This is our third or fourth year playing Purple Rain. Across the band, I think we're all pretty comfortable with it and know our parts; like Dark Side of the Moon, it now only takes us a rehearsal or two to bring it back. It sounded good (we listened to the board tape last night on the way home). I had a few random mistakes, but overall, I was satisfied with my performance.
The second set was a regular yacht rock set. Interestingly, whatever was making my hands not work Thursday went away, and I felt much better about my sax playing on this night. I wonder if this had been a jazz gig if I'd still be saying that.
Something I don't remember seeing at one of our gigs before: people holding up signs. One had to do with a birthday (TURING (sic) 40 NEXT WEEK!), and one was for Pete's birthday.
Mark Cobb played ass off on this gig. All night. Super good stuff.
After the gig, we loaded everything into the trailer in preparation for Saturday evening's gig.
Saturday: After a few hours of sleep, we met up at Nick's at 7:45 AM for the beginning of a long day of gigs.
Our first gig was a big company party for Delta down at their headquarters. We used backlined gear since ours left for North Carolina. Fantom X7-yes! Nord Electro 2-no! After playing an Electro 3 for a couple of years, it's hard to go back to the 2. At least my horns sounded good.
Good on stage sound, though Monkey did not like his choice of guitar amplifier, and the kick drum sounded like craaaaaaaaaap.
This was one of those gigs with an on stage camera man. They also had two cameras out front. It only took me a set and a half to realize that the video screen was above us.
After the break (and some rain), the crowd loosened up. One guy really led the charge.
About fifteen minutes after this show ended, we were North Carolina bound to play a wedding reception in Highlands. Fortunately, we had a crew (Zach, Hans, and Nackers) who took our gear and the PA up early and preset everything so we could walk in. We couldn't have done this without their help.
We had a little bit of down time before the reception began.
I wonder how many other bands playing a wedding get a cheer just by walking in the room? Pretty cool. Obviously we had quite a few fans in the audience.
The reception was nice, though I was totally brain dead by the time we began the second set. For example, I set my microphone and got out my piccolo to play the solo on Call Me Al, and then completely missed the beginning of it. Nice move.
At the end of this reception (just like at the end of the Purple Rain show Friday night), we sent people to the exits with Kenny G's Going Home. Have you heard about this Chinese phenomenon? Read about it here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/china-embraces-kenny-gs-going-home-as-its-anthem-to-go-home-20140512
We packed everything up and headed for Atlanta around 12:30 AM. I made it to the bottom of the mountain before I passed out, waking up back in Nick's neighborhood around 3 AM. Ugh.
