Last night's Yacht Rock gig was a little different from the past month--no Nick (Kevin Spencer in his place) and no Mark Cobb (Ganesh in his place). It was still pretty smooth, but the banter is not of the same quality!
Just like last week, I prepared for the gig like it was some kind of exam. This week's big addition to my performance was playing all of my parts to Baby Come Back on keyboard. Impressive, non? Mais oui. Bencuya's over there having a good time with the rhodes part, so I'm playing strings. On the verse, I'm playing piano; on the choruses, I'm playing clav (with the strings). Then on the bridge, I'm playing the synth part, complete with the big pitch two octave pitch bend. Who's the man! I mentioned my newfound keyboard prowess at the end of the first set, and Bencuya mentioned that he heard everything I played, and it sounded great. I think he was trying to make up for the fact that he repeatedly mentioned how bad I (and he) sucked at the holiday show on Greatest American Hero (Believe it or Not)! The recording from that show needs to disappear. Damnit! I guess when you suck real bad, you suck real bad.
Hmm…past that, let's see. My tenor reed was really soft, and when I stood up to play the solo on Takin' it to the Streets (which we dedicated to Egypt), it completely closed up. Not good! I relaxed my embouchure and got through it, but it felt bad. Too bad, because it sounded good. I just couldn't push it.
On the break, I was standing there talking to Pete and some guy walked up and tried to sell us drugs--"Molly"--which I was later informed is high quality Ecstasy.
Second set was fine. I started Lonely Boy, and I guess I hadn't set the gain on my mixer correctly, because it was SUPER LOUD! Holy crap! I played one handed once the band came in and turned knobs with the other. Other than that, it was the most relaxed I've ever played it. I even anticipated the spot where I (mentally) freak out and forget the chords, so yay for me.
Somebody stole Dannells' set list, so he and I shared mine. While we were in between songs, the girl in front of us pulled his list out of her purse and checked to see what we were going to play next!
Things were going so well…then we started Jive Talkin' and I noticed that my laptop had died. I'd forgotten to plug it in, and it'd been running on batteries the whole time--until now. I thought, "I'll play the synth solo on something else," but I knew I'd need the EWI for the song after this (Peg) too, so I got up and walked across the stage, through the merchandise booth, and over to the corner where my cases were (the band playing the whole time). I missed the first synth solo, got my power supply, walked back, plugged it in, woke up my laptop, and was back in time for the second synth solo. Talk about stupid.
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