Lauren and I have been preparing to play at Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica for over a month now. It is a fairly easy thing to do.... so I thought.
In order to play at the promenade and the pier, you must have a permit. In order to get a permit you have to get 2 passport photos taken, fill out an application and take it to Santa Monica City Hall, then they have to process it so you have to come back the next day to actually retrieve the permit. The permit is a piece of neon pink paper with a bunch of rules on it and a stretched out picture of your face.
Anyways, I thought this process would be the worst of it, but boy was I wrong. Morgan, Lauren and I loaded up the car at around 6:30 PM last night to head down. The car was loaded with a full sound system, a generator, a gas tank, 2 guitars, 2 mic stands, a plastic table that was extremely cumbersome, Morgan's camera bag, a chord bag, a sign that said "The Slater Sisters" and the three of us! PHEW!
As we headed down, we were surprised that the traffic was fairly light on the 405 and the 10 fwy. I was feeling optimistic that the night wasn't going to be as annoying as the loading of the car was. Morgan tried to double park on the corner of third street and Broadway, but was immediately stopped by a bicycle cop and told to go to the alley way ahead. We did just that, but it was a fair distance to where we wanted to set up.
We unloaded the car and Morgan went to pour the gasoline into the generator and it spilled all over the place. I really tried to stay positive, but Morgan looked up and he had a look of rage in his eyes! LOL! So Lauren and I had to drag all of the equipment and generator to the area we THOUGHT we should play in. Just a side note: We were given 10 pages of rules and regulations on where we could and could not set-up and what we were allowed to bring. We failed to read those 10 pages!
Once we were all set-up I was feeling good! People were watching us and wondering when we were going to start. Then a guy came up to us and said "You can't set up here. I'm just warning you that the cops will come and say you can't be here". He then pointed to a shoe cart and said " You have to be in between that and the dinosaur hedge (which was a hedge shaped like a dinosaur)" So he showed us exactly where he thought we should set up in between the two. By that time Morgan had come back over from parking the car (which cost $3) and found out that we had to move all of our stuff again. So we dragged everything individually to the new spot and on my way back to grab more equipment a "regular" to the street performing scene stopped me. "Hey, you setting up there" I said "yes" and he said " well I'm setting up here" I was so annoyed by that point that I snapped. "How nice for you" I said. He was not please " Well you aren't going to make any money you know?" , and I wasn't pleased either, "WELL NEITHER WILL YOU!"
We were finally all set-up in our new location and feeling good.... until the bicycle police strolled up. He asked if we were new and then proceeded to give us the run-down on the rules and politics of the street performers on third street. It was very nice of him and the information was interesting. Apparently you have to move locations every 2 hours on the even hour. We had set-up at 7:30PM so we would have to change locations at 8:00 PM. The cop was going to let it slide because we were new. I was relieved, but then Morgan asked about our generator and that was it!
The police was shocked that he hadn't yet noticed the gas generator. He quickly vetoed it and explained the hazards of having a gasoline generator in a crowded place! LOL! I GUESS I understand the logic in that! Whatever! During the cops speech, I was packing up our chords and Morgan was rubbing my shoulders and telling me everything would be OK.(I love him)
The police suggested that we go without the sound system and just play acoustic. We decided it was time to go home instead and try again another day. On our way out I slammed my knee into the mic stand and then proceeded to tug our sound system back to the car and we headed home.
3 comments:
Now you can say that you have really paid your dues. It is now the time to make it big. Then you can buy and electric generator. I am so sorry that this happened. When you are playing huge arenas you will look back at this time and laugh. Or on the other hand, you may still be pissed. By the way, I love you.
umm, you forgot the part about the dead guy in the street (he just looked dead) and calling 911 and waiting for the paramedics to arrive. That was the best part!!
if it helps at all, you made me laugh. i get pissed the same way (except it yet is about a gas generator) and there is david rubbing my shoulders and diffusing. you get so fueled about the smallest things...this is really good for me to point out since today i have been upset about x,y, and z for no apparent reason. i just want things to be perfect...is that so much to ask?
gotta love being a bartlett.
love ya jill.
you will look back and laugh, maybe.
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