Friday, July 31, 2009

Choppy Seas


Mustache Rock endured some choppy seas last night. Here's how it all went down.

Things were going pretty well, and the crowd was fairly thick, and despite it being super hot and super humid, there were no big problems. I'm still trying to get my coordination down between playing keyboard and then jumping up and playing sax. Evidence of this: I muted my wireless on Careless Whisper because I could hear the keyboard coming through the mic and I was worried about it creating a feedback loop. Unfortunately, when I popped up to play the sax line, I missed the mute button, so I played with no mic for a second. I grabbed the nearest mic and pulled it in front of my for the rest of it. Oops. I think I was getting a little to slick on the muting thing.
In the middle of Silly Love Songs, Nick's sister came on stage to inform Peter that his car was being towed. That messed us up pretty well...we cut the tune short so Pete could find his keys. I, being on the side of stage, missed the everything and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. I just heard Pete yell something about "MY CAR!"
A couple of tunes later, we were playing I Keep Forgetting (me playing the rhodes part). We had talked about slipping into Regulate (a rap hit based on a sample of I Keep Forgettin', with me switching to another synth part and Bencuya taking over the rhodes), and half the band tried to go into that, and half didn't; when the spot came around again, we collectively flinched, but stayed in the tune. Then it was just a grind to the end of the song.
I think the song after that was probably Rosanna, and the EWI ran out of batteries in the middle of the solo! It hung up on one note most of the way through. What a mess!
So...anyway, we got through it. The rest of the night was kind of a grit-your-teeth-and-get-through-it. I can't think of any more disasters, but I think everyone just wanted to get out of there. All part of the fun, I must say. I really can't get pissed off about anything that happened--that's live music! Dealing with it on the spot is part of the magic.
We debuted Sailing last night. Musical Xanax, somebody said. It was fun. I put a lot of work this week into getting the string part happening, so I hope that one's a keeper.
Ooo...also, I switched up a part I was playing in Lido Shuffle from the EWI to the keyboard (the synth solo towards the end). I got it about eighty percent right last night. I'm pleased about that. Next time it'll be twice as good.
Peter Stroud and his wife made it out to the show last night. It's always cool when he comes by.
No gig tonight, but Saturday night is a Yacht Rock private party (I think) in Buckhead.