Saturday, June 1, 2013

Purple Rain

Last night, Yacht Rock performed the album Purple Rain as part of our summer concert series.  This show was in a huge tent at the Promenade, up in the northern part of the park behind the Botanical Gardens.  I'd never been up there before;  I'd venture to guess that most park goers had no idea of its existence.  To get there, we had to enter at 10th Street and weave through all the curvy paths and past the power washer guy who was waving us the wrong way.


Anyway…the gig went fine, and it was packed.  The last I heard, there were 1,300 tickets pre sold.  I'm impressed that that many people found the tent.

Do you remember how it felt to take a really huge exam in college?  How ever you'd describe that feeling when you finish--relief?  satisfaction?--that's what finishing Purple Rain felt like.  I don't have much of a feeling for how I played.  I think I did fine, but there was almost no emotion attached to it.  At this point, I have pretty much no recollection of what I did.



The second set was regular Yacht Rock, and we cut loose a bit.

This was the debut of Cartoon Butterfly, another of our originals from our EP.  It's a really harmonically hip tune by Mark Bencuya.  I'm wondering if it's ever been publicly performed before.  With this tune and Lowdown, I ended up playing more flute than alto.


This is what it sounds like When Doves Cry.




Upcoming dates (with Yacht Rock unless otherwise noted):

June 8, Woodstock Summer Concert Series (Woodstock, GA)
June 13, Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)
June 14, NC Music Factory (Charlotte, NC)
June 15, Ziggy's (Winston-Salem, NC)
June 24, Sounds from the Underground--David Freeman Quartet (Atlanta, GA)
June 28, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
June 29, Strand Theatre-Schooner Steely Dan show (Marietta, GA)
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 16-17, Smith's Olde Bar--Please Pleaserock Me (Atlanta, GA)
August 23, Park Tavern (Atlanta)
September 27, Park Tavern (Atlanta)
October 19, Thriller at Variety Playhouse (Atlanta)
November 1, Music Farm (Charleston, SC)