We set up and soundchecked. Right from the start, my computer crashed (what's up with that?), and I had a bad cable on one of the keyboards (the sound would come and go). I troubleshot that...no biggie. The laptop...I don't know.
Everything else was cool and the sound was pretty good. Nothing was really loud because we were outside, so I liked that. Pete even had me in his monitor up front. Did I win some sort of award or something? Nick made the comment after the gig "your rig was really in the PA tonight." I'm not sure what that means. I kind of want to be pissed about it, but I'm not sure why I would be.
We went and killed off an hour in the "band room" (really the "bride's room", which meant that half of us sat in the bride's room and half of us in the bathroom).
When we went out to start, I had that thought (like I always do) that my reeds had probably dried out on the mouthpieces and now looked like potato chips. Not this time, though, right? Nope. I spent the first tune (Reminiscing) trying to rehydrate my alto reed while I played a string part with the other hand. I learned later on that the tenor reed was the same way. Why is it that they dry out, but then once I get them flat again, they're good for the rest of the gig, even though I don't play much saxophone at all?
The gig was mostly standard fare, though late in the second set the client asked that we play more dance music (which left us pretty confused--why'd you hire us?). They wanted us to switch to stuff like Celebration (I'm sure Brick House and Mustang Sally were not sure behind, and then maybe they'd cut the cake and toss the garter?). We adapted as best we could.
I couldn't figure out why the chords I was playing in Ride Like the Wind wouldn't work. I always play chords with the right hand and EWI with the left. I kept getting a nasty clash, so every time we came to that chord, I would try and leave out a different note on the keyboard. I figured out after the song that spit had run down the front of the EWI and was causing it to play Bb instead of B natural.
Towards the end of the night, I stood up to take an alto solo, and got almost no sound out of my alto mic. Fortunately there was a vocal mic nearby, so I played into that. When I sat down and looked at my wireless pack, it was off. Dead battery? I looked at my wireless receiver--still receiving signal. I muted the channel because I thought I might be receiving some sort of interference. Aha! I'd left the pack on my tenor on (I have both packs on the same channel, so I only use one receiver). I turned off the tenor and checked the alto again. Now the alto said it had dead batteries.
We finished the gig, but the crowd wanted an encore so we played Takin' it to the Streets. Another sax tune! Cool. We got to the solo and I stood up to let it rip, and got no sound out of my tenor mic. Agh! What the hell? I played the solo in the vocal mic while mentally retracing my steps...I'd forgotten to unmute the channel on the mixer. Way to go, dumb ass. Technology wins again!
Tonight will be better!
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