Paws at the Plaza

This afternoon (well, officially yesterday afternoon since it's after midnight now), Cinder Bridge gigged for an event called "Paws at the Plaza." We played at Casas Adobes Plaza, an upscale strip mall, as friendly Humane Society staff paraded cute adoptable dogs around.

I expected it to be purely an atmosphere gig, providing background music as dog lovers watched the doggies. As it turned out, we got some actual listeners.

• A few people came specifically to see us. That's always nice.
  
  
• More than a few passersby stopped to listen for a while instead of simply glancing over as they continued on their way. I'm not sure why this surprised me. If I didn't have faith that our music was good enough to listen to, I'd find other ways to spend my time. Still, people are busy, you know? It's neat if we can get them to stop whatever they're in the middle of just to hear us.
  
  
• One of the passersby, upon seeing that we didn't have a tip jar (forgot to put it out, darnit), pressed $5 into my hand between songs. (We later donated our tips to the Humane Society.)
  
  
• During our last few songs, we were joined by a group of kids, all boys, maybe 12 or 13 years old. They seemed to enjoy us. Again, that really surprised me. I have no idea what boys of that age usually listen to, but I didn't think it was Cinder Bridge.

Additionally, the weather was heartbreakingly beautiful and we had a great view of the Catalinas from where we were sitting. All in all, a good day.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, five of the cute dogs got adopted.