[Dixielandjazz] Audiences & the moon

[Jim Kashishian]

Bob Ringwald remarked on my list of 3 audience ambiences, adding a 4th...the
moon!
He wrote:
>This full moon thing was most apparent when you worked steady, 5 or 6
nights a week  in a club.  You got the feel of the place, and knew
immediately when there was any changes.
I wonder if any other steady working musicians ever noticed this phenomenon?

I can't say I've ever experienced that, and I've been playing long club gigs
ever since the U.S. first landed on the moon in the late 1960's!   :>  (I
recall that nite well as the whole club filed out to go next door to a
coffee shop about 2 or 3am to watch the landing on the tv there!  The
Spanish were very proud of their part in the landing.  What, you ask?  Yep,
tracking stations in Spain were part of the landing, however, I suspected
that the only Spaniards in the stations were janitors & cooks!!) 

I worked 7 nites a week, all year (& for years), during those early years,
from midnite to 4am, then did recording session work from 9am to 9pm, at the
same time. (Daily naps were between 5am & 8am, and 10pm to 11pm...&
sometimes between sets!.  I was young!)

Back to the thread:  Nope, Bob.  The 3 points I mentioned have no rhyme or
reason.  I think it has more to do with a few tables in a small club that
can turn the tide one way or the other in a matter of minutes, rather than
the moon.  No amount of entertaining the audience (& I've got that fairly
pat after all these years!)seems to matter when things sway the wrong way ,
as the masses seem to flow with the few.

Returning to my point (number 2) when it's the band that is not so hot on a
particular nite.  It seems to be more "collective" than one person, as an
email on djml referred to.  Just happens, rarely, but it happens.  No one,
apart from the band would be aware of it, as it is a subtle thing that the
musicians feel.

Anyway, there you go, Bob.  The moon, at least the Spanish moon, seems to
have little effect.

Jim