May 2026

Tuesday, May 5, 2026: Ft Lauderdale, FL. We rode the bus overnight (using an extra driver shared between the band bus and the crew bus) down to Fort Lauderdale for a private gig. In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of glass shattering on the floor, and then I laid there trying to go back to sleep. Unable to stop thinking about the glass and my bladder, I finally got up and went to the bathroom, only to discover that the bathroom lighting fixture had fallen off the wall and exploded, but I desperately needed to pee, so I took a wad of paper towels, wiped the glass into the corner (where hopefully no one else would step on it), peed, and went to bed. No way I was cleaning up that mess at 4 AM. It turns out, Nick came upon it soon after that, and he did go get the dust pan and take care of it.

I finally got up and had my coffee once we were parked outside the venue, and then went out for my run. It's already summer in south Florida. Super hot and muggy. Not a pleasant experience.

After my run, I dipped into the venue to set up my gear, and then had a double-decker peanut butter sandwich and most of the fruit (and then some chips). We've played this place (Revolution Live) a few times; this time, we were outside in their patio area, which looked like it'd been designed by Carnival Cruise Lines. It's where I usually warm up for the indoor show.

(unnecessary update on my finger cyst)

After that, it was just an afternoon of waiting around. I helped Greg try and get his Roku working on the bus (successful). I went for a walk, 

At some point in the afternoon, the meter maid came around and gave both buses parking tickets. Apparently, the venue forgot to get permits from the city. 

The day dragged on...I walked to a Publix and got a Pub sub for dinner, but we had to do a meet-and-greet with the VIPs before I got a chance to eat it.

Eventually, we played the gig! It was ok, and the crowd was decent for a corporate kind of thing. Nick got sick during the day and felt pretty terrible by the time he hit the stage, but we made it through a lot of the newer stuff that we'd worked on.

humidity strikes again!

There was an auction immediately following our set, and the place emptied out right after that, so the DJ did his thing for almost nobody.

We had a couple of day rooms a few blocks away, so we went back and forth a few people at a time to shower off before the ride back to Atlanta. I think it took ten hours to get home.

We got home on Wednesday morning and everybody dispersed. 

Thursday, May 7, 2026: Birmingham, AL. The buses were parked in Woodstock, GA for the rest of Wednesday, and were scheduled to pick the band up again in Tucker Thursday morning. Instead of racing across town Thursday morning to get on the bus and go back to sleep, I slept ALONE on the bus Wednesday night. It was creepy, but I got more rest this way, and I woke up halfway to Birmingham and had my coffee.

The crew bus was unable to make it to Tucker--it got stuck behind an accident on the interstate--so the crew guys rode on our bus for the first hour, and then got back on their bus at a rest stop. I missed all that because I was still in my bunk. 

Once we arrived, I put on my shoes and got my run done. Not a bad trail!

Back at the gig, I set up my gear, ate a peanut butter sandwich, and did a bit of saxophone warmup.

dinner from Ampersandwich

flute warmup even though I don't play flute on this tour

met this little guy

Pretty good show. We're still working out the kinks, but it's only show #2. I think the only thing that was a pretty big oops was at the very beginning--the video had no audio, and Nick was really mad about it. There was cussing!

We had post-show ice cream anyway.

Friday, May 7, 2026: Cherokee, NC. My bus coffee failed--something happened and the coffee pod dumped all the grounds in my cup.

Do over!

I slept kind of late, so after having my coffee, I went straight to lunch. The gig here today was at a casino, so the food is all kind of mall food court. These tacos were good, though the chips and salsa were below average.

After lunch, I set up my gear. Very cold room.

I thought today's run was going to be laps around the property--there didn't seem to be many sidewalks in Cherokee--but I found one that went down past the shops and followed the river, so I was able to get my miles in there.

We had a long camera check and a very short soundcheck, and then I spent about an hour playing saxophone in the back of the stage, and probably should've stopped before I wore out my face.

There was a short break for this bleah stir fry:

...and then some flute warmup to kill time.

Nick was feeling better tonight, but his voice was feeling worse, so we subbed a few songs, including Lowdown--good thing I'd brought my flute!

OK show. I was playing fine, but my brain just kind of stopped firing for the last couple of songs. It was a nice room--I can't believe we've never played here before. It sure was cold, though.

I spent some time eating all of the fruit after the show

Saturday, May 9, 2026: Charlotte, NC. Casinos give you meal vouchers to cover food--I think yesterday's total added up to $105, and there's no way to use all of that up, even though you don't get to keep the balance when you use a voucher. Pete decided to use his extra one to buy $35 worth of doughnuts in the morning before we left for the band and the crew.

This is a nice stage, but there's no green room or anything around it--the green room is at a house that's not quite a half mile away. It's a little bit of a walk. Lunch and showers and places to sit are there.

my veggie sandwich

Today was mostly the same--nothing to report. Because of the wind, we were unable to use our video wall, so there were no cameras on this one. Also, the setlist was changed a couple of times because Nick's voice still wasn't back to normal.

dinner

post show doughnut

something stupid was happening

finger update

Tuesday, May 12 - Thursday, May 14, 2026: Atlanta, GA. More rehearsals. We added a few more songs as options for the main setlist (Rhiannon, Danger Zone, How Will I Know, Dancing in the Dark, Love Boat, and maybe one or two others) , but Nick and Kourtney's voices were still kind of froggy, so things were low key. Also, we were rehearsing at the office, so there was no PA. Maybe that's why it felt weird? We could hear through the in-ears, but in the room it was just a little bit of guitar, a little bit of drums, and saxophone. The days were short enough that we didn't even take a lunch break. 

It still took a lot of work to squeeze in those learns--no time and no brain space.

Friday, May 22, 2026: Amelia Island, FL. Another overnight trip on the bus, this time for somebody's rehearsal dinner at a golf club.

a very cold green room

No lighting for this one, so everything was set up and ready to go pretty early in the day (no video stuff, and only a little bit of lighting). After lunch, the runner drove me to the hotel, and I did most of my run on the treadmill (only two miles outside because it was very warm and sunny), and then I took a shower before heading back.

There was a catered dinner in a tent next door to the gig, and after dinner, I was looking at my phone, and all of the sudden I woke up and I was the only one left in the tent.

Weird gig. We were scheduled to play at 9 PM, but they thought it might go as early as 8:30, but it ended up starting at 9:15. As soon as our part of the night began, the majority of the attendees went outside to the bar, and we played a good chunk of our show to almost no one. Later on, about twenty-five people filtered back in for the second hour.

The setlist was a pretty down-the-middle bunch--Brandy, Stuck in the Middle, What a Fool Believes. Africa was perfect tonight! Jive Talkin' was not! I second guessed myself on the little synth solo and started on the wrong finger, and totally crashed and burned. It wasn't pretty.

We got back on the bus and woke up the next morning back in Atlanta.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026: Atlanta, GA to Phoenix, AZ. Everybody-band and crew-flew out the day before. I opted for the evening flight, with the plan that I could get there and just go straight to bed. Which I did. 

But first! Dinner (the tacos were good, the beans and rice was good, the chips and salsa was regrettable).

Thursday, May 28, 2026: Phoenix, AZ. 

The time change also allowed me to get enough sleep, but still get up early to drink my coffee and go for a run before the day heated up. 

Our hotel was a reclaimed office building. Dig it!

Thai lunch with tofu

I think I was probably set up and ready to go by 1:30 PM, so there was lots of time for other stuff--I went through a bunch of flute stuff and even some clarinet before soundcheck. 

After soundcheck, I went out in the alley to play some saxophone, eventually ending up in the trailer of our truck. My playing and my tenor felt terrible and very uncoordinated.

dinner: black bean burger with roasted potatoes. Excellent!

Good gig! I think we were all feeling the time zone change by the end, though. Everybody checked out and went to bed as soon as we got on the bus.

Friday, May 29, 2026: Los Angeles, CA. Ugh. This venue did us wrong. For starters, they forgot to get permits for the buses to park next to the venue, so the best they could do was a pay lot a few blocks away. 

Aaaaand they misspelled the name of the band on the marquee (which cost them some money, as it's written in our contract).

ouch! gas is expensive

After coffee, I went ahead and got my run done--down Hollywood Blvd to Silverlake and back. The guys were just cracking open the trailer, so a college buddy and I went off to lunch. An hour and a half later, he dropped me off, and the local guys were still struggling mightily with the lighting stuff. One of our crew guys turned to me and said, "Yeah...it's gonna be a while," so I jumped out the back door and my college buddy and I took off, hitting Amoeba Records (he'd figured out that he could buy a $1 record and get a seventy-five minute parking voucher), the Funko Store (mostly just to use their bathrooms), and then the Hollywood Drum Shop (which I'd seen a million times on the internet, but never in person). 

Big Ry!

this is the Funko store

fixed it

forever obligated to take a palm tree picture

On the way back from the drum shop, I got called that it was time to set up my stuff, so Big Ry dropped me off, and I went in and squeezed my stuff into place on this tiny stage.

After soundcheck, I ducked down on the side stage and played flute for a while, and I ordered a pickup of Thai food from a restaurant down the street. After flute, I went and snagged it and brought it back, only to discover...that they don't include rice! So it was just a plastic box of slimy veggies. Very disappointing. I ate a couple of slices of bread as my carb source, but it just wasn't the same.

the stage is set!

I went out on the loading dock again to warm up, once again ending up in the back of the trailer. Let's play a gig!

Good gig! In spite of everything that LA threw at us (mostly our crew), we made it to the end. I played well except for my solo on Takin' It to the Streets, which was several minutes of hot garbage.

backstage

We finished up showering and brushing well after midnight, and each of us had to walk through two blocks of homeless camps back to the bus, which was sad and a little bit scary.

Saturday, May 30, 2026: San Diego, CA. I woke up too early (8:15 AM, which is only early to me, and Bencuya) in the Humphries By the Sea parking lot. The usual stuff: coffee, a run (I was fast today!), and then the setting up of my gear. It was a little chilly, and the with the door open to the back corner of the stage, I finally had to stop and get out my jacket. 

Humphries had lunch and dinner for us today. For lunch, I made myself two veggie sandwiches. They were actually pretty good! 

There's a noise ordinance at this venue (no sound on stage til 4 PM), so I went out by the bus to kill some time with an hour of flute. 

And whatever happened here, too...

The big news at soundcheck was that I changed out the reeds on my alto and tenor. Wow! What a difference. Reeds go dead so slowly that I usually don't realize how bad they've gotten (I write the start date on them, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything if we haven't played a lot of gigs). And dead reeds are harder on my embouchure. I'm back, baby!

vegan chili for dinner!

On to the gig...we came out and jumped into the gig, just seconds after I realized that I'd left my EWI since soundcheck, but closed my laptop, and I needed it for the first song (Love Boat). The laptop was receiving MIDI information, but the audio was just an occasional random note, completely not in time with anything. Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I was immediately trying to play keyboards with one had while diagnosing the problem. The band's just chugging along and I'm over here freaking out.

I tried turning the EWI off and back on. Did that fix it? Test in between the next two songs. No.

I tried hitting the space bar with the EWI on. Test that between songs. That didn't fix it.

Spacebar with the EWI off? No.

Close MainStage (the program I use for sounds) and reopen it? Did that do it? Test between songs. Nope.

Finally, I shut down my computer, waited a couple of seconds, and started the whole thing over. Success!!! In the mean time, I'd made a hundred mistakes trying to play the show while dealing with this. Needless to say, I was frazzled for the first third of the gig. Then I messed up the Africa solo. Great. 

I did finally settle down, and I did play a better Taking It to the Streets solo, probably because of the new reed.

After the show, I packed up my laptop, saxophones (and EWI), and my keyboards, and the local guys (who were excellent, by the way), and left my other stuff in place. Maybe tomorrow will be the day that I get all the parts of my performance to come together!

Sunday, May 31, 2026: San Diego, CA. Repeat! Coffee, run, lunch (the closest Thai place was really good).

After that, I played flute by the bus until it was time to go set my horns and keyboards up again. After soundcheck, I played a little bit of clarinet and a little bit of saxophone, then it was time to eat again.

The gig was better, and my computer didn't do anything bizarre. I did plug in my keyboards backwards (the wrong cable in the wrong keyboard), but it didn't make a huge difference. The Africa solo? I have no idea how it went. I think I did ok, but the internal noise/chatter in my head was so loud that the moment came and went. 

Day off tomorrow.