Yacht Rock played at the Grady Rock and Ride Festival on Saturday in downtown Atlanta. They closed Peachtree (first time EVER!) and set up a stage in between Westin Peachtree Plaza and the Ritz. It was one of those semi trailers that unfolds into a concert stage.
back of stage
backstage
The weather was good. Actually, there was a nice breeze coming through that kept everything very comfortable, and we were in the shade because of the stage and the surrounding buildings. If we've got to play outdoors in the summer in Atlanta, let it be like this!
So…one hour set. No big deal. For this one, Dannells and I swapped spots, so instead of me being on the far outside, I was tucked in between him and Mark Cobb. I thought I was going to hate it (crammed in between an 18 inch crash and a guitar amp), but in the end I think I liked it. I felt more "in the band" and less like I was "playing alongside the band," and the volume wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
I think I need to work some more on my effects pedal. For Reminiscing, I had programmed harmonies to mimic the sax section thing that happens ("Glenn Miller's band was better than before"), and I tried it and it sounded pretty good to me, but when we played the song everybody on the front line laughed at me. Pete said it sounded like I was under water. Hmm. Not what I intended. No feedback, though, so I think the gate's in the right spot.
We finished at 6:30. Nice!
Sunday's church gig number one was cancelled. At least, that's what we were told last week. Then again, the leader said there'd be an email with the cancellations on it, but I never saw one. Big surprise. I slept in.
Church gig number two was moved to a different room due to the death of the cathedral's air conditioner. We played in the parish hall--kind of a fire drill for a set up. I guess it sounded ok. I am a mediocre soundman at best, and that room sounds horrible, and I was unfamiliar with the equipment. Perhaps not my best work.
Yacht Rock played a good gig last night on the Square in Marietta. The weather got a little wild--right after we loaded in, a bad thunderstorm came through and we had everything under tarps. It cleared off enough for us to play, but eventually the rain returned (with lightning!) and we had to bail on the last half hour.
the wind in his hair
The place was packed! Very cool, and a decent number of people from my neighborhood showed up. If the weather had been better, it might have been even better. We have a gig coming up at the Strand Theatre in November, and I bet that will be packed because of it.
The sound on stage was super loud. There were a limited number of monitor mixes, and I ended up with more vocals than I would ever want to hear bludgeoning my head. Adding to the volume were main speakers right up next to us. Ouch! The sound out front was good (according to reports from the locals), and all of my stuff was in there. Cool.
I'm still trying to get my effects pedal dialed in. I have faith in it, but I can't replicate the conditions of a gig by myself. I need to tweak it some more so that it works within the context of a gig.
Yacht Rock played on the local CBS morning show "Better Mornings Atlanta." We had to be there at 3 AM. That part was not too hard…I'm used to staying up late. The fact that I had to stay awake until 7:30 AM or so…not so fun.
We loaded into the TV studio at 3 AM. Set up, soundchecked, changed. We played a few bumpers (as the show was going to commercials) and a couple of camera shots.
Most of my stuff is inaudible. You should be hearing piano on the first segment (on the chorus you can hear a little bit of the synth, so I know the line works). The second segment is a little better--you can kind of hear me because the guitar and piano parts are kind of sparse. The Web Extra segment is about like the first (I'm not there)--I love the part where there's the big synth solo and you can't hear anything. And you still can't. And then Bencuya adds his layer on top and it's really loud.
Screwed by another shitty mix. Staying up also shot Wednesday to hell. Yippee.
Wow! Last night was a cool little trio gig. Tonight was a terrific quartet gig. Super fun! We (Tyrone Jackson, keyboard; Kevin Smith, bass; Marlon Patton, drums) were in the bottom of the Hub at the World of Coke. I guess it was the acoustics of where were positioned, but we were able to play with all the energy that could be brought, and nobody was offended. I was surprised--we were really pushing, and yet everybody was cool with it. It made for a wonderful evening. Wish I had more of these!
The band was very generous in interpreting my tunes and putting up with my strange harmonic sense and bizarre phrasing. I am EXTREMELY fortunate to get these guys. Who could ask for anything more!
I played a really good trio gig with Tyrone Jackson (piano) and Kevin Smith (bass) tonight. A little one hour reception. We have a quartet gig tomorrow night (adding Marlon Patton on drums), so this was a good little tune up.
The audio!
P.S. If you'd like to check out my YouTube videos of last week's trio gig, you can find them HERE.
I played two bar gigs on Saturday. The first was with Uno Dos Tres Catorce (Yacht Rock playing a set of U2) at Meehan's in Sandy Springs, opening for the REMakes. We loaded into the tent just in time for the sky to explode. The band was trapped with just a few six packs of beer to ride out the storm. We made the best of it…Mark Cobb bought a drum set (60s Slingerlands! Nice!), and Bencuya told us about all the Yacht Rock live recordings he's been editing.
Because of the rain, we started a half hour late, but we blazed through our set and finished in an hour. I think things were pretty good.
Check out how the sound man rolled his rack/mixer out front so he could mix accurately. Impressive! I've never seen a guy do that.
My second gig was playing saxophone and flute with the Yacht Rock Schooner at Dixie Tavern. Another pretty good gig, though the crowd wasn't as good as the last time I played there. Zac Brown never showed up, but Wheat Williams did. The band sounded good! That was a fun gig.
soundcheck
dig the polkadots
On to Sunday…
Church gig number one was fairly easy. The guy who was supposed to get his raise only got half of what he was expecting. He emailed the leader and got no response. Big surprise, since he can check his email on his new iPad!
The church is investing a couple of thousand dollars on a V drum kit. That's good to know. I was worried they had no money.
Usual Thursday night 10 High gig. It was really fun, but geez…I sucked really bad. It was like I haven't thought about any of these songs in a month. Some particular low points were the little synth break in Heart of Rock and Roll (which I practiced and played well in Nashville last week, but haven't thought about since), and All Night Long (which completely bit me in the ass).
My last big equipment upgrade of the year was a new effects pedal for my sax stuff. I bought a TC Helicon Voicelive 2. Super fancy and very state of the art. It seems to be infinitely programmable. I have the first preset built as my basic thing--just reverb. Then, I can turn on (or turn off) chorus, slap reverb, and doubling within that preset by stepping on the different buttons. Crazy. Before, I would have to have a preset for each one. Then I have a big stack as another preset (like three or four octaves wide) for Silly Love Songs. For Heart of Rock and Roll, I have the solo sound, then one harmony set for the little back and forth thing, and then another harmony set where me and another voice move in thirds, and there's a note on top of us that stays the same. Is that crazy or what? I also have a thirds thing for Kodachrome and a couple of settings for I Want a New Drug. Wow. Cool.
It's XLR in and out, and also does fantom power, so I can use my Shure clip on mic without having to power it separately. Plus, the noise floor on it is way lower than that cheapo Digitech pedal, and the effects are much better sounding.
Last night was its maiden voyage. First set, I had some feedback issues because the gate wasn't really doing its job. Boo. I managed my way through by keeping my body between my monitor and the mic. On the break, I jacked up the gate. Unfortunately, I just guessed, and I guessed poorly! I had it at -15 db, so it would only open when I was playing full blast; it kept opening and shutting mid phrase on Silly Love Songs. Oops. Fix it next time?
Bjorn Borg on drums!
Anyway, it was a good gig and everybody else played well, but I was not good. We all had a very good time and the room was moderately crowded, so everybody went home happy! Yay!
Today I had a pianist come over to take a lesson with me on improvisation…like I know what the hell I'm doing! I did my best to interpret my own stream of consciousness stuff. I guess it's kind of good to stop and think about my playing--a lesson for both of us. Since I don't have any kind of "system," I suggested we get together and play, and he could stop us and ask questions. Here are a couple of tunes we played. My time is not too good on either.
So…yeah, the gig at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville was a high point for Yacht Rock. We kicked ass, and the crowd (great numbers, too! something like 320 people all together) loved every note of it. The sound was good (super loud, but what else is new), the vibe was great. When we came off stage after the second set, the crowd was screaming for an encore. Bencuya declared "We're killin' it!"
Once we finished and celebrated and pack up, we drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky in the middle of the night to get away from the Bonnaroo traffic. We arrived at something like 4:30 AM, crashed for a few hours, and drove to Carmel, Indiana (on the north side of Indianapolis). There we set up and played a pretty cool outdoor show for Rock the District 2011. The weather was perfect; low eighties and slightly breezy. We were in a parking lot, but the crowd got thicker as the gig went on, and by the end, people were into it, dancing on rooftops and such.
I was kind of weirded out by the gig. Being back in Indiana--just the smell of Indiana!--was enough to bring back all the stress and tension of being at I.U. I swear I could feel a wave of guilt pushing me to go practice instead of wandering around town for a half hour. It kind of freaked me out.
When we started the show, Nick let the crowd know that five of the seven of us are Indiana University School of Music graduates, and the crowd went wild.
Our three native Indianans (Indians?), Mark Cobb (Carmel), Nick, and Pete (both from Columbus) received a hero's welcome, and all three had large numbers of family in attendance. The big midwestern hug from the crowd made the whole gig feel really good.
We got in the van at 10:30 AM Sunday morning and drove all the way back to Atlanta. I think it was about ten hours by the time we unpacked the trailer.
Speaking of which, this was the first big test for all my cases. I added foam to a couple of cases (one for my speaker and one for miscellaneous crap). A nice job if I do say so myself, and way cheaper than buying them with the foam already inside. Way to go, Dave.
I cut some more foam away from the knobs on my Fantom and had no issues all weekend. I guess that really was the problem. Now I know. Somewhere between here and Indianapolis, I researched the loose knob thing, and it according to the internet, there knobs are all held to the circuit board by solder, so I will probably need to get in there and tighten them up at some point.
We've got a really light week. Don't expect too much from here.
Wow! Great gig last night at the 10 High. The band was really happening.
It looked for a minute like we wouldn't even have a gig. Fifteen minutes before we were scheduled to begin, there was one guy in the room (other than the band).
People came downstairs right as we began. Just in time!
Back to the show…we played great! Mark Cobb was on fire. I think it was the best that he's played (on an entire gig) in a couple of months. He had a great groove and just the right amount of aggression, and the rest of the band fell in behind him. The whole night was like that. Every song felt great. Plus, Vistalites in the 10 High! Hell yeah!
I played pretty well. I played a wrong chord in the intro to Lonely Boy. Damnit! I was thinking about where to play octaves in my left hand in the prechorus, and I forgot to change chords in the intro. Oops. I hate that I messed that up--we play it so rarely, it'll be months before I have another opportunity. Plus, it was just a dumb mistake--not something that I can't play.
After a couple of weeks, I finally got a good solo on Taking it to the Streets. More logic, less BS.
We bailed on Kiss You All Over. Booooooo.
All in all, a really fun night. I hope the whole weekend goes like this.
Other possible titles: Paid in Toothpaste; Greetings from the Land of Poor Fitting Khakis; Let's Get Excited about Shelf Space; My First and Last Day of Business School.
I participated in a really strange gig this morning (and also Tuesday night). The guys who make up Yacht Rock were hired to be the house band (kind of like the Letterman band) for a private event for Proctor and Gamble. It was not, however, a Yacht Rock event--we dressed "like rock stars" (I wore a t shirt and jeans with a leather blazer) and played a much wider variety of music--mostly in the classic rock vein. I had almost nothing to do, so I ended up turning the volume off on my keyboard and faking it for most of the show.
Tuesday night we loaded in to the Marriott downtown. At that time, the song selections were still up in the air, so I brought my full rig: 2 keyboards, EWI setup, amplifier, and a saxophone. Once they settled on songs, it turned out I would only need one keyboard--everything else could go home!
The production team provided in-ear monitors for us, but then they blew threw the soundcheck so quickly we never got good mixes set up. Too bad--we missed an opportunity to really enjoy the benefits. If we could have taken the time to get each guy's ears dialed in, I bet it would have sounded great. Instead, it was pretty bland. I think a couple of the guys ended up not evening wearing them because they could hear the stage sounds better (and the vocals in the house).
We rehearsed the presentation a couple of times. Four upper management P and G guys tried their best to deliver the Steve Jobs-esque presentation. A bit stiff. Do they sell a product to fix that? The entire thing was scripted, rolling along on giant teleprompter screens hung in the back of the room. Easy for us--even the band cues were written in. I drank beer onstage.
Wednesday morning came way too early--had to be there at 7 AM. Ouch! Not fun. We did the show three times. Each show was approximately forty-five minutes long. Lots of business-speak: leveraging assets, SKUs, shelf space, NOS, and some other acronyms that meant nothing to me. Is it a shelf or a display? I dunno. I went numb pretty fast. By the time we were hearing it for the third time, it was almost impossible to pay attention.
I guess it was because there was nothing else for me to do, but I ended up drinking five cups of coffee. When we began the first show of the morning, I was rocking out on tambourine (um, yeah), and I thought I was going to fall off the back of the stage! My head was spinning. Somehow I avoided falling over on my keyboard. By the middle of that presentation, the coffee was burning a hole in my stomach, and I started making plans for my emergency exit from mid stage (how in the hell I ended up sitting in the middle of the stage with the least to do out of anybody is beyond me!). I decided that when the time came I would step off the back of the stage, climb underneath, and puke--there was no other out-of-sight place for me to throw up. I thought if I could get far enough under the stage I wouldn't get it on any of the cables or lights, and it might not smell so bad on stage.
The feeling passed. I went to the restroom many times to set my coffee free.
I spent almost all of second show contemplating how the four guys could all be wearing khakis, and they were all radically different cuts, and yet none of them fit them well, particularly from behind. I wrote an entire presentation in my mind about their pants.
I became fixated with the teleprompter during the third show. Sometimes the presenter was right on it, and sometimes he was all over the place, and I got frustrated when the guy and the operator couldn't get it together. The screen would scroll in reverse trying to pick up the rambling man. Then I started reading along and totally missed the beginning of Beautiful Day.
Songs from the show:
Rock and Roll: tambourine Let's Go Crazy: synth Black Dog: nothing Beautiful Day: synth Who Are You: nothing Imagine: strings Help from my Friends: nothing (actually, I did play wurly on this) Join Together: nothing Back in Black: nothing Pump it Up: nothing Vertigo: tambourine
The third show ended with a fifth executive reading his heartfelt thanks to the "team" off the teleprompter. Very moving. They'd brought a bunch of people out of the crowd and up on stage for Back in Black, and they all stood up there and read it along with him.
We finished around 12:30. They fed us a big mediocre lunch, and we loaded out.
I got home, slept for 10 minutes, got up and taught a clarinet lesson, and went back to sleep for a couple of hours. I'm feeling almost normal again.
I played a trio gig tonight with Tyrone Jackson (piano) and Kevin Smith (bass). Good stuff. The gig was supposed to be 7:30-10:30, but we found out at 6:30 that it had been changed to 7-9 (the money stayed the same, though). Uh, no problem!
We played pretty well, but the crowd was incredibly loud. Really…we could hardly hear ourselves! It was nuts. Fortunately my recorder is kind of directional, so the roar isn't too bad except for a couple of songs in the middle of the gig.
A few videos from last week's duo gig with Trey Wright!
On to the wrap up…
Friday night, Yacht Rock played our monthly show at the Park Tavern. Space Capone opened for us. Great stuff! The band sounded really solid, and their songs are really good. I guess they wanted to wear black suits for the show, but only the trumpet player actually owned a black suit. The rest of them wore…they did not look good.
Our set was really good. No problems other than a crappy tenor reed. I'm scared to death of my equipment right now (keyboard and EWI, I should say), but everything worked fine. That knob thing on my Fantom still comes and goes, and I'm betting that the SKB case has something to do with it. I'm going to cut some more of the foam away and see if that helps. My solution (when the keyboard asks me to save over and over) is to push the knobs into the board (a couple of them kind of pop into place) and up, and that seems like it fixes it, so I bet the foam is pushing them down towards the keys.
I worry a lot about my laptop overheating. The EWI also will play itself in hot, humid conditions, but I can adjust that with the settings. I kind of have to set it for the summer, and then reset it in the fall when conditions are cooler.
I guess it's just the nature of the Park Tavern tent and the lack of monitors, but when I jump up to play saxophone solos, it feels like my microphone isn't even on. I worry about soloing in vain. I guess somebody would push a vocal mic in front of me if mine was not working.
The crowd at the Park Tavern was huge, and for the most part very receptive. Lots of singing along!
Saturday night, Yacht Rock played a private party at the Golf Club of Georgia. My old friend Lee Shealy was working the show, setting up video screens. I hadn't seen him in probably ten years--probably back to the days when he played keyboards in Atlanta Beat. I was excited for him to see what we do.
The band played well for the first two sets. Kevin Spencer filled in for Nick (attending Gina's graduation from SCAD! Woohoo! Check out her website here.) We closed out the first set with Kiss You All Over…hadn't seen that one in a while! Bencuya's phased strings were right on the money.
Andrew Gold died Friday. I was hoping we'd hit Lonely Boy, but it didn't happen. I wish that song was more popular in our repertoire.
The third set was a drunken disaster. Pretty embarrassing--hopefully Lee didn't hear that part. The gig then went into overtime! Greeeaaaaaaaaaat…I guess they couldn't tell the difference.
The whole third set and overtime we had to fend off requests that we "pick it up." Some amazon woman came on stage and stood next to me for about two minutes during a song, then finally bent down to ask if we would play Let's Get it Started. Umm, no, and coming on stage to ask doesn't increase your chances. Rich people can be a real drag.
Sunday means church gigs. Church gig number one was ok. I used one earbud--it definitely helped hear the guitar and the bass (and the vocals), but the mix isn't very good, so I don't think I'll go to two earbuds. The leader played organ instead of piano, and it really threw the rest of the band off--we gotten pretty good about playing off what he's doing there. The organ's not even in the headphones. To top it off, we had a sub sound guy.
The band guy who asked for more money got his more money. He and the drummer are now making fifty percent more per gig than me.
Church gig number two was in the parish hall instead of the cathedral due to a deceased air conditioner. I think it sounded pretty good, but I (and the mixer) was buried in a corner behind the band. Once the service started, I couldn't get out in the middle of the room to hear the mix. I used headphones and hoped for the best.
The fingertip drummer did not use headphones and played way better. I suggested afterwards that he try it without next week too--he matches the volume, groove, and intensity of the piano much better without them. I guess he was trying to play to the headphone mix instead of playing with the band.
My first gig was a flute/guitar duo with Trey Wright. We played for the opening of a condo building in Marietta (very convenient that both of us live about fifteen minutes away!), providing mood-setting music for people exiting the elevator. Sounds romantic! It was fun--I never get jazz flute gigs, it was cool to play with Trey again, and nobody bothered us. The crowd got a little loud at some points (don't they know they're ruining my recording!), but we enjoyed ourselves. Easy gig, easy money.
Here's some audio!
I ran home, swapped gear and clothing, and headed out to the 10 High for the regular Yacht Rock gig. A very different playing environment.
The first set, I was Sloppy Joe Saxman. I had lots of little blips where I just couldn't quite get my stuff happening. I did hit on a really nice idea for my sax solo on Reminiscing, but I had a couple of hiccups in the duo thing right before that. The first few songs were like that…I think I was just trying to get accustomed to the sound of the stage that night. It took about half the set before I was completely comfortable.
The second set was irritating as hell. It felt like a couple of the guys phoned it in, and it made the second set take forever. I was not happy. Some of it, I'm sure, was because I was tired, but I couldn't put up with most of the bullshit last night. For instance, the pulling the rug out from under Dannells' solo on Baker Street has been done to death. It's not funny anymore, it's not surprising, he knows it's coming…stop. It hasn't been funny for a while. You're not Mark Cobb--stop telling his jokes.
I'm cool with everybody having a good time--I want to have fun, too--but take care of the music first. The 10 High gig DOES matter.
