Thursday, November 28, 2013

Turkey Eve

Yacht Rock played a sold out Thanksgiving Eve at the Egyptian Ballroom at The Fox Theatre last night--a major step up from last year's Turkey Eve at Smith's Olde Bar.  Way more people, way more fun, and I played much better than last year.


This was a great gig all around for us!  We debuted a few new tunes (I'm Alright, Two Tickets to Paradise) and brought back several that we haven't played in a while (Band on the Run, Sara Smile, She's Gone, Get Out of My Dreams, and Everything She Wants).  I'm pretty sure they all went over well, though with ear plugs jammed deep into my head, I didn't hear much of the crowd.  It's one of the louder stages we've played recently.





Monday, November 25, 2013

Sunday

My AM church gig had a couple of subs--John Hancotte subbed for Charley on bass and Keith played organ in place of the absent Dustin and church organist Ira.  An unusual line up.  Other than that, it was a typical show--a couple of hymns, the big production number, a little soft-shoe closer.  


My PM church gig had an excellent mix going, thank you very much.  They repaired whatever issue was happening with the main speakers, so I got everything going in stereo again (panning things out).  The band leader said it was loud;  maybe my ears are messed up because of this cold, but it didn't seem loud to me.  I like it loud anyway.

My soprano is feeling/sounding so good these days!  I bought a new mouthpiece (a CE Winds Silver Socka) and tweaked a few of the adjustment screws in order to close a couple of leaks, and now it's exactly what I was hoping this combination would be.  It makes me look forward  to my church gigs again.  


Short Skirt Night at the Ten High


Not really…the skirts were at an all time high, but we weren't at the 10 High.  We were at 103 West in Buckhead.



The event du jour was a private party.  I have no idea for whom we were playing or what they were celebrating.  The crowd was into it sometimes.



The food was good and the load in/out was easy.  Zach ran sound and brought a donkey named David;  Kip is somewhere out there holding Shawn Mullins together.  There's nothing else to report.

I'm still sick.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Friday Night

I recorded my horn parts for an original song Friday night at Madison Studios.  I think it turned out pretty well!  Hopefully, there will be more creative opportunities like this coming up.


Thursday, November 21, 2013

West Coast Trip

Yacht Rock has just returned from a short trip to the west coast, with nice gigs in San Diego and Los Angeles.  In between was a wild night on the town.

Sunday:  we flew to San Diego.  No problems from Delta with our gear.  By the way, I have seen that it's now a law that the airlines cannot charge you for checked musical gear if it's under 165 pounds.  You can read about that HERE.  













So anyway, we landed in beautiful San Diego (even the airport is beautiful), picked up rental cars (with the planes flying over us).  We checked into our hotel (right next door to the venue), sound checked, ate…the usual stuff.  The San Diego House of Blues is nice.




My Nord case was the victim of a random peeing by my dog earlier in the week.  When I opened the case in San Diego, I was greeted by a plume of ammonia.  Gross.  I tried to clean it the night before we flew with pet carpet cleaner and Febreeze (and airing it out), but there's still some stink to it.  Since I couldn't put my keyboard back in the case with an open box of baking soda, I bought a box of dryer sheets and laid them out.  If nothing else, the fragrance will hopefully mask some of the pee.  Bad dog.


This gig was fun--the House of Blues gigs pretty much always are (I guess Anaheim's not the greatest), but we had a good showing for a Sunday night (approximately 170 people, two thirds of whom had paid to enter).  San Diego is nice, the House of Blues was groovy, the hotel was cool…I've got no complaints!





I played a pretty sloppy show.  Sorry!

Monday:  we got up late.  Most of us woke up kind of early, since our body clocks were three hours ahead.  I had four cups of coffee (even the hotel coffee was good).  Once everybody was rounded up, we ate lunch and headed up to Los Angeles.  We even let Monkey drive.


The drive north was beautiful.  San Diego and the area north are incredibly scenic.  As we got closer to LA, the landscape changed for the worse.  Downtown LA has a trash problem.  

We started the night at a foodie restaurant called Animal.  Totally not my thing and really expensive.

From there, Elliot Lurie recommended we go see a band called Bern (led by drummer Bernie Dresel) at Cafe Cordiale.  The band was three vocals, rhythm section, and a horn section.  Very cool!  They did some Tower of Power stuff, an Amy Winehouse tune, a Sting song, Fool in the Rain by Led Zeppelin, The End by the Beatles, etc.  It was really neat--a kick ass band in a small room.  I went and stood behind the horn section (Willie Murillo on trumpet, Brian Scanlon on tenor and alto sax, Brian Williams on bari sax, and Alan Kaplan on trombone).  I really dug this.  The horns were tight, and the charts were great.



After that, we closed out the night at the bar at Chateau Marmont.  It's a pretty legendary place.  The bar is hip and the Australian bartender was a babe.  Later in the night, Bencuya was cornered by some creepy lady from Slovenia who not only asked him if he thought she was attractive, but also asked him if he thought she was too wrinkly.  Honesty in a sixty year old hooker is commendable, I guess.  




We got away from her and made our way out onto Sunset just in time to see a van come peeling around the corner with the driver's side door open.  The guy stopped the van across the street, got out, and tried to beat up a parking meter.  At that point, he fell backwards into the landscaping.  As he was getting ready for round two, his friend came running up the street and their argument continued.  They eventually got in the van and drove away just in time for the LAPD to swoop in on them.  

Tuesday:  we had lunch at the Grand Central Market in downtown LA.  Pretty good.  I had chicken tacos.





Our show that night was a private party on the roof of the Grammy Museum for a eighty people (mostly dudes).  Nice, easy gig (two forty-five minute sets).  The backdrop on the hotel behind me was a mural for Anchorman 2.  




I was fighting some sort of illness that peaked in its intensity right around this gig, so I was very thankful that this show was short and sweet.  That said, it was a cool party and the mostly-dudes crowd really liked us (though nobody danced because it was mostly dudes).  







Wednesday:  we flew all afternoon back to Atlanta.  The flight left around 1 PM (local time), and we landed just after 7 PM.  Once again, no problems getting our gear checked.  Walter (who works the counter of Delta on the curbside check in) was fantastic--worth more than we could tip him.




I got home and my dog was so happy to see me that she peed on the floor.  Welcome home!

Hopefully I can get my jet lag sorted out by Sunday, when the ol' AM church gig slams me back into Eastern time.