Right around a year ago, Yacht Rock Revue played a birthday party in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was, as we remember, a wild gig with little sleep and lots of weather, plus so mediocre backline (you can relive it here!). Guess what--we just did it all again.
This year, we lucked into a 10 AM flight, so the wakeup wasn't quite so painful. Also, this dude's feet were no longer sweaty by the time we boarded. On the one hand, I'm kinda like, "It's your feet, and I don't care", 'cause I don't have a weird phobia about other people's feet. On the other hand, people were weaving around his bare feet like he had ten little cobras for toes, and I would think that you might at least not hang 'em out there in the aisle.
On with the show...flew from Atlanta to Albuquerque (slept for about half of that). Crash landed (at least, it felt like it, and a couple of people sort of screamed when we slammed into the ground, bounced up, and then touched down). The crash woke me up. We ate lunch at the airport (I had an outstanding veggie sandwich).
From there, we collected our suitcases and my gear, hopped in a limo van, and rode the hour and fifteen minutes to Santa Fe, arriving just as the local crew was preparing the stage. After a couple of hours of setting up gear (at least the card reader on the top keyboard worked), we headed into town to kill a few hours.
Back to the gig to change clothes and brush teeth.
The weather was chilly when we set up, but the sun came out in the afternoon and warmed everything up to the mid 70s--perfect. Unfortunately, the sun went down and the temperature dropped to the high 50s. My hands were too stiff to play anything cool--it's kind of like eating without teeth (I'm guessing). The cold caught a couple of our guys off guard. I knew about it, but it didn't save me. Maybe I should add a space heater to the rental gear.
Overall, the gig was fine. It was a birthday party, but it felt like a corporate gig. We played to a small, well behaved crowd that didn't offer much of a reaction to any particular song (lots of quiet between songs). It was easy and painless, but nothing too memorable (other than being cold).
The encore ended around 10:20, and by 10:40, we were in the van headed back to Albuquerque (and our hotel). We checked in around midnight. I took a shower, read my book, rolled over, and it was 4:40--time to get up.
5 AM lobby call. Ouch. I slept the entire flight home. One of my best efforts.
For some reason, I'd agreed to play a church gig this Sunday evening. As a change of pace to what I've been doing, it actually wasn't bad. I played flute for the whole thing, and a woman in the congregation came up afterwards to tell me how much she enjoyed it. "Do you play in one of the symphonies around here?" "Uh, no. I play in a band called the Yacht Rock Revue." She'd never heard of it. Ok!
The day after the big gig at Chastain, Yacht Rock was in Asheville, North Carolina to play a condensed version of the revival at a place called Salvage Station. It's hard to get excited about the next gig, and this one was a strange mix of a park and a junkyard (hence the name), and the vibe was kind of confusing, and then Asheville is always a strange mix of upper class and jam band noodle dancers. I don't know, man.
Not too bad of a gig, though. The stage sounded decent, and though the crowd was on the smaller side, they were really into it. We brought Elliot, Albert, and Peter along, and the people were suitably impressed. Plus, the show was 7-9, which is about all that I was in the mood for.
Also, the pre-gig food was outstanding! I had some kind of vegan bowl that really hit the spot.
About an hour into the show, I started to notice that my keyboards were getting a little slippery, and then I noticed the drops of something on the keyboard screen and my setlist. Great. The haze machine (to make the lights show up better) was set right behind me, and was spitting fog juice all over my gear, and there really wasn't anything to do about it until the gig was over. I used a towel to wipe off some of it, but there will still be a clean up when I get home. Not happy about this.
The biggest Yacht Rock gig of the year is the Yacht Rock Revival in Atlanta. This year's show took place at Chastain Amphitheater, and we were fortunate to sell it out (6,500 people)! It was an incredible evening. In addition to the band and the guests, we had Ganesh Giri Jaya on percussion, Keisha and Kourtney Jackson on background vocals, and a horn section of Rob Opitz (trumpet), Bryan Lopes (tenor sax), and Richard Sherrington (trombone).
The first block of ten songs had been grouped together at the top of the past six setlists, so we were very familiar with the pace of the opening of the show. At the revival, this definitely felt like the spot where I was able to relax, as most of my major playing was finished at the conclusion of Taking it to the Streets.
Rosanna was all adrenaline--would tonight be a night when the EWI went berserk? two-thirds of the horns were basically sight-reading the charts--would they read it correctly (did I write something stupid?)? would the horns get out of the song in the right place? All good. Everything was fine.
You Make My Dreams--fine.
Heart to Heart--everything was good, up until the middle of the solo, when I missed a couple of the high Bs. The rest was accurate, though. Still riding the adrenaline.
My Old School--played bari sax on this. I tried to read a chart off an iPad and not look like I was reading a chart. Successful.
Lido--fine.
Baker Street--the spotlight is on me. Early in the song, my brain was swamped with the thought of family, friends, and neighbors who were seeing us for maybe the first, second, or third time. It was an emotional moment, and then I had to try and remember where I was in the sax part, and then I had to try not to fall over backwards. Earlier in the week, I realized that the delayed string synth part in the verse changes right before the prechorus. I forgot it in the first verse. I spent the second verse trying to sing the interval that it changes to in my head. I ended up guessing. Got it right.
Love a Rainy Night--glad to be through the Baker Street moment. I coast on this one, singing on the chorus and swinging a tambourine.
Late in the Evening--big horn part. Did we play enough of it at soundcheck to make it solid? Ehhh...
Don't Stop--easy. I sing along in this (I'm not assigned a vocal part on this one), and I wouldn't want to hear what I was yodeling. We were having a good time by this point.
Taking It to the Streets--lots of internal/ego pressure here, trying to impress the aforementioned family, friends, neighbors, but also the horn section with a billion notes and endless slick ideas on that outro solo. Things were going pretty well, and then at some point, I felt like my embouchure kind of cramped up. I mean, it didn't, but in the middle I just needed to take the horn out of my face and swallow and take a good breath, but there was no time for that, and then my solo kind of went to shit. If I could've kept going at the same pace that I'd started, I would've been satisfied with it.
Time to relax!
Elliot's stuff--easy. If I usually play the horn parts on Brandy, but there's a horn section, do I still play them? If I don't, will I feel so uncoordinated that I won't be able to keep the organ part together? The answer is yes. Just turn the synth with the horn part down.
Albert's stuff--easy. Not much to do. Obviously, Albert gets the cowbell part on Don't Fear the Reaper, so I took the oft overlooked guiro part (beat 2 of every measure--it's great). I think I missed one because I was concentrating on my background vocal.
Peter's stuff--got it. He likes to do the James Bond lick at the end of The Night Owls, and we simplified it by having only Monkeyboy do it (trying to time it between me, Bencuya, and Monkeyboy was really difficult). Everything else was cool.
Carlisi's stuff--I was backstage, sitting on a couch, looking at my phone. Nothing for me to do. The stars next his name mean that we play it a half step down (he tunes his guitars down a half step).
Denny Laine's stuff--highly anticipated. I played Listen to What the Man Said on soprano, and I was told to eat the mic a bit because it's a bit softer. I jammed the mic right up to the bell of the horn, and it was painfully loud at the show.
My plan was to play the opening stuff (up to the first verse), and the solo just like it is on the record, and then play my own stuff in between. Fine. Got to the solo, got excited, tripped a little bit. Could've been better.
Silly Love Songs and Let Me Roll It were fine, though it felt like the latter was going to fall apart at some points.
I messed up the end of Jet in rehearsal, so I was really worried that I would repeat my mistake. Got the end right, but I played a wrong note in the middle of the song. Faaaaaaaaaak.
Encores!
I missed one of the piccolo rips in Live and Let Die.
I play organ on Oh, Atlanta!, except there's no organ on the record, so...can I play any wrong notes? Or, is everything I'm playing a wrong note because it doesn't exist? Cool song. G would've been a lot easier than F#, Mr. Carlisi.
Lady--no sweat.
Rich Girl--started in A with Elliot, then moved up to F with Nick. Here it is in C, courtesy of 1976.
Africa--got it.
Hold the Line. Carlisi was able to handle my guitar part in the album key, so I had a little synth part in the verse and we finished up the night before the curfew.
If you weren't fortunate enough to make the gig, we broadcast the whole thing on Facebook. You can watch it here:
The absolute best part of this weekend was hearing the crowd respond every night when we played Hey Nineteen. The second verse begins, "Hey Nineteen, that's Aretha Franklin / She don't remember the Queen of Soul", and every time Greg sang that, the audience would go berserk. It was a wonderful moment.
Thursday: Cincinnati, Ohio.
Bogart's is a pretty important room in this part of the country. When I was in college, friends were always making the trip over to see bands play here, so the significance of being on stage at Bogart's cannot be understated.
Duke
Pre gig food. I'm not happy with the styrofoam and the plastic fork, though.
This gig was pretty good--our first time in Cincy brought 499 people out on a Thursday night. I had a good solo on Taking it to the Streets, but I was off for most of the rest of the show. It felt like my hands wouldn't work together on anything.
Friday: Indianapolis, Indiana.
We're probably not playing the Vogue again--as much as we collectively like the vibe of the room, the dressing room is HORRIBLE, and at this point we can draw more people than they can hold. Also, the dressing room...what the hell? It's a joke.
Anyway...this was a semi-private/ticketed event. It sold out, though they lowered the cap from 1,100 to 600. We played it like it was a corporate gig, chugging along in no particular hurry, watching the ladies watch us. Lots of good looking people in front of us on this evening. Easy.
Saturday: Chicago, Illinois.
I remember playing the House of Blues here when it felt massive. Now, it's kind of an average room.
Tonight's attendance was 1,053, easily our biggest Chicago crowd ever, which felt awesome. Even with other options in town (Pearl Jam was playing Wrigley Field), we still brought over a thousand people, and gave them a great show!
Sunday: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We didn't have far to go today, so I was able to squeeze in a run to Northwestern University. Our hotel was in Skokie, due east of Evanston.
Lake Michigan
On to Milwaukee!
right across from the Bucks' new stadium
Turner Hall is a very old ballroom, partially restored (only enough to keep from caving in?). It looks pretty cool, though, kind of like an old roller coaster. One thing we hadn't ever encountered--the stage is angled towards the front, so downstage is essentially downhill.
The entire place is run by a pack of hipsters and one old guy. They do a good job!
A little pre-gig stroll through downtown.
The Bronze Fonz!
exterior of Turner Hall
pre gig dinner--burrito bar!
This gig...after Chicago, I was kind of ready to go home. Three nights in a row was fine for me, but this place was such a pleasant surprise, that I ended up having a really good time. The venue was cool, the audience as great (259 on a Sunday in a town where we've never played), the burritos were satisfying, the green room was fifteen times as big as the Vogue's...this was a good weekend of playing!
