The VH1 Best Cruise I've Been on This Year

The Yacht Rock Revue played our first cruise ship gig of the year this past weekend:  The VH1 Best Cruise Ever.  The name implies that this was something special, and yet our personal experiences proved that it was pretty much like every other one of the boat rides we have taken around the Caribbean.  I assure you, had it been the "best cruise ever," I probably would have seen Colbie Caillat naked, up close and for several minutes in good light.  Instead, I played my stuff and drank a lot.  I got lost in rural Mexico again.  It was the VH1 Same Cruise Ever.  I expect the Future Mark Dannells to call the Present Mark Dannells and report that next year's cruise was about like this one.

Monday:  took my saxophones, top keyboard (the Roland Fantom with my hours of programming), and my magic suitcase full of stuff like saxophone stands to the equipment truck.  Reggie came with me.  Reggie pissed on a planter in the office.  A premonition?

Thursday:  I picked up Nick and his sister Gina (our videographer for the trip).  We made our way to the airport, me dressed in a new pale green polyester suit, lugging my laptop and EWI.  Should I have put the EWI on the truck?  I don't know.  I keep it in a Protec soprano case that seems sturdy;  if thing got crushed, though, that would really wreck the setlist.  The trip was no big deal.  Everybody in the airport laughed at our outfits.  It doesn't really faze us anymore.  I have perfected the art of staring right back, albeit from behind sunglasses.

I found out that I don't like bloody marys

Nick and me

We got on the boat, ate, and started drinking.  Since we were slotted to play Thursday night, I didn't do my usual 'drink like an idiot and wind up passed out somewhere' routine.  I wanted to be fairly sharp, even though at this point I'm really comfortable with all the material.

Bencuya

cafeteria

Dannells

We had plenty of time to set up--an hour after the band in front of us finished, and a crew to do most of the heavy lifting.  One problem I noticed in the set up was that the crew tends to drop a keyboard stand in the right place and immediately stack the keyboards on.  A better course of action would be to set the keyboard bench/stool to the right height and then bring the stand and the instruments out.  This first set had me too high up.  It's almost as bad as being too low.

The name of the game for this set was pedal problems…the sustain pedal they gave me for my Fantom was doing the reversed polarity thing where it sustained everything until you stomped on it again.  Not good, though it was kind of fun to try and negotiate for a song until I could stop and fix it.  Unfortunately, flipping the switch on the bottom of the pedal did not solve the problem.  It might as well have not been plugged in.  I tried flipping the switch a couple of times, tried unplugging it and plugging it back in--nothing.  I asked for a new one, and almost instantly had a crew guy up there mid-song hooking me up.  Like I was famous…Famous Second Keyboardist Freeman, He of the Generic String Pad…seriously, there was a guy up there like it was an action movie, crawling around through all the cables while my monitor screamed away.  He got me hooked up with a functional pedal, and then crouched behind my laptop until I could confirm that it worked.

Later on in the set, Bencuya had to deal with a crappy volume pedal, but I think he just stopped using it. No swarm of techs.

The set went well other than the pedal problems and a bobbled audible (part of the band began Hey Nineteen and part of the band began Peg, which was immediately followed by forty-five seconds of yelling by Cobb).  Nick was pretty miserable by the end--the combo of motion sickness and a mediocre night (he claimed) of singing sent him to bed pretty quickly.  I was fine--had a good night.  The room seemed about half full.

I was given a Nord Stage to use for my bottom keyboard.  Quite an upgrade from the 61 key Nord Electro 2 I use at home!  Weighted keys, more keys (76 I think, but it could have been 88).  The layout was a little different, and I felt good about myself for adapting to it as well as I did.

Friday:  We played on the Lido Deck in the mid afternoon.  Again, same sort of stuff--a crew there at your beck and call.  A guy with a ton of gear (like me) could get used to this!  Again--a good show.  Again, the bench to keyboard height was not quite right, but I could deal.  We had a good crowd out there, and they dug us.  Lots of drunk dancing to watch.

I forgot to mention that we did not use keyboard amps on this trip--each of us (my man Mark Bencuya and myself) had a monitor mix, and so that was an added twist of trying to match the levels on my four inputs (sax, EWI, keyboard, keyboard).

For this stage, I got a 76 key Nord Electro 2.  A little closer to normal for me--it didn't have all the crazy stuff that the Stage had the night before.

I played well again.  Gina was up on stage filming us, and I kind of bit it on the solo to Africa right as she stuck the camera in my face.  Nothing horrible--I just flinched and left a couple of notes out.  The sax stuff seemed to go over well, and since I went barefooted when we were setting up, audience members called me "Shoeless Joe Saxman" for the remainder of the trip (which along the way would sometimes get shortened to "Joe" in conversations and make me think that the person was talking to someone else).

Coming off stage, I was asked to sit in with the next bandy.  I played on Dancing in the Dark (in F!  normally in B!).  Super easy.  For tenor, it was this:

The band acted like I'd played something incredible.  The guitarist nearest me kissed me when it was over.  Not on the lips.

Mat Kearney was the guy--he has a song on the radio that I've heard.  I thought it was Counting Crows.  It's him--a song called Nothing Left to Lose.  They played it right before Dancing in the Dark, and I thought it was a really accurate cover.

To tell the truth, I played with them, put my horn away, and asked Bencuya who those guys were.  I didn't find out the guy's name until it was over.  Oops.

Saturday:  the day in Cozumel.  I can't lie--this is a good job that I have.  Famous Second Keyboardist Freeman, He of the Generic String Pad…doin' all right!  We (Pete, Greg, Dannells, Bencuya, and myself) went to the same restaurant where we had eaten seventeen months prior--La Choza.  Good stuff.  I had my first Mexican Coke (made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup)--I couldn't tell the difference.  I had shrimp kebabs.  Very good.  I probably should have had a gallon of water if I'd known what was coming up.

So…Dannells and I rented scooters and went zooming off across the island, only to eventually end up on a dirt road, which eventually became a dirt alley in the middle of nowhere.  Miraculously, we made it back to paved Earth;  we even paid a visit to the Mayan ruins.  At the entrance to the ruins, I hit a telephone pole.  It was quite painful.  My big toe is swollen, and I have some scrapes on my legs.  Mentally, the damage was much worse.  It genuinely scared me.  The scooter sustained what appeared to be considerable damage.  Somehow I got the parking lot attendant at the Mayan ruins to work on it--he buffed it out or something--used some Mayan magic.  Or iguana urine.  Who cares!  The scooter looked good as new when we came out.

I assure, I looked at least as stupid

iguana (middle of the picture)

Dannells then proceeded to run off the road precisely at the same spot where I'd crashed.  The two of us dragged his scooter out of the brush and kept going.  It was fine.

We rode for HOURS--all the way around the island.  My sunburn was impeccable.

Saturday at midnight we played the U2 stuff.  An entire set.  I won't take any credit for that performance.  I played fine, but there's so little to do--it's all on Nick, Dannells (and Greg on second guitar), and Cobb for providing the energy.  My man Bencuya and I just coasted through that one.  The crowd (especially the other bands on the boat) were especially giddy about this set.  I felt kind of awkward accepting any praise.  Mostly shaker and tambourine!  Give me a break!  Go tell Nick!

Sunday:  I woke up super hung over.  It hurt really bad.  We participated in some sort of trivia game.  It didn't go well.  I didn't care.  I went back to my room and more or less slept the rest of the afternoon.  We gathered that night and wandered around the boat, waiting for the blowout final night party that never happened.  I went to bed around 2 AM, fairly early by boat standards.

Monday:  flew home, taught a couple of lessons, hung out with my family.  Back to real life!

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Prom, Part 2

We (Yacht Rock Revue) took the prom show to Nashville Saturday night.  We loaded up the van and took off.

The crowd at the Mercy Lounge was ok…maybe a couple of hundred?  I won't bother to guess why it wasn't more.  Easter?  Who knows.  The people who were there were pretty enthusiastic, so it was cool.  The sound was pretty good, though as before, it got super loud on stage.

I reviewed all of my stuff Friday night and felt good about it;  still riding the calm confidence of the previous weekend.  My only big flub was coming in two measures early on I Can Dream About You.  The whole intro sounds like little two measure things.  I guess I miscounted.

Maybe it's the style of the music, but I just can't find Mark Cobb these days.  More precisely, I cannot get my stuff to fit into his groove.  I don't know why, but what I was playing just didn't feel like it laid right.  I tried leaning forward on the time, and that didn't do it.  I tried laying back and letting him pull me along…I don't know.  He never said anything, so maybe I'm just analyzing it too much.

Speaking of which…Bencuya and I were laughing at Cobb, who told us how every song had a checklist of things he had to do:  start the loop on the iPod, change the setting on the drum pad, do this, do that.  Welcome to our world!

The second set, we played the Top Gun Theme into Danger Zone, and once again, I turned off my sax mic in anticipation of putting it down, and then realized I needed it again, and almost forgot to turn it back on.  Geez.  Come on, Freeman!  I still can't believe I did that at the Variety show.

Other than that, I was pretty even.  The things I was most worried about keyboard-wise (Sweet Freedom, All Night Long) were both fine.  Our keyboard buddy in Nashville even made reference to my playing on the latter, so I felt like that was a positive.  I did almost forget to play the EWI solo on Sweet Freedom.  That would have been a monumental disaster.

We got back to Atlanta in the early afternoon.  I took a nap, showered, and headed off to my church gig.  Not much to say about it, other than the guitarist and drummer being all over the place on their levels.  I was riding the gain of both of them all night.  The pianist playing some wrong notes that were accidentally very hip.  I was surprised (after not really playing for a week) that my flute felt as good as it did.  I hope to get off the keyboards and back on the horns this week.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Double Thursday

Thursday was a Yacht Rock gig away from our usual 10 High thing…we opened a series at the Havana Club.  I think the idea is they're trying to draw people on Thursday nights, so they booked a series of cover bands (beginning with us), and offered free booze to see how it works.

The gig was pretty bad.  We should have never set up, based on the first hour that we were there.  The sound guy appeared to be on his first night in the room--I mean, we were set up and waiting, and he was just barely getting started putting out mics, and THE DOORS WERE OPEN!  I mean, too late!  Our soundcheck never happened--we did a really bad line check (where he attempted to get the monitors going, but ended up putting everybody in everybody else's wedges).  I, for one, had at some point had a line for my electronics (keyboards, EWI), a line for the sax, and a vocal mic for the flute.  I had a wedge in front of me.  Eventually, all that got cut down to just a line for all my gear (with the sax running with the keyboards and the EWI).  No flute mic.  That didn't stop the guy from insisting on running me a monitor (and swapping out two bad speaker cabinets before settling on A PA SPEAKER!).  What the hell?  Then he ran my keyboards through it and nothing else--except that I have my own amplifier for that.  When he wasn't looking, I reached down and unplugged it.  No thank you.

This week I went back and relearned All Night Long.  I'd played the song previously in other cover bands, so when it was added to our list, I didn't bother going back over it.  I've always hated it, probably because of its association with the other bands.  Since I have a little more ability now on keyboard, I decided to try and grab more stuff--there's strings going on under the brass on the second half of the chorus, for example, and the brass play chords a lot of the time.  Now, it's kind of fun.  At the very least, I enjoy the challenge!  I tried it on Thursday night, and it was pretty good.  In a few weeks, I'll have it down.

The Havana Club gig ended around 11:30.  I boogied out of there and got to the 10 High around 12:15, and went straight to the stage, playing sax with the Schooner.  It was a pretty slow night there--not much of a crowd there, and the band was pretty blah.  Even Hans (the sound guy) was not paying attention.  He was talking to some girl in the back and forgot to turn my mic on for Diamond Girl.  The next song, Too Hot, still had no mic, so I started playing into Ganesh's vocal mic.  When I mentioned it to Hans after the gig, he said, "I turned it on when I heard it through the vocal mic!"  I don't think it even occurred to him that he'd missed me for an entire song.  Oops!

Mark Cobb came by and sat in on drums.

They have a new lighted dance floor at the 10 High, approximately the size of a queen sized mattress.  Can't fix the leaky pipe overhead, but the dance floor looks great!  Typical 10 High.

We're off to Nashville to play the Reagan Rock prom for them.  I feel strangely calm about it.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Prom

I was sure by Saturday night my head would explode.  Too many new parts jammed into my head too quickly.  Somehow, I came through just fine.

A couple of hours of practice on Friday night left me feeling pretty good about my situation, and I still felt good on stage at the Variety before and during soundcheck.  I had played through every song on the setlist by the time we finished our preparations--I was ready!

The first set went really well for me.  Once again, I had that very aware feeling that I was playing well--kind of like the voice in my head was content to just sit there and listen.  Every song that came up was no big deal.  I had no issues, no major space outs where I couldn't remember the next chord.  In fact, I was kind of chomping at the bit--I was anticipating the next section before I got there.  Pretty cool.

Lost Boys, Karate Kid, Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, Raising Arizona, Top Gun, Back to the Future

We came off stage and changed into our 80s movie costumes.  My costume (I was assigned a character) was Viper from Top Gun.  I looked exactly like my Dad (minus the 'stache), circa 1968.  In fact, part of my uniform --the captain's bars on my collar and the "Freeman" name tag--are his.

The second set started the way the first one ended.  I was confident in what I was doing.  Maybe three songs in, I picked up my saxophone for I Want a New Drug.  First disaster!  I never turned my microphone on--I was looking at Beth the whole time.  When it got to the big saxophone part, I couldn't hear myself at all, and it hit me that I had just screwed up…please let it be somebody else's fault!  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the monitor guy leap into action, looking for a signal he wasn't getting, but I knew what the problem was.  Ugh.  I kept playing, hoping for a miracle.  My thinking was that if I stopped playing the line and turned on my mic, I would lose my place and not be able to do it.  I was also hoping against all odds that it was somebody else's fault.  So…damnit!…I finished the line, they went into the next verse, and I looked down and my wireless pack was off.  I fucked up.  AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!

From there, the voice in my head was ON SPEED!  I was doing all kinds of internal damage control, trying to convince myself that my mindlessness had not destroyed the gig.  AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH! I missed the transition from I Want a New Drug into Ghostbusters.  AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!  My concentration bubble had just burst.

A few songs later, my head had quieted down, I was sure that it was FUNNY!  and not the epic failure that I knew it was, Mark Cobb would not be glaring at me, and it really didn't sound that bad…right?  Nobody noticed except the band, right?..AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!  Anyway, we got into Time of my Life, and I was on it and not screwing up, and we got to the sax solo…the crowd went wild, and I was major pentatonic man, woohoo!…except that I didn't get back to the keyboard in time to play the brass lick that ends it (if you know the song…C A F#, D B G, E C A, F# D, G E)…oops.  Dannells was not happy that I had left him hanging.  Sorry.  Another disaster.  The rest of the song was fine.

In fact, the rest of the gig was fine.  I felt fine (not great, but fine) about the rest of the night.  Sweet Freedom was a bitch, but I got through it with no blunders.  We finished with Take Me Home, and we left the stage one by one, Nick Pete, Dannells, me, Bencuya, Greg, and Cobb, so the last thing was just the loop going.

Some pics:

Greg Lee!

I love Mark Dannells

my world

Captain Freeman, version 2.

A few hours later I stumbled into my church gig.  Pretty easy stuff these days.  John Hancotte subbed on bass.

Sunday afternoon, Yacht Rock played a wedding.  Looking at the setlist, it felt like I hadn't touched any of the songs in months.  It was kind of weird.  Maybe I'd had too much champagne beforehand--Dannells and I were drinking champagne in water goblets because there was no other liquor at the wedding.  The gig was only an hour and a half (7:30-9).  I wish they were all like that!  I was in bed by 10:30.

Easy week ahead.

davidfreemanmusic.net