Location: Bedford Ave Station on the L train, Union Square Station
Time: 6:15-7PM, 7:30-10PM
CD’s sold: 1
Setlist (new additions):
Optimistic (Radiohead)
I Might Be Wrong (Radiohead)
Gatekeeper (Feist)
“C Waltz” (new song, working title)
Overall: It started out pretty rough. This drummer dude had already taken the spot at Union Square on the L line, so I took the train to Bedford Ave and that spot suuuucked. Nearly everyone was too cool for school, you could barely hear me bc of the trains, and people just didn’t seem to care. So after playing for about an hour and making only $2, I considered I should up and leave while my battery was still alive. And wouldn’t you know it, a cop came over and told me to stop. I can either see it as the final kick while I was down or a graceful sign for me to move on. Thank God I wasn’t given a summons.
So I headed back to Union Square and set up shop on the long corridor leading to the yellow line. Lots of echo since the walls were so close together but not too bad. Played there for about an hour and a half and made some decent bank. Coolest part was right when I went into “Optimistic”, this woman got really excited and started dancing! Like full on interpretive dancing. Her husband or boyfriend or friend or brother was taping her on his iPhone. While she was flowing about, she sauntered over to me and shouted, “I choreographed to this song!” I gave her a big smile while I was singing to signal, “Awesome!” At the end of it, she came over to me and told me about the dance studio she runs and how she built this big performance choreography to Kid A. Then she told me about her plans to curate this ambitious multimedia/dance presentation to Kid A and the possibility of me performing live music. Hmm, who knows? But it’s always great when I play the right song at the right moment.
Then, I saw that the most coveted busking spot in Union Square (the wall right between the yellow lines) was OPEN! I haphazardly tossed my wires into my bag and rushed over there, all my stuff hanging off my every limb, quickly set up again, and finished my last hour in the spot that I’ve been wanting to play at since freshmen year of college.
Then Gae showed up and said, “Play bitch!” At the end of it all, not only did a dude buy a CD, but I got to hear “Out of my boat and into Your arms/ Out of my fear and into Your love” reverberate through one of the busiest subway stations in the city.
