It's been a wild spring! Here's what I remember...
Tuesday, April 25, 2023: Chicago, IL. We began this run of shows with a fly date to Chicago, playing a private gig at Buddy Guy's Legends club. Things got off to a good start--a good sized stage, good rented gear, an easy night.
Wednesday, April 26, 2023: Travel Day to Oklahoma City. We had the day off before our next gig, and each of us had two options--fly home for the day, or just go to the gig early. I chose the latter (which unfortunately had a connection through Atlanta!), but I made it to OKC. It was rainy and late and food options were limited, so I ended up with this fine meal from the gas station across the street after a treadmill run.
Before the show, a bunch of us headed to the Thai place across the street. Good food and a good hang!
Friday, April 28, 2023: Ft. Worth, TX. We traveled by van from OKC to FTW, with lots of nothingness in between.
Here we go! Our first night opening for Kenny Loggins at the Dickie's Arena, adjacent to the Ft. Worth stockyards. Quite a smell.
When we arrived, Kenny's band was sound checking.
Man, I was uptight. Checked my breathing, checked that I was smiling; I kept telling myself "I WANT TO BE HERE RIGHT NOW!", and I was cool, but my hands shook like they were made of jello. I messed up the Africa solo. In the video, you can hear me go UGH! right in the middle of it.
After our set, the gear was frantically hustled off the stage and we packed up in the dark while Kenny's band got things set for their set. Then, it was a lot of hanging around until after the show to collect our merch and front-of-house gear.
Saturday, April 29, 2023. In the early hours of Saturday morning, thieves stole our trailer with all of our musical equipment in it. They cut the lock, jacked up the trailer hitch, disconnected the transmission in the van, dragged the van out of the way, and stole our trailer.
Here's the story in the news.
This was kind of a throwaway gig--it was some kind of corporate thing, and we played while everybody grazed the buffet, and nobody paid any attention to us. We then cleared out of the way, and a disco band set up to play out the rest of the night. I guess it was because a no pressure situation, but I had some good solos on this night.
We spent the morning talking to the local police, but then we had to get to Houston to play our next gig. Kip was able to borrow some stuff and rent some stuff so that we could make it through our seventy-five minutes or so that we had to play.
A little keyboard repair...the plug was loose inside this rented keyboard, so the backline guy took it apart to see if we could secure it enough to make it through the night. Success!
The luck of me having my second set of saxophones, flutes, and some gear from the Chicago gig saved me from this being a total disaster. They were fortunately in the other trailer at the time of the theft.
Another clunker of a gig (most people left the room and headed for the bar), but on the flip side we were able to generate some cash to offset all of our theft related expenses over the coming weeks. A gig is a gig, I guess.
In Greenville, we played an outdoor stage along the river called the Peace Center. It's a pretty new venue with very nice green rooms.
As is often the case, by the third night of a run, we were hitting on all cylinders. This was a good one!
Thursday, May 11, 2023: Franklin, TN. Back on the Kenny Loggins tour we go! This one was at an amphitheater built into an old quarry. What a cool space!
Once again, catering was great. This is fregula. Delicious.
Our gig was a little crazy--rain threatened to kill the whole thing, so we ended up starting ten minutes early (much to Kip's surprise), and then we cut a bunch of songs and ended up doing about twenty-five frantic minutes before giving way to the Kenny Loggins crew.
We've been ending our set with She's Gone, and it ends in the key of G major, and Kenny Loggins' Heart to Heart is in G, sooooo...I played the sax solo from Heart to Heart over the end of She's Gone. Kenny Loggins' sax player and I were the only ones who heard it. I think he thought it was funny? He may have been annoyed with me. Anyway, it was funny to me, and it worked, and I promise to never do it again.
We did not have Charles Barkley in attendance this time, but there is a guy who comes to our Birmingham shows who looks like one of my cousins. Every time I see him, I spend the next six songs wondering why he here before concluding that it's not actually him.
Thursday, May 18, 2023: Destin, FL. Here's another one we've played before, a concrete stage in a field with a giant Pringle shaped roof to keep the sun off us. The vans drove us down from Atlanta, so we were kind of late and kind of over it.
Just like last year, this gig started kind of lukewarm, and after the sun went down, people made their way closer to the stage and the energy improved.
Florida moment: the bugs found us later in the gig. Something crawled from my chin, over my mouth and across my mustache while I was playing Baker Street.
The House of Blues here...loves to freeze you (me) with their powerful air conditioner, the food is bleah, and the crew could not possibly care less about your gig, but we pack 'em in there and give 'em a good show. I guess that's just Florida.
Other than that, it was a pretty good gig.
It was really fun to make some horn arrangements (I had arrangements for four horns, so it wasn't very difficult to cut them down to tenor and trumpet), and it was refreshing to play some different songs. Hopefully it doesn't take a full year to find another gig for this group!
The setlist:
