Thursday, March 29, 2018

FLA

The Yacht Rock Revue spent last weekend in Florida (central and north, I should say). The weather was perfect, which means we probably escaped right before the heat and humidity arrived.

Friday: Orlando! We were once again at the House of Blues at Disney. I still wish we were closer to the city, but daaaaaammmnn this room sounds good. Like, so good that I would almost forget to play my parts because I was just listening.


I went for a short run before the gig, and there were people lined up around the building.


Aaaaaaaand...holy cow! There were something like 1,100 people at our gig. It was packed! According to Pete, it was technically a sell out because the floor was completely full, but there was some kind of thing where they could've made some more room in the balcony?...I don't know. It was a frickin' TON of people, they loved it, and the room sounded fantastic. I might also say that we collectively collectively kicked ass. This was the most fun I've had on a Yacht Rock gig since our show in LA a month ago. I should've high five'd myself. I high five'd Mark Cobb instead.


Saturday: The money gig...some kind of fundraiser for a private school in Tallahassee.


I went for a run before this one, too, because we had three and a half hours to kill, and I was pretty speedy on the ol' track, if I do say so myself.


Meanwhile, Kip and Nick plotted the staging and input list for next week's Talking Heads shows. There's also a Garfield rendering by Mark Cobb, a dog made from the number 25 (Pete's contribution), and Mark Dannells' caricature of me.


This one could have been brutal.

1. We were in a tent, so the sound was not so good, especially compared to the previous evening's.
2. We'd been there for hours, sequestered in the AV room of the library, so we were dulled by boredom (also, the provided food was very unappetizing).
3. Our start time was pushed an hour late, so we played two hours straight. For the first forty-five minutes, people were in the adjoining tent, watching FSU lose to Michigan in basketball.

However...there was a plethora of hot moms on the dance floor. It made it all bearable.


Sunday: Lunch in Tallahassee at some hipster Mexican place before we left town. I had two big bowls of black beans and rice. It really hit the spot, even though that quantity of beans going into my body probably scared some of the other guys.


Our first show in Pensacola was at Vinyl Music Hall, a room (if you're familiar with Atlanta) of approximately Smith's Olde Bar size, maybe slightly smaller. I didn't have particularly high expectations. On the third floor was a massive green room with a giant TV, pool table, and ping pong.

The load in was pretty easy, and though the stage was small, we were set up and sound checked pretty quickly. After dinner, I walked down to the pier to witness the sunset.




Back to the gig...


All in all, not bad! The people who showed up (maybe 150?) were pretty into it (though it did feel like there were quite a few music nerds there to see us), and we had fun. I'd play here again. Good energy for a Sunday. Hopefully if we come back, we won't have a guy doing a "live painting" like we did on this night.



Monday: Five or six hours in the van. Truck stop hacky-sack. What the hell?