Last night, I gathered up all my gear and went and staked out a spot in the Park St. station to play some music and (hopefully) make some money. As you can see, I gave it my all.
And it paid off.
Big time.
I made somewhere around $50. Including a ten dollar bill and four fives. Either there are some people out there who had some bill confusion and are now wondering where all their money went, or people really liked me.
I’m an egomaniac, so I’m going to go with “people really liked me.”
I love playing in the subway, because you never know what characters you’re going to run into. Long lost friends, too. And I never fail to have some sort of meaningful interaction with someone who my music manages to reaches out to. Like the two little kids who had a dance party right in front of me (we’ll ignore the fact that they arrived while I was playing Ball and Chain when they showed up and concentrate on the fact that I played my Madonna cover just for them). Or the hipster girl who mouthed along the lyrics to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and then, when her train came in, threw me a couple of goats and gave me a dollar.
We’ll ignore the fascist station employee who kept telling me to turn it down even though I was really not too loud. I mean, for serious, this guy apparently tells the guy who played after me to turn it down all the time. And that guy plays an accordion. Without any amplification.
Please, please, no accordion jokes. This guy is really good.
I’ve learned a lot about playing music to a non-existent audience by playing in the subway. It happens less often these days than it used to. But, that doesn’t change the fact that I can still sing my heart out for an empty station. Although, I definitely feed into the crowd when people are nodding their heads and smiling. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t sing better and play harder when they have an appreciative audience.
I have been extremely fortunate to often find myself with an appreciative audience in between trains.
Like the guy who took a couple of stairways to get from the other platform to mine in order to give me a dollar. Or the little kids who smile and wave like I’m some kind of rockstar. Or the folks who clap after I’ve finished a tune. Or the person who walks by, gives me a shy smile and says “you have a great voice.”
some guy put a business card in my case. I’m not sure if he was attempting to hit on me (this would not be the first time someone had put a card in my case in an attempt to pick me up) or was just drumming up business. He was an intellectual property lawyer, after all.
Sometimes, I think that playing in the subway is pretty much the best gig out there.
For what it’s worth, I’m a huge supporter of the accordion – in fact, I made a point of playing some music that included the accordion at a Lindy dance I DJed on Monday, no joke.
That sounds so fun – I’m glad you had a good time, and I desperately envy everyone who got to see you perform.
Hehe, I wish it were legal to paint in public and not, like, vandalism. “I swear officer, this is performance art! I am enriching lives!!!”
Sounds like a lot of fun!