Saturday: We played a friend of the band's wedding in Johns Creek. Nothing unusual about this reception to report, though the crowd was waaaaaaay above average in looks. Also, the pre-gig meal was excellent. The only crappy thing about this gig was the load in/out. At the end of the night, pushing our gear through down a wet, dirty hallway with broken glass was kind of crappy.
Sunday: Up at the crack of dawn to fly to Dallas, TX for a gig. We played a birthday party at a dive bar near SMU. The guy in the seat next to me transformed into a mummy soon after we took off.
Thankfully, we had no problems with Delta even though we were flying a ton of gear--four keyboards, my sax box (with 2 saxes, EWI, flute, piccolo, and 2 sax stands), and a bass guitar checked. Maybe our hometown airline is getting it together? The guy mentioned something about my case being overweight but ok, and with a little research I found out that Silver medallion members (our company credit card) have a higher weight allowance (70 lbs) which extends to everyone on the reservation. A ha! That's going to be our first point in the argument with Delta counter people from now on, as the language on the Delta website is very clear.
We landed at DFW and one of those Mercedes sprinter vans picked us up. Very cool. I wish we had one of these.
We had plenty of down time before load in, so after lunch at Urban Taco (excellent!) I took a stroll around the SMU campus.
Wish I'd known the pool was open!
So, the bar...much like the 10 High in Atlanta (that is not a compliment). The steps to the stage were a couple of glassware trays with gaffe tape.
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| made out of these |
The sound guy misread the stage plot and wired the inputs and monitors backwards--a mirror image of the stage. We set up normally anyway.
The stage sound was not good. There were a couple of resonant notes in this corner of the room, and when Greg would play a G or a Bb they were three times as loud as everything else. I guess the sound guy didn't know how to get rid of that. We also had a few squeaky microphones and ever changing monitor levels. I think the sound guy might have been a little overwhelmed. Another instance where it would probably be worth the expense to bring our own sound man.
Shannon Pengelly subbed on guitar with us and did a fine job.
We haven't played a gig on a stage like this in a long time. I can't say that I miss it.
The most significant part of this experience was the male stripper who popped/fell out of the giant cake and gave the birthday girl a dance on stage. This was a first!
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| I'm not the only one taking a solo in this picture |
Monday: 5:30 AM lobby call for our ride back to the airport. Once again, no problems checking our gear. The guy didn't even weigh the sax box--he just asked me how heavy it was. I rounded down.
Our next gig was a fundraiser at a church in Buckhead, playing a concert in their parking lot. Shortly after load in, the sky opened up, and we thought that the gig might get canceled.
Eventually the weather cleared up and the gig went off without a hitch. We had Matt Reed and the dude from the Shadowboxers (Matt) on the gig. Both Monkey and Pete are on vacation this week.
Whew! We have a few days off before our next show--Friday at the NC Music Factory in Charlotte.
