My biggest problem with shots like this, is though I understand the elements of exposure I'm still enough of a beginner that when I am in a challenging situation like this and concentrating on framing the shot the way I want, it isn't second nature to me and I forget.
It just never occurred to me (though I know better) that I could have gotten a lot more usable shutter speed by bumping ISO to 1600 or even 2500 instead of the 400 I shot these at.
Wasn't until I got home and was reviewing the shots that I remembered and smacked myself (not too hard). Oh well, that is how you learn . . . There will be other nights. And next time I'll bring my tripod.
EDIT: Just to be clear (I'm not always), I pretty much got the exposure I was looking for, but at the expense of to slow a shutter speed. I started by selecting the aperture I wanted, then switching to Manual and dialing back the shutter speed until I got the right (for what I wanted exposure). Have no clue why I never thought about ISO until too late.