Friday, June 5, 2009

Reed Crisis!


I spent the bulk of yesterday dealing with a reed crisis.  By Wednesday night I'd lost faith in my alto set up, and I was worried that maybe mouthpiece had a flaw which made it incompatible with 90 percent of my reeds.  The one good reed would feel AWESOME, but the other nine reeds in the box would be really terrible.  So yesterday I went to work sanding, carving, and praying to the reed gods and we got it sorted out.  What a relief!  I don't want to drop a ton of money on another mouthpiece to replace it (especially if it was just a bad box of reeds).
Yacht Rock last night was unaffected by the weather.  On the way to the gig, I had to stop at a gas station and move all my stuff out of the back of my truck and into the cab due to a furious downpour.  For sure I thought we'd be playing to an empty room last night.  I guess it cleared off, though, because we had a good night, crowd-wise.  My only complaint would be the guy that stood front and center and whistled super-loud to show his approval.  I'm glad he enjoyed it, but every time I came out for a solo, and pretty much had to wait until he ran out of air before I could begin.  Not very smooth, dude.
On the end of Takin' it to the Streets,  I got into a cool thing where I was swinging back and forth between a high A (on tenor), and a flat A, sort of a Stevie Ray Vaughan thing (in my head). 
Tonight we're at Andrews Upstairs.  The weather's nice, so I'm hoping for a great crowd and great show.  We're bringing Regulate in over I Keep Forgettin'.  That crowd is gonna fall out when they hear it.  I guarantee.