Thursday night, The Yacht Rock Revue and the Yacht Rock Schooner combined Thursday night to bring the smooth 70s sound to the 10 High. It was Mark Bencuya (YRR), Tom Young (YRS), Daniel Morrison (YRS), Mark Dannells (YRR), me (both!), Greg Lee (YRR), and Kevin Spencer (YRS). Two bass players, right? Greg sang on the front line and Tom played bass.
It could have been a big mess--at the very least, is it a Revue gig or is a Schooner gig? Sometimes we do different endings to the same song, and so there was a little confusion. Even just knowing who we were on the microphone was subject to interpretation. The gig turned out to be really cool, though. It was a really good change of pace to have Greg up front, and Daniel really played great. He's come a long way in getting comfortable with the music.
For me, the gig was a little nerve wracking. I was late due to some downed trees and a pretty good thunderstorm that evening. I showed up late and had to set up quickly. Then, my bottom keyboard (the new Nord!) had a buzz in the cable. I wonder if there's some kind of crap in the jack--when I moved the cable to the right side of the stereo output, everything was fine. No noise. I tried putting the cable in my top keyboard, and there was no noise. Then I put it back in the Nord, and it was fine. What the hell? It never does this anywhere but at the 10 High (it's done it twice now, but with different cables and different Nords, which is even weirder).
Once that finally died down, I noticed that my top keyboard (the Fantom) was doing the "save" thing again. I guess blowing the dust out of it didn't fix it after all. It's definitely something going on with the four knobs that control attack, resonance, release, and whatever the fourth thing is. I was thinking that maybe the stems are touching the outer body of the keyboard, because they don't move until the thing starts bouncing around when I play it. I ended up gently pushing them up, and two of them felt like they popped into place--kind of clicked--and then the "save" thing went away. Let's hope that solves it once and for all.
We added Rikki Don't Lose That Number for this gig (as far as the Revue is concerned--Schooner already plays it). I sure hope we keep it. The only people who don't know it are Nick and Pete, and if Greg can sing and play bass, there's almost nothing for them to do. I like that song even though my only part is the gurgly marimba part that nobody notices.
The major disaster of the night was 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Dannells said he couldn't remember it. I couldn't tell who was screwing up. It was terrible, though. They should have just dropped out and played the verses with drums only.
We played Lonely Boy. That was fun--I hadn't seen that one in a while. I nearly tanked the piano breakdown because I started thinking about it and got the "I'm gonna faint" adrenaline rush.
We loaded out in the rain again. Boo.
Friday morning, we were up on a couple of hours of sleep to play on the radio. The Yacht Rock Revue had to be there at 7:15--super early when you go to bed at 3:30! We played Thunder Island and My Life to promote the show at Lake Lanier that we're playing Saturday. It should be super weird--we're on a floating stage. I couldn't hear myself at all in the headphones. All I could do is watch my hands and hope for the best.
I went home and slept most of the day. Those radio things really mess up my sleep schedule.
Friday night, I got to play with the Yacht Rock Schooner at 37 Main in Buford. It was a fun little bar gig, but holy crap! was it loud. Super loud on stage, and I could see people out in the audience plugging their ears (halfway back in the room, too, so you know on the dance floor it must have been painful). I was jammed in the corner of the stage--I guess that's what you get when you show up after sound check! I didn't play particularly well, though I got off a pretty good flute solo. My sax stuff was not too good, though.
The Schooner guys sounded great--Daniel really sounded good, and Shannon's played some outstanding guitar solos. He's really taking off right now! Greg sang on the front line for Ganesh. Danni was on bass, sporting a new shirt!
One of my favorite parts about playing with the Schooner guys is NOT playing and watching Eric Frampton. I tried to steal anything I could from his performance, especially when he's playing parts I play. Anything I can learn from him…hope I can learn something by being in his presence!
We've got a lot more stuff going on in the next couple of days. Stay tuned for more updates.
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