Tailgating

this guy proved once again that the toughest job in the band is the front man/lead vocalist

A few guys from each of the Yacht Rock bands joined together to play at the Shepherd Center Society benefit at The Tailgate.  In other words, we played under a tent in one of those abandoned lots around the Georgia Dome that becomes a parking lot whenever there's a football game.  The band was Pete, K Spence, Monkey, Bencuya, Dani, Ganesh, and me.

Matt Reed (guitarist and big UGA fan) organized the music.  He said load in at the 2, so I was there at 2 (backed my truck up to the stage--nice load in!).  Unfortunately, I had to sit through the opening band.  Witness:

This was one of many fine hits, others of which were Sweet Child of Mine, Here I Go Again on My Own, and some other crap.  I think STP was in there.  The only thing missing was Stacy, babe.

The odor from those two porta-potties directly behind the drums was robust.

By the end of their set, I was thinking bad thoughts, evil thoughts.  I wasn't so much thunderstruck as annoyed that I'd shown up so early.  I was thinking "Matt Reed, why did you do this to me?"

We threw our stuff on stage around 3:30 and started at 4.

hey look!  Vince Neil on sound!  nice heels!

The sound guy refused to move the bass cabinet across the stage because everything was already "wired up."  Like electricity?  Like it all sounds perfect just the way it is and we can't move anything?   he mic'ed up that Ampeg 8x10 cabinet with an SM57.  On purpose.  In fact, Dani and I tried to scoot the cabinet a foot closer to the drums (also a foot further AWAY from me), and sound guy started yelling at me from across the stage because I'd knocked the 57 (and the one foot tall mic stand it was on) over.   Like it hurt it.

Dannells played Matt Reed's guitar rig and seemed rather uncomfortable about it.

Kevin got a new shirt?

So whatever.  We set up our stuff and played.   Not a bad set!  It was kind of a greatest hits package--What a Fool Believes, Ride Like the Wind, Baker Street, Brandy.  Dani played the entire thing like Larry Graham on crack.  I played a couple of good solos (Reminiscing and I Can't Go for That), and a moderate amount of crap on Lowdown.  Half the PA shut down at one point due to a power failure.

We finished and everybody loved us and we played an encore and maybe the governor was on the way to congratulate us.  We raked our gear off the stage.

hipsters invaded my truck!

protect thy pants

The next band up was Ponderosa.  They were pretty awesome.  I felt like a fraud.  It made me question my career.  We had to leave quickly.

davidfreemanmusic.net