Thanks, Alameda

The Beatles had Hamburg.

Could the Eyewitness Blues Band have Alameda?

We had a great time the other night at the Alameda Towne Centre shopping center. All sorts of set-up headaches (no sense re-living the misery here, but here's all you need to know: we started our sound check 11 minutes before showtime), but when the bell rang, we were there.

The audience was supportive and engaged. Kids dancing, parents bobbing their heads to the beat, and even plenty of senior citizens smiling along with us.

It's a great little venue: a temporary stage smack in the middle of an outdoor shopping center. A hundred or so folding chairs. Plenty of space for kids to dash around. And a new restaurant called Zeytini, with jam-packed outdoor tables full of people listening to the show.

Playing live is an interesting thing: you know right away if you're "on", but you don't really know how it sounds to the audience. You look for clues: are they laughing at the funny lines? Are they dancing or at least tapping their feet? Are they scrunching up their faces and walking away?

All we saw was positive feedback, and plenty of people came up afterward to say they thought we'd sounded great.

Even better: the lady from the shopping center said she loved it, and they want us back.

Hamburg, here we come.