The Melting Point is not the easiest room in which to play. The stage is small, and the room is very wide but shallow--you could throw a tennis ball from the stage and hit the back wall. It has a balcony, concrete floors, and glass windows. The sound on stage is loud!
The crowd was really into it, which made it really fun. Big cheers for everything we did…or maybe they were screaming in pain because of the volume. I know that when I took a sax solo, the sound man would bump me up and it was probably the loudest thing in Athens at that time.
I played much better. No boneheaded stuff like the previous night. I think I'm getting over my fear of the Africa solo. We played True for the first time in months, and I still have that solo under my fingers. Why? Of all the things to be glued into my memory!
Speaking of the Park Tavern show, I heard something rattling around in my keyboard, and it dawned on me that I'd put my alto reed on the keys when I was packing up and forgotten to put it back in the holder. In between soundcheck and the first set, I took my Nord apart to get the reed out. Nice work. A perfect cap on that show.
I was in bed at 5:15 AM. Up at 7 AM to begin Sunday!
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