A few vignettes from some recent gigs:
I noticed recently that I have been offered food/fed at every gig I've played for the past few months. Unusual, but appreciated. After one recent gig, I got a call from the client. The affair had been held at a local restaurant, and she'd offered me a meal which I'd declined. She called the next day to apologize for the fact that I hadn't been fed, even though I'd turned down the food when she offered it. She said she'd felt preoccupied with the affair, and thought that perhaps if she'd offered again, I'd have accepted. Nice!
Played a gig for one client we'd played three affairs for in the past. The music requests at those events, as in the pre-job prep conversation for this gig, was Klezmer and Carlebach. At the beginning of the gig, the client comes over and tells us: "play the usual! Some Beatles, Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel." So, we played what they wanted, but it was quite different from what we'd expected to play.
Got a last-minute call from a client who was a little embarrassed to say that he'd been give a relatively low budget for music for this affair by the other side. We've gotten calls before where its been obvious that there were some "family issues" and we try to accomodate when possible. Since we were open that evening, we took the gig. The client came over several times during the affair to compliment the music. At the end of the affair, he came over to thank us, and informed us that one of the other sets of parents (there were several) would pay us. Shortly afterwards, someone came over, thanked us, and handed over a check for the agreed upon amount. We packed up and stepped back inside to chat with a friend for a moment. When we got back out to the parking lot, we noticed our original client standing out in the cold where he had been in the process of calling us on his cell phone. "I know it's not much" he said, handing us some cash, "but I really appreciate your doing this for us. The music was just what we'd wanted."
At a recent Bar Mitzvah, the sign-in book included the following bit of wisdom from one of the Bar Mitzvah boys' peers: "You're a teenager now! Chicks will dig you! Mazal Tov!"
Played a long chagiga for a dormitory yeshivah high school. Three and a half hours of absolute energy. Taking a short break towards the end of the gig, we spoke to the menahel who, looking at the boys who were still bouncing around the room, commented: "You have the easy job. When you're done in half an hour, you get to go home. I have to put them to bed!"
