Here's the round up of this past weekend's Yacht Rock trip. I made notes along the way. Here they are.
Thursday:
We brought on Mike Bielenberg tonight as the new second keyboardist. He did very well. I think the band enjoyed hearing all the parts. Between Bencuya and myself, we have to drop parts from time to time (for instance if I'm playing a sax solo), so having the extra hands there keeps them going.
I was back across the stage, tucked in between the bass cabinet and Mark Bencuya's gear. It's such a gift to be able to sit and watch him play. He has great command of the vocabulary of this music. It's awesome. I didn't have nearly as much to do, so I tried to steal anything I could from him.
Mark Cobb had a good night. He was solid as a rock.
I had a problem with the power supply for my MIDI wireless. I solved it with batteries. Trip to Radio Shack!
Jimmy Fallon is having Christopher Cross on his show for a "Yacht Rock Party." We are encouraging fans to contact Fallon through NBC and let him know we're out here doing it already.
In the middle of the first set, the effects pedal that I use for my sax died. I trouble shot it and figured out that the power supply was falling out of the socket. Not enough that the unit got no power, but not enough that it would pass on signal. I would have never guessed it, but while I was checking to make sure everything was plugged all the way in, the menu scrolled, stopped, scrolled, and stopped. I found another spot on the power strip, and I was back in the game.
Friday:
Friday, I drove around to get a new power supply. I went to the nearby Radio Shack seeking 9 volts and 500 mA, but they didn't have one. They sent me to the Radio Shack by the big Chicken, which they claimed had seven of them. That store had none. He informed me that Radio Shack didn't even carry that power supply. I went to Guitar Center, and the guy at the counter told me the voltage had to be correct, and you had to have at least the number of mA (but you can go over). Evidentally, the mA is how much your thing draws, and so if your power supply can give more, you're ok, but if it can't give it enough power, you're in trouble.
So...I bought one and brought it home, but it didn't fix my problem.
I loaded in to Andrews Upstairs at 7 PM. Nobody else showed up until after 8. I need to adjust that! I was completely set up before I saw anyone else.
We had a good crowd--I think it was probably sold out. We made good money, and the crowd was into it. I think we as a band wonder how long the crowds will continue to come. So far so good!
Bielenberg had a prior commitment, so I played keyboards as well as my other stuff.
Alyssa Olson sang Don't Go Breakin' my Heart, Physical, and Magic with us tonight. She did very well, and the crowd ate it up. Don't Go Breakin' my Heart and Magic have been two of my worst songs (keyboard-wise), and tonight I did well. That was a relief.
I remember at one point playing keyboards and watching Mark Cobb groove it and thinking about how cool it is to play in a band with these guys. Everyone in the band is so good on his instrument, and everyone gels so well. It's really neat to be a part of this.
We came back from the break with Africa, and I screwed up two measures of the solo. I jumped an octave too low, and that threw me off for a couple of seconds. I want a do-over!
My saxes felt really good tonight--good reeds on both horns. Unfortunately, it was not a big sax night.
We've had some issues with the sound at Andrews the past couple of months. Too many effects (too much reverb on a drumset that's supposed to be really dry), and volume (everybody in the audience complains that volume is unbearable). Things were noticeably better this month.
No much else to report. We took pictures of us wearing our boat shoes for Sebago (that's me up above in the blog pic). You can see all the pictures at Mixtape Atlanta.
Saturday:
Saturday night we played a gig for the Chattahoochee River Keepers. It was in the backyard of an expensive house right on the river. What a cool setting! Actually, that turned out to be true...it got cold after the sun went down!
Opening up for us was an R.E.M. tribute band called R.E.M.ake. Wow! They sounded exactly like R.E.M. I played with them on Finest Work Song and Can't Get there from Here. It was all old stuff (Document and earlier)...really took me back to high school! Mark Bencuya played on a couple of tunes--I think South Central Rain and Rockville. He's awesome. It's understood.
Yacht Rock's two sets were solid. Mark Cobb was with family on a trip to Vegas, so Ganesh Giri Jaya played drums with us. He was super solid. Every song felt good. Plus, he helped me load out at the end of the night.
I screwed up the solo in Africa AGAIN! Same spot, but this time the processor on my computer got overloaded, and it sounded like my sound went underwater. My fingers were right, but I'd forgotten to tap the space bar at some point to clear up delay and reverb that might have continued on from another sound. That was crushing. I screw up WAY too much.
Peter asked me to show him the synth thing in Lido Shuffle that I can't quite play. He didn't say it, but I'm guessing he'll practice and eventually take over that part.
We closed out the night with Takin' it to the Streets. One of my favorites.
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