February 2025

Just two gigs in February. This should be easy, right? 

Saturday, February 8, 2025: Marietta, GA. I played a gig with some friends at a church, but it wasn't a church gig (per se), though I have played lots of church gigs here. Anyway, this was a big fundraiser party, so the music went from opera to American songbook kind of stuff to a couple of big medleys with Careless Whisper and September and Just the Two of Us.

I liked that this was different kind of gig from what I've been doing, and playing with some different people was cool. I ended up writing my own charts/parts for this one even though things were well organized with charts and recordings. After the rehearsal, I added some more stuff so that I wouldn't just sit there while everybody else was playing. Mostly I played tenor sax and flute, but  a little bit of clarinet and bari sax.

Joe Reda on bass!

Ok, the other side of it: the sound in the room was pretty terrible. It was loud and really difficult to hear what we were doing (the blaring PA speaker in the corner behind us didn't help matters). The guys running the sound didn't seem like total doofuses, so I think that the problem was that the acoustic drums were just too loud for the room, and they had to crank the PA to balance everything with the overwhelming drum sounds. The drums were great! but I bet that if he'd played half as loud, they could have turned down the PA, and then it wouldn't have bled into every microphone in the room, and then we wouldn't have this noise soup in the earphones.

What else...we were supposed to go and mingle with people during the cocktail hour, but c'mon! I'm not going hang around and talk to a bunch of strangers at a random gig! I mean, what would I talk about? So I went and hid in a dark classroom until the show actually started.

The show was broken up in such a way that we played a couple of songs, took a twenty-five minute break and ate some food, played the next "act," took a break and ate some food, played the next "act." I don't think the vegetarian thing I ordered ever even found me, so I filled up on salad and bread and water.

I thought (based on the setlist) that this sucker was going to begin at 6:30 PM, and I'd be back home by 9 PM. But no--it was very drawn out. People loved it! Not what I thought it was going to be, though. 

They've already announced next year's date. I've got it on my calendar, so if Yacht Rock doesn't have anything, I'll be there.

Thursday, February 13, 2025: Sail Across the Sun Cruise (Miami to Cozumel). 

The biannual tradition of stupidity and unlimited Indian food is once again underway, a smooth voyage across the Gulf of Mexico with Train, Living Color, the Pat McGee Band, and a bunch of other bands I'd never heard of.

In late January, Pat McGee messaged me to see if I would be interested in sitting in with his band on the cruise. Of course! It's what I do. He sent me for songs to prepare. Too bad we were on the atrium stage, which is very small and very loud! Killer band, though--it seemed completely unnecessary to try and steal solo space from anybody on stage. I played on Kite String, Lost, and Passion.

Friday, February 14, 2025: Gulf of Mexico.

I saw Living Color play Cult of Personality. They seemed kind of bored.

The Yacht Rock shows finally kicked off on night two of the cruise, with our first set being in the theatre. We had a lot of trouble with the on stage sound--lots of tweaking things right up until the moment they opened the doors, and then we just had to live with it. 

The third keyboard (the one that Pete and Nick played) was of the incorrect generation, so the sounds were not at all what they were looking for. Bencuya's top keyboard was also not the one he currently plays, so he also had some sounds that didn't quite line up. During Baker Street, Pete was playing something that sounded like a boat horn in my ears, which was funny and distracting. The game of gig, as we say.

It was good to finally get going after wandering around the ship for a day and a half, but all the weirdness in the monitors made for a chaotic performance.

Saturday, February 15, 2025: Cozumel, Mexico.

We got off the boat in Mexico. I've been here a few times, so exploring isn't that much fun. Beth and I ended up going for a walk on the main drag, and found a spot with shade and benches where we could look at our phones for about fifteen minutes (thank you international plan).

comparing BMIs

squeezing in a little bit of playing in an empty backstage room

Yacht Rock played the sail away show in the afternoon on the pool deck. Fortunately, the sun wasn't beating down on us by that point, so it was pleasant. Fun show! By the end of this one, I'd made enough monitor mix adjustments that everything sounded pretty normal.

Jerry Becker from Train called in the afternoon and asked if I would sit in on their evening pool deck show on Mississippi, so I stayed around to soundcheck and get ready for that. It went pretty well. I guess Jerry (the music director) didn't let everybody in the band know, so there were some surprised faces when I popped up to play the solo.

Here's a video of it!

After I sat in with Train, Pat McGee asked me if I would sit in with them on their pool deck show. Absolutely! We had a great time, and Pat's band played great. Their percussionist was very drunk, and shouted wild encouragement for every note that I played.

Here's a video of us playing Passion. Everybody got to take solos on this one!

After I'd played my songs and put my horn away, Pat called me back up to play on a song I hadn't prepared. I still don't remember what it was called, but it was in B major, and we just went for it.

Sunday, February 16, 2025: Gulf of Mexico.

In addition to performing three sets, Yacht Rock has a few other duties. For the past few boats, it's been bingo.

Norwegian Cruise Lines has a few people from the entertainment staff to handle calling the game. They kind of ignored us at first. The decent into chaos was highlighted by Monkeyboy interviewed me (on the mic) about Miles Davis' electric era (I am not a fan, I explained) until Pete finally took over for the staffer, and then it was much more fun and chaotic, and Monkey read dad jokes off his phone. If the internet had been worth a damn, I probably would've paid even less attention to what was happening.

In the afternoon, we had our meet-and-greet autograph session. An hour and a half of signing my name on posters, t shirts, body parts, and hats for people who may or may not have any idea who we are.are. A music cruise scavenger hunt. Monkeyboy signed Mark Bencuya's name on a bunch of stuff, which kept us entertained for about thirty minutes.

We played late on the last day of the cruise, closing it out on the pool deck. I don't remember anything about this show. 

ok, bye

The Yacht Rock tour starts this week--new songs, new lighting guy, new guitar tech, new photographer! We'll be in Texas, Oklahoma City, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Vegas, and California in the next few weeks.