September 2026

Whew! September continued the busy touring of August. But first...an update on the Nord!

I contacted Nord and asked them how to get my keyboard repaired, and they suggested a few places around Atlanta (none of which had particularly good reviews). All three electronics shops had a few reviews that said, I dropped my gear off, they didn't contact me/respond to my calls for two months, and then I went to get my gear back and they said that they couldn't fix it anyway. Hmmm. Not encouraging! My gut feeling was that something similar would happen--they'd sit on in for six weeks, only to eventually tell me that the problem is on the main circuit board, and I'd need to replace it, and then it would take another month before they finally took care of it. Sooooo, I bought a circuit board (for $1,100) from a parts website. Hope it works!

In the meantime, here's the old circuit board. Hopefully this is my problem!...otherwise I've just spent a ton of money on a nonreturnable part...

Wednesday, September 2, 2026: Minneapolis, MN. Lunchtime flights call for some airplane burrito action. Off to play the Minnesota State Fair!

We went to the hotel first, so I went for a run. I've never seen this part of the Mississippi River before. I ended up coming back to the hotel through the University of Minnesota campus.

Kip, my keyboard tech, was already at the gig, and he set up my stuff on a rolling riser. When the band finally got to the gig, the crew guys rolled the stuff out on stage and plugged everything in.

I ate another burrito, changed clothes, and we were ready for the gig!

We hit the hotel bar before bed. The Great Bencuya was not great enough to join us.

Thursday, September 3, 2026: Minneapolis, MN. Day two! I slept as much as I could, had my coffee, and went for a run. This time, I turned left when I got to the river, and the route was much better.

For lunch, I had another burrito (#3).

My college roommate lives in Minneapolis, so he picked me up in the afternoon to go hang out before the show. Even though we didn't have a ticket for me (I had my suitcase), we somehow managed to talk the security guard into letting us into the fair.

It's the largest state fair in the country. Lots of midwestern things, and lots of food on a stick.

When the rest of the band arrived, I went backstage, set up my saxophones, ate burrito #4, and changed clothes. And then we played the gig! I didn't end using one of my saxophones (tenor) at all for this show.

Post-show, Nackers bought me a frozen, chocolate covered banana, on a stick. I ate it. Even the part that I dropped on the ground. Five second rule.

Friday, September 4, 2026: travel day. A burrito (#5) for the flight home.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026: Memphis, TN. We rode the buses overnight from Atlanta, and when I finally got up around 10 AM, it was already 90 degrees. I went ahead and ran, but it was hot and awful, and for part of it, there were no sidewalks, so I ran on the shoulder. Lots of big trucks.

iconic ambulance?

I stopped to refill my water bottle at the Memphis Welcome Center. The King was there.

I do not recommend this route

My seat/throne/stool had become uncooperative in Minneapolis, so I brought a can of WD-40 from home to try and get it spinning again. This proved to be unsuccessful, so after lunch (not a burrito!), the venue's runner drove me to Memphis Drum Shop to fine a suitable replacement.

They had a replacement base that fit perfectly.

Did I mention that we were playing at Graceland? Not exactly Graceland--across the street, at the Graceland Soundstage. Anyway, after we had soundcheck, everybody changed clothes, and we were given an after-hours tour of the mansion. Hell yes. The last time I was here was thirty-one years ago.

Anna had us walk up the driveway for a video idea ("The Kings of Soft Rock") that turned out great.

my strange pizza dinner

Pretty good gig (with a perfect Africa solo, in case you were wondering)! Kourtney was sick and stayed in Atlanta, but were able to cover what we needed to. I wanna say that there were about four hundred people there--not bad for a Wednesday!

Thursday, September 10, 2026: Louisville, KY. I slept late, had my coffee, set up my gear, and ate lunch.

Pete, Nick, and I did some radio promo. Peter Searcy is a local music legend in Louisville, and it felt like everybody at the show was more excited to see him than us.

Back at the gig: Anna thought it might be fun to reposition Kourtney's camera on me (still no Kourtney). This was a bad idea, since I don't really do anything except watch the show and fend off Monkeyboy attacks.

I went for a run after soundcheck. The Iroquois Amphitheater (where we were playing) is on the edge of a giant city park, and there's a pretty good running route on a closed road, with lots of trees (also a fair amount of hills, but it was doable). Two laps around the hill.

A peanut butter sandwich and an apple for dinner.

Pretty fun show here! Some lady flashed us, but only Van caught sight of it. Then, an overweight man did the same, and most of the band was traumatized.

Still no Kourtney.

Friday, September 11, 2026: Chicago, IL. Up early (9 AM)! Anyway, early enough to make it inside for breakfast at the venue catering.

I love Chicago, and today was pretty perfect.

After setting up my gear, I had lunch (it was medeterananian, so falafel, pita bread, rice, salad), and then went to visit with another college friend at his office on Michigan Ave.

a building so old, it has elevator operators!

My friend Mark is the artist relations guy for Conn-Selmer (specifically Bach trumpets). I did not try any trumpets, but maybe next time I'll try some of his Selmer saxophones.

After that, I had time to squeeze in a run before soundcheck.

Nick showed up for soundcheck with a new guitar that he bought at Chicago Music Exchange. Very cool.

Salt Shed tradition!

Anna, practicing her barista skills

the cake! we sold out The Salt Shed again

today's watermark on the setlist--Dave strikes again!

Perfect gig, perfect weather, and Kourtney's back.

Afterwards, Pete, Anna, and I made a video where Pete pushed my face into the cake. I never saw the video (it must not have turned out). The cake was good, though. My mustache was very blue for the next day.

Saturday, September 12, 2026: Indianapolis, IN. The Indy gigs are always of massive importance, and this one was maybe the most important ever because it was at Deer Creek.

breakfast

lunch with The Great Bencuya

dinner

dessert!

Great gig!

In my cadenza at the end of Taking it to the Streets, I played the IU fight song, and the crowd sang along. Very cool. I'd been thinking about how I could fit the fight song into an Indiana show since January. I might even do it again next January! I am legend!

After the show, I had to do some pretty significant shuffling of my clothes between my bus bag, my garment bag, and my suitcase. We're off to Tacoma, Washington, to play the Washington State Fair.

Sunday, September 13, 2026: Travel Indy to Tacoma, WA. We slept on the buses in a hotel parking lot by the Indianapolis airport, and the next morning, they drove us over to the terminal.

the Indy airport always has old race cars on display

Our first flight was a small plane that took us to Detroit. We had a fifty minute layover before the flight to Sea-Tac. Just enough time to snag a burrito for the lunch.

That flight took four hours and twenty-three minutes. When we got to baggage claim, Monkeyboy realized that he'd left his stage clothes on the plane going from Indy to Detroit. Oops!

I laid around my hotel room for a couple of hours before I finally put on my shoes and went for a run. Here's what I saw.

Eventually, I made it back to the hotel, and then I sat around too long again, and almost all of the restaurants were closed. The bar around the corner had pizza slices, and they were open for fifteen more minutes, so I went with that. The pizza was not so great.

Back in my room, I watched a little bit of football, and then gave up for the night.

Hey guess what? My window wouldn't close all the way! I woke up to the garbage men and the street sweeper. Greeeeeeeaaat.

Monday, September 14, 2026: Tacoma, WA. I had lobby coffee, and then set off on my run. Tacoma was surprisingly hilly as you move away from the water.

I tried to oder food at a restaurant around the corner from our hotel, but the service was so bad that I walked away before I'd ordered. I ended up at Subway instead. It was just fine. I even had a root beer.

In case you're wondering, Monkeyboy ordered (overnight) a pair of jeans off Amazon, and then went (successfully) thrift store shopping for a shirt and a jacket. No word on his lost luggage.

Nackers and I were delivered to the state fair to set up our stuff around 2 PM.

The rodeo had taken place in this very spot the weekend before this, and it smelled like it.

This was obviously a rental gear situation, and we lucked out with some very good stuff. Everything worked, thank god!

backstage

vegetarian dinner was very good

I found a place to play some notes

We were contracted for a two hour performance, but ninety minutes would've been more than enough. It was hard to have any energy with this big stage and small crowd of people who didn't know us.

I was worried that I'd be cold (temps in the 60s at showtime), but I had a suit and I was ok.

Nick had an emergency and couldn't do the show, so Ganesh flew out from Atlanta on short notice to fill in, which meant that we had to alter the set a bit. It was fine. The whole gig was weird.

I was kind of hungry after the show, so I swiped the bread and peanut butter. from the green room and made myself a sandwich back at the hotel.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026: Travel Day. We had a 7:15 AM lobby call to begin the travel day from Tacoma back to Indianapolis.

The first flight was the long one back to Detroit. I slept for as much of it as I could, and then at the appropriate moment, I busted out the extra sandwich I'd bought the day before at Subway, and I ate that soggy mess.

We rode the train in the Detroit airport to our connecting flight. Monkeyboy kept a good grip on his clothes.

Back at the Indianapolis airport, we waited for the fleet of Ubers to take us back to the bus. The car that I ended up getting in was driven by a crazy old man who talked constantly and ignored his GPS and packed our luggage upside down so that the heavy stuff was on top and the tailgate wouldn't close. Thankfully, it was a short trip.

Several of us went to the Mexican restaurant in the bus parking lot.

Then, I did the suitcase shuffle to get my clothes back into the proper places.

And then I went for a run around the parking lot. Two laps, with a stop to use the bathroom in the middle. One minute and twenty-two seconds faster after the break. Make of that what you will.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026: Plainfield, IN. Another day of nothing in the parking lot. I considered getting a car to take me into Indianapolis to see some music, but it was just a little too far to justify spending the money.

lunch

flute on the bus

clarinet on the bus

more laps

dinner

saxophone in the parking lot

Thursday, September 17, 2026: Columbus, OH. Woke up in Ohio. Went for a run.

lunch at the venue

This place used to be a church, and now it's a music venue. The local crew were doofuses. They were nice, but kind of useless for anything beyond getting the gear from the parking lot into the room.

For whatever reason, I ended up with plenty of time to warm up, so everybody got to listen to flute (and a little bit of piccolo) echoing down the hallways. I did the saxophone stuff outside in the parking lot.

dinner

Notes about this gig:

1. No Bruce (one of our crew guys). He spent the day sleeping on bus--might be the flu.

2. My sax solo on Taking It to the Streets was crap.

3. The lady in the middle of the room with a t shirt that said "Eat a bag of dicks."

4. Kip's console lost its connection to the PA about fifteen minutes into the gig, and we had to wait while he tried to reset it (which I guess didn't work), and then switched to his backup cable (which did work!).

5. The green room in basement is awful, and the restrooms smell like pee and there are no mirrors anywhere, and it's dark, and the security guard didn't stop people from coming downstairs, and the only shower available is in a condo in the building next door, which means that the wait time is discouraging. This place could be better. Maybe try not to be so Ohio.

Friday, September 18, 2026: Cincinnati, OH. The Hard Rock is a casino and a set of hotel ballrooms, big and small (and a parking garage). The hike from the bus to the green room (really just a conference room with no private bathroom) required a sherpa, as it was too confusing to navigate without. It sounds like they also do gigs outside in front of the venue, and fortunately we didn't do that, although all the people in the city jail across the street probably would like our music. What the hell...

skyline chili is gross as a concept, and as a reality

A shitty run on this day, as every road dead-ended or led me through construction, or through an industrial area with a lot of big trucks.

dinner-blah

Ok, so for all my complaining, this was a good gig, and the crowd was excellent. And Bruce had recovered from whatever had made him sick.

The stage was extremely slippery, so on the break, I put some tape on my shoes so I wouldn't fall over during Baker Street.

checking the camera during the acoustic/couch part of the show

So yeah, the gig was fine. But the only shower was in a bathroom in the basement, only accessible by going down four flights in an emergency stairwell, so another long line. I came back upstairs and shaved in the public restroom so the shower line could keep going. It was not ideal. And then the hike back out to the bus! Hey, ho, way to go, Ohio.

Saturday, September 19, 2026: Grand Rapids, MI. Kinda cold on the bus, and kinda cold and rainy in Grand Rapids. We sat and drank coffee until the venue finally opened at noon.

The venue had multiple rooms (kind of like the Masquerade in Atlanta), so there another bus with a heavy metal band loading into a different part of the building.

Lost to Pete in basketball.

lunch!

After building my gear, I set off on my run. Pretty good conditions.

Lost to Sonya in Mortal Kombat.

dinner: a black bean panini from Two Beards Deli

Pretty good show. I had a good solo on Just the Two of Us, but a not so good solo Taking It to the Streets. No couch in the gig tonight, so at least I didn't have to go out and act stupid for that.

This place had one shower and a stack of small, scratchy towels. Not so great for us.

Sunday, September 20, 2026: Bay Harbor, MI. I woke up at 6 AM while the bus was still rolling, and I was awake for at least ninety minutes, and then I woke up again and it was 10:45 AM. So, I had my coffee, ate lunch, and set up my gear.

part of Pete's laundry

Pretty nice spot for a run here, so I went a little further than usual.

Did my laundry and practiced in a closet full of chairs.

dinner (and dessert)

Ugh. This place seemed like a retirement community. The venue sounded great, the local crew was good.

We had to do a meet-and-greet (why?). I slipped into the room late and stood by the door, and some boomer came over to me and stood too close.

"You look like the bass player."

I pointed to Greg. "He's the bass player," hoping he would move on to Greg. It didn't work.

"What do you do?"

"I'm the sax player."

"Do you like Bill Clinton?" which is enough of a random question that I immediately suspected that this was some sort of Republican ambush question so that he could make some shitty political commentary.

"You mean as a sax player? No." Also, fuck off. Also, let's bear in mind that regardless of your political persuasion, Bill Clinton is an amateur musician--just go ahead and make fun of your seventh grade grandson if you want to make a joke about it. Also, stuff like this always makes me think that the douchebag talking doesn't really take me seriously.

"Well, who are you favorite sax players?" like the dude that just asked me about Bill Clinton as a saxophonist would recognize the names of anybody that I could mention. Again: fuck off.

He then asked if I'd ever heard of some guy, a regional sax player that he'd seen somewhere in northern Michigan, and evidently the only other saxophonist he could name besides Bill Clinton.

Jeez. Anyway, since this guy had cornered me, I avoided having to pose for the group photo with the other old people. So that was a plus.

Ugh! Small talk with strangers is such a drag.

This gig was for a bunch of old, retired people on a Sunday night. It was like watching people watch TV.

I quoted the University of Michigan fight song in my Taking It to the Streets cadenza tonight (mostly for Bencuya's enjoyment). No reaction from the geezers.

we signed the wall backstage

Monday, September 21, 2026: Michigan City, IN. Oh, the places you'll go!

I was up for a few hours in the middle of the night again, so then I slept late again. We were in a casino parking lot with nothing to do.

I eventually selected a place for lunch: a brewery that had a meatless pizza option. As I was walking on a sidewalk to lunch, two guys on bikes rode up behind me. The leading guy slowed up as he came alongside me and asked for money (I said no).

He was going slow enough to stay with me walking (we were going a little bit uphill), and then he wobbled and stopped, and I thought he was maybe going to pull out a weapon or something, and I thought, "I'll push him and the bike over and I can surely run fast enough in the opposite direction to get away," but it was just that he'd lost all his momentum and couldn't pedal uphill, so my brain pivoted from not getting mugged to "I'm going to have to push this guy until he gets going again like he's on his first day without training wheels."

Anyway, the pizza was fine/edible, and the only thing on TV was American Ninja Warrior.

We got hotel rooms here, so at least I could go somewhere and be alone, which is an absolute necessity at this point in the tour. After a couple of hours or surfing the internet and probably napping in a chair, I pried myself up and went for a run before the sun set.

Behold Lake Michigan! The weather was pretty nice for running--around 60 degrees.

By the time I'd returned to my room it was dark, and walking somewhere by myself didn't feel like a good move, so I ordered food to be delivered. Hello burrito!

And then I went out to the empty bus and practiced from 8:30-midnight.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026: Michigan City, IN. Everybody thought we'd have hotel rooms again today, but we had to get back to the bus by check out time. Booooooooo.

The crew jam was already underway in the parking lot.

I had a black bean burger and fries at a different brewery than yesterday, and it was excellent.

Later in the afternoon, I went for a run! This road seemed to have a lot of vacation houses, and not a lot of regular dwellers.

We still had two hotel rooms for showering, so post run, I went and got cleaned up.

Also, congratulations to my long lost brother, Jay, on this award he received from the casino!

parking garage practice

parking lot practice

We all walked over the bridge to a restaurant for a family dinner. It was surprisingly good, especially considering how bleak Michigan City is.

When we got back to the buses, another jam kicked off.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026: Omaha, NE. I was once again awake for an hour in the middle of the night. I also had a weird dream where I was trying to cross a highway with a toddler and a dog. What does that mean?

Anyway, I got up for real at 10:30 AM. The bus was parking on the loading dock this place--Steelhouse--in Omaha. They had coffee inside, so I did that instead of sitting on the bus.

Once the gear came in, we got started setting up. The Nick/Pete keyboard has been acting up for a couple of gigs, and we all took turns fiddling with it, until it finally stopped turning on. It might be fried. Fortunately, all the stuff they play is redundant, so there's no problem with parts not being played.

lunch

I went out for a run, and Iowa was just across the river, so why not?

There was no vegetarian option for dinner at the venue, but I ordered from a nearby Indian place and it was excellent.

they had an ice cream machine

Surprisingly, this was a decent gig! The room sounded good, and we had around four hundred fifty people in attendance (plus one shark).

I had a perfect Africa solo, and I quoted the first part of A Love Supreme in Taking It to the Streets (today was Coltrane's birthday).

Thursday, September 24, 2026: St. Louis, MO. Same stuff as usual.

dinner

Pretty nice night here. The highs were in the sixties, but I wore a jacket, so I was ok.

Right off the bat with Rosanna, the EWI blinked or glitched or something, and the transposition button turned off, so I started playing the solo in the wrong key, and I just gave up and tried to play something that didn't sound too bad. Then the band fumbled the ending where we were supposed to transition to the next song (I thought I was the one who'd messed it up). The combination of those two things freaked me out and it took about the first third of the show for me to get back to normal.

Another perfect Africa solo happened, though, and I had good solos on Taking It to the Streets and Just the Two of Us.

At the end of the night, the strings got really loud in my ears on Baker Street. Van told me later that he'd cranked them because I was out of tune, and he thought that blasting me with that part might help me hear better. Thanks?

we watched some of a Guns n Roses concert before bed

Friday, September 25, 2026: Kansas City, MO. I woke up, I think, during the night because my arms and hands were hurting--like a tendonitis/carpal tunnel kind of thing, and I couldn't get comfortable, and I couldn't get it to stop, but maybe I was dreaming?

Today, it rained for most of the day, so I went in and set up my stuff and ate lunch and played flute in a dressing room, and basically hung around until soundcheck.

The venue was soooooo cold that I asked them to make it warmer, so the local crew guys turned the heat on backstage, which was annoying and confusing. It got super hot in the restrooms, but I didn't want to mention it. Are they messing with us?

I swapped out the EWI batteries. Hopefully that's what caused the weird hiccup last night in St. Louis.

The rain finally stopped after soundcheck, so I went out for a run. It turns out Kansas City is kind of hilly, and not so great for running.

Dinner was not so good. I think it was Chinese food? Noodles and tofu. I bet it would've been better if I could've dumped it in a bowl and mixed it up.

pre show Giant Steps in a stairwell

Decent gig. I think there were four hundred people there. Still cold at show time.

Monkeyboy loves using AI for stuff like this

Saturday, September 26, 2026: Denver, CO. It was a long and bumpy ride. I woke up at 9:30 and had some coffee while we waited for the venue to open at 10 AM.

lunch

This was like a cartoon. On my run, I guy on a bike zoomed past the cones and went right into six or seven inches of wet cement.

The cement guys had it repaired by the time I came back.

The afternoon was a shower, soundcheck, flute practice, dinner (3 cauliflower tacos), and saxophone warmup.

these were really good

Good show. We had some camera problems, and Monkeyboy's looper turned on by accident during Sister Golden Hair, but everything else was solid.

selfie during the acoustic/couch part of the show

get it? John Denver. I'm a genius.

The band (mostly Monekyboy and me) had been joking about this Simpsons bit, and Pete decided that it would be a funny thing to interject into the middle of Baker Street where the phone rings and Pete answers it. He called my cell phone with his cell phone while we were on stage and he had the prop phone in hand, and I said "YOU DON'T MAKE FRIENDS WITH SALAD!!!!" and it made no sense to anybody except us. That's where we were, mentally, at this point.

Anyway, the semi broke wouldn't crank at the end of the night, so they had to tow it to a repair place, where it sat, with out gear, for a couple of days.