Yacht Rock had a one night stand in Grapevine (Dallas/Fort Worth) Texas last night at a place called the Glass Cactus. Pretty cool! It's a nice room (holds maybe 1,500 people?) attached to the Gaylord Texan, which is a humongous hotel and convention center kind of near DFW Airport.
Fun gig! We flew out of Atlanta Friday morning…early. This was my first time flying with my Battle Cases sax case--the idea being that instead of lugging two saxes and my EWI, plus my laptop and all the pedals and crap around, I'd check my horns and let somebody else carry the weight. Before I bought the case, I called Delta twice (since we almost always fly out of Atlanta on Delta) to see if I could check a case like this without paying extra charges for size and weight (total linear dimensions of 81 inches and sixty-three pounds). The answer was yes. After I got the thing, I called Delta twice again, asking the same question. Still yes. Thursday night, I was on hold with Delta for an hour and seven minutes, checking with them one more time. They said yes again.
At the airport, I put the case on scale and said "It's a musical instrument," expecting some kind of battle. The guy at the counter was totally cool; he said something like, "I ain't gonna mess with you." My man! Halfway there. I also checked my suitcase with my wireless microphone and sax effects pedal in it and things were good--on my back was my backpack with my laptop and sax mouthpieces. Way better than trying to go through security with two gig bags plus the backpack.
I slept on the plane. Yes! I sat next to Mark Dannells, who spent the duration of the flight drawing mustaches and tattoos on the people in the Delta Sky magazine.
DFW looks the same to me as it always has. Funny how some things stick with you--as soon as I see the revolving doors between the gates and baggage claim, I vividly remember picking my dad up at the airport (probably like 1980-81) and getting pinched in the door. It's never going to go away.
We picked up our luggage (saxes made it just fine), and the Gaylord Texan drivers took us to the hotel. We had lunch and then went over to set up and soundcheck. Nice place! Good backline gear (even though I got stuck with a Nord 2 instead of a Nord 3). The only thing I forgot to bring was a charger for my laptop, but fortunately Pete let me borrow his.
We had some down time for a nap and nothing, so everybody went back to their separate rooms for a few hours. Pete was sick and missed soundcheck, but he'd recovered enough by the evening to make the gig.
The show began at 9 PM. At first, it looked like we were going to be playing for about twenty people, but there were more out there, and by the end of the night, the dance floor looked pretty good. The lights out in the audience were very dim, so it was tough to estimate, but maybe a couple of hundred people were there. Regardless, it was a fun gig! Sooooooooooo much better than the crap we dealt with at the Final Four gig. This one looked and sounded great. Ninety minutes later, we were done.
At the end of the night, I packed up my horns and laptop and we caught the shuttle for the quarter mile ride back to the hotel. One margarita later, I was ready for bed!
The flight home was easy. At check in, the guy wanted to charge me for my case, and I said "It's a musical instrument." He checked with a supervisor and let me go. Two for two!
Hope we get more fly dates like this! Good sounds, no van ride, and no loading gear--love it!
Upcoming public dates with Yacht Rock:
April 19, Summerour Springtime in the City (Atlanta)
April 20, Reagan Rock at Park Tavern (Atlanta)
April 22, Please Pleaserock Me at Buckhead Theatre (Atlanta)
April 26, Summer of Smooth at Variety Playhouse (Atlanta)
May 3, Georgia Theatre (Athens)
May 4, Yacht Rock Revival (Nashville)
May 11, TPC Sawgrass (Jacksonville, FL)
May 17, Braves Game (Atlanta)
May 24, Radio Radio (Indianapolis)
May 31, Purple Rain at Park Tavern (Atlanta)
June 8, Park at City Center (Woodstock, GA)
June 13, Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)
June 14, NC Music Factory (Charlotte, NC)
June 28, Park Tavern (Atlanta)
July 8 Cape May Convention Hall (Cape May, NJ)
July 10 Brooklyn Bowl (New York City)
July 11 Mohegan Sun (Connecticut)
July 12, Power Plant Live! (Baltimore, MD)
July 13, XFinity Live! Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
July 14, The Hamilton (Washington DC)
July 20, Yacht Rock Revival at Chastain! (Atlanta)
July 26, Orange Peel (Asheville, NC)
August 23, Park Tavern (Atlanta)
September 27, Park Tavern (Atlanta)
October 19, Thriller at Variety Playhouse (Atlanta)
November 1, Music Farm (Charleston, SC)
