a street performer who has blown up. He draws insane crowds for his street performances. His approach to gigs in venues is, if they want him to play at a venue and aren’t able to pay him as much as he can make on the streets or the venue won’t connect him to as many people as he can on the streets, he won’t take it because it isn’t the best use of his time and effort. I want to get closer to something like that.
So I packed up my gear on a Tuesday night and played on an almost dead street in Fredericksburg, VA. The first guy to watch me wasn’t expecting to see me with a looper pedal and distortion on an acoustic guitar. Once we started talking and I noticed his accent, I found out he was from Honduras and that he loves the band Los Pericos, which is a band I cover when I play live. He had dropped some cash in my cup and walked away with a huge smile.
Lastly, I met Lacey. She didn’t think I knew anything from the band Sublime, so I had to help her learn otherwise. She was awesome and hung out for a bit.
Looking forward to how fun it will be to play on the streets of Fredericksburg, VA soon – and hopefully more often.
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