gig story

Today I played a gig at a local mall.  It was for the opening of a new hearing aid store which specialized in their own brand of high-end hearing aids.  The ensemble for the group was a traditional string quartet.

As we were walking up to the store, I remarked to my wife that at least we wouldn’t have to play out in the mall.  Famous last words…

We were shown to a back room where we could stow our cases, and then we returned to the walkway in front of the store to set up.  I should remark right here that everyone who was involved with the store was absolutely very polite and enthusiastic about our playing for their opening, and that always counts for a lot when you’re doing these sorts of things.

As we set up our music stands and got our music arranged we attracted quite a bit of attention from the people who were walking by – quite a few double-takes as people wondered what the heck we were doing.  As we tuned and began to play, I noticed the first of several ironies: that we were playing for the grand opening of a hearing aid store, and we couldn’t really hear each other as we played.

After about 15 minutes of playing, a very tall gentleman in athletic gear came in, and I saw from the banners out front that he was former NBA star A.C. Green, the “NBA’s Iron Man”.

I’m not sure what Green’s connection to the store was.  He might have been a partner in the company, or a franchise holder, or something of that sort, or maybe he was just hired to bring traffic to the store.  I think that’s why we were hired, too, but it was a strange strategy.

You see, having the quartet out in the mall was probably designed to bring people in, but if your clientele is shopping for hearing aids, they might not hear the quartet from any appreciable distance.

Add to that the fact that there were plenty of people who had no interest in hearing aids that came in for autographs of their photos and sports memorabilia.

Several people came up to us and asked if we played at high-end restaurants in town and other corporate events.  I said that we played wherever people wanted us and that it was interesting and fun.  Then we gave them a brochure for the Melegari Chamber Players (a group of musicians that play events around the Portland metro area and beyond).

Later, I thought that if anyone else came up to me, I would say that, no, we didn’t play those sorts of events – we were part of A.C. Green’s entourage, that he brought a classical string quartet with him to all public events, and that the string quartet was the new Cristal.  Sadly, no one else approached.