Meehan's Public House

Please Pleaserock Me and the Yacht Rock Revue played the Shamrock and Roll Festival in Sandy Springs yesterday.

My thoughts:  cold!...thought it would be warmer-should've brought a jacket...Francisco Vidal is the ultimate one man bar guy (is that a putdown or a compliment?  both)...laptop screen is just about dead (scaring me again!)...played with REMakes, and I hung out in the cold with no jacket to do two songs, but they only called one of them...changed into a suit in the open parking lot of a Kroger...nailed my vocal part on Paperback Writer all three times!...Greg tried to play bari sax in the horn section (somewhat successful--now he knows what it's like)...Dannells counted the strings--between all the guitars, we had sixty-six strings on stage, and none of them were in tune because of the temperature (including this ferocious electric twelve string in the picture)...reset all my gear for Yacht Rock--a twisted tornado of cables...played two sets REALLY LOUDLY...Cobb was on another planet last night--all over the place...drank from a pitcher of beer...new denim suit is big in the waist, but otherwise looked good...stage crew started packing up before we did...Nick helped me load out...home by 11:30 PM.
davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday and Friday

Thursday night was a very low key Yacht Rock night.  Mark Dannells' guitar rig went on strike during the second song (said it was one of very expensive pedals), but he had it "fixed" (it decided to work again) by the end of the song, and it was fine for the rest of the gig.

Equipment issues in live performance are the ultimate Chinese fire drills.  Not only are you embarrassed because your gear has gone haywire (usually catastrophically, and often very audibly), but you are then under the gun to diagnose and fix the problem before the next song begins.  To make matters worse, not only is everybody in the band watching you solve the problem; everybody in the ROOM is watching you solve the problem.  When you don't have the answer, you will sweat blood.  For something like the configuration of guitar pedals (or say, an EWI MIDI'ed into a laptop?!), there are so many little cables and switches that you end up frantically pushing and pulling the connections and hoping that it's not an issue with the actual electronics.

Friday night was a duo gig with Dan Baraszu in Acworth.  We played at a The Old Mill, pretending to be the house band.  In the middle of our set (this is all pre-planned), a guy in the audience would get up to join us for a song.  He would then break into his girlfriend's favorite song, and stop in the middle and propose to her.  Even though he was a terrible singer (and bailed on the piano playing), it still worked:  she said yes.  The gig was otherwise very easy.  I played flute, soprano sax, and tenor sax.

Some weird weather was blowing through on the way there.

www.davidfreemanmusic.net

"Do You Believe in Miracles?"

Yesterday was the Yacht Rock Olympics.

I left home at 1:45 yesterday to get down to the Park Tavern for the Sham/Yacht Rock Festival.  We loaded in our equipment (and parked over-the-horizon far away).  All of us got dressed in suits and ties, threw our gear on stage in less than 30 minutes, and played a rippin' set of Beatles tunes (Please Pleaserock Me).  That went over very well, and we had fun.  There were moments of uncertainty, but I don't think it mattered because it was all pretty loose and fun.  My four notes of vocals on Paperback Writer--I don't think I ever got it right, but my tambourine was pretty good, so that was enough!

After the Beatles set, we ran back upstairs and changed, and then came out and played an hour and a half set of Yacht Rock to the faithful crowd.  It was pretty packed, and lots of fun.  Usual stuff...lots of fun little moments between me and Cobb, lots of dancing by me, kind of sloppy but just going for it.  I tried to play like I didn't know we were recording!

The Park Tavern gig ended at 7:30.  Bencuya and I tore down as quickly as humanly possible.  I sprinted the length of the Park Tavern parking lot to my truck (still in my costume, shirt wide open...cue the Six Million Dollar Man sound!)

brought it back and parked it in front.  We then forced all of our equipment through the still packed patio, up the stairs, and into our vehicles.  About six loads later, we were all set and he and I raced off to the Wild Wing in Suwanee.  Special thanks to Dannells and Pete for helping me get out.

Bencuya accused me of driving ninety miles an hour, but I swear I never broke eighty.  Regardless, we made good time (twenty minutes!), and the Schooner band met us at the back door to help bring in equipment.  We set up, soundchecked and off we went!

We did two sets at the Wild Wing.  It was pretty good--they are definitely improving as a band.  The crowd was not really into it.  We had the usual stupid requests for Skynard, Billie Jean, and Jethro Tull (happens every time some idiot sees a flute).

I think Bencuya and I are the Ying and Yang of Yacht Rock keyboards--he can't mess up, and I can't get all the way through a song with some sort of mistake!  Last night in Doctor My Eyes, right at the first guitar solo, I was trying to do a big rip up to a high note on the organ and the Nord locked up on me!  All forty notes I had just touched would not stop playing--a huge aural puddle of puke (that for some reason was hysterical to me).  I had to turn the keyboard off and back on to kill the sound, and I missed the entire section.  It was that kind of night.  I asked Bencuya if he'd ever done that before to a Nord and he said yes--maybe this counts as progress for me!

Here's one of my most favorite/dumbest moments of the night:  we're playing Rikki Don't Lose that Number;  Bencuya's playing piano and I've got nothing but this weird little "marimba under a pillow" sounding thing that kind of gurgles in a couple of spots.  I hadn't planned a sound for it, so I was just going to use my usual marimba sound but turn the highs and the mids off on my mixer.  However, when I turned the knobs on my little board, had my back turned to it (so the knobs we upside down) so instead of turning the highs and mids down, I turned them up.  Straight stupid, and of course I forgot to move them back to neutral for the next song (Africa) so my sounds there were TERRIBLE and super loud due to the gain boost.  I swear, I need a roadie just so I can yell at someone.  Anyway, it finally dawned on me what I'd done, but I'm sure everybody in Suwanee wants to know why I was so bad all of the sudden.

My saxophone reeds felt great last night.  There wasn't a ton for me to do, but my alto reed let me go anywhere I wanted.  I got in some good stuff on Biggest Part of Me, too--the band kind of laid there at the beginning of my solo, so I didn't start trying to play a million notes right at the beginning--I took it easy, too.  I always want to rip into it on that song, and if I could delay a little more, I think I'd getter a better effect out of it.  I get excited...gotta calm down!

I finally added in chords on Lowdown (what is known to us as the Love Boat part).  I wanted to do it at the Park Tavern, but I wasn't sure of myself so I chickened out and just played flute.  I think it sounds better with the full chords.

We finished right around 1 AM.  Bencuya estimated we played sixty-five songs between the two gigs.  I didn't play on all of them (I think he did), so I'll say he gets the gold and I'll take the silver.

I packed up, loaded out (with a little help from Kevin Spencer, Ganesh, and Bencuya) and was home at 2:30 AM, and passed out on the couch by 3 AM (watching  The Godfather).  I slept off and on throughout the morning, and finally started living again around 2:30 PM.

I'm back on my church gig tonight.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've been there.  I'm looking forward to a gig with no pressure (or sunglasses).
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Much Better

Last night's performance of the BeeGees material (and everything else for that matter) was much better.  It was really a ton of fun, and I think we all enjoyed the stuff this time.  The crowd was digging it too!  I've said this before, but it's very surreal to me when I can hear the crowd singing along.  It's a rock star moment for me.

We had chocolate cake shots on the break (which I put on my credit card).  I'd never had one before.  It was really tasty, and I don't think I even felt the alcohol (my tolerance has gone through the roof since the beginning of the year).  While we were standing at the bar, Greg had a strange moment with a crazy girl who would not stop touching his face.  Ask him about it--it's a funny story.

The second set was predictably looser but still pretty good.  We carried our collective hatred of Scott Stapp into Andrew's, but I don't think they enjoyed it as much as the 10 High Crowd.  Cobb and I had lots of little shared musical moments.  He's pretty awesome!

One strange thing about last night--due to the stack of BeeGees stuff at the beginning of the night, I didn't play any woodwinds until second set.  In the second set, I got a little big:  I Can't Go for That, Lowdown, Who Can it be Now?, and Silly Love Songs.  Coincidental but weird!  Everything else was keyboards and EWI.

We had a new soundguy last night, and he was much better.  The house guy at Andrew's was not there, so we brought in Sean from Active (that's not his name--he works primarilly for Active Productions).  He did a great job!  It's the first time in MONTHS (YOU HEAR ME YOU FAT BASTARD!  MONTHS!  I BET YOUR FAT ARMS ARE TOO HEAVY TO BUMP THE FADER UP FOR MY SOLOS!  DON'T THINK I DIDN'T NOTICE!  NOBODY'S HEARD ME IN YOUR ROOM IN MONTHS!) that my saxophone was audible in the house.  That made a huge difference for me psychologically.  I was almost giddy.  Every time I looked back there he was paying attention--headphones on, headphones off.  Very good!

Cobb and Bencuya played some GREAT stuff last night.  If you weren't there, you really missed out.  Shame on you.  It would be worth the money even if you paid attention to no one else on stage.

On the way home I received a text from Dannells reminding me that I'd left my credit card at the bar for the chocolate cake shots (just as I had predicted I would).

Today we are playing at the Park Tavern in Atlanta (with a special set of the Beatles stuff) and then Bencuya and I are racing up to Suwanee to play with the Schooner (B band) at the Wild Wing.  It's gonna be a long day.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

I Can't Sustain It

Last night's Yacht Rock show was a dry run of the BeeGees stuff before tonight's big Andrews Upstairs gig.  I realize that this blog has become the catalog of my failures, but here's how it all went down:

First problem of the night was with the setlists. Somehow the setlist that Nick had sent out for Thursday did not come on the email I received, so to me it looked like both Thursday and Friday were the same thing.  I printed set lists for myself, Greg, Bencuya, and Cobb.  Right off the bat, we had to deal with that.

I discovered that my sustain pedal for the top keyboard was dead.  Luckily, there was an extra pedal in the crap behind the stage.  I plugged it in and it worked.  One problem solved!

As I was getting dressed before the gig, I realized that I'd forgotten my shades, so I had to sprint out to my truck and grab real sunglasses.

We trudged through the BeeGees stuff in the first set.  I don't think anything went horribly wrong, but we were all very unsure of ourselves, and I think it sounded that way.  Sometimes with this band, we come out and you can tell by the vibe (before we even hit the stage) that we are going to kick your ass.  Instead, we were kind of uptight.  I had some problems...I missed an entire chunk of Night Fever because I got lost in my chart.  I stumbled and had to stop playing in How Deep is Your Love.  The other ones were fine.  I wish I wasn't reading off charts for some of them, but I like having them there for the comfort factor.  We finished out the set with some Yacht Rock stuff that was pretty unspectacular.

After the break, we hit again (I should point out that the "Most Yachtily Dressed" contest was excellent last night, and it's been downright pathetic for some months!).  Everything felt really heavy, like we'd expended all of our mental energy in the BeeGees thing and had nothing left to give.  As for myself, I felt like I was a split second off on everything.  I couldn't quite get my brain up to speed--kind of like I was drunk, except I hadn't been drinking.

My laptop did the "underwater sound" where the processor gets backed up by too much delay and reverb in Africa, causing me to totally bail on the solo.  Very embarrassing, to say the least.  A couple of songs later we got into Hot Child in the City, and coming out of the bridge, the sustain pedal that I'd dug out from behind the stage started messing up.  It wouldn't stop sustaining!  I thought it was the keyboard, so I turned the volume down and then back up, but it was still sustaining.  I stomped on the pedal, but it was still sustaining!  Finally, I just turned off the keyboard.  That reset it.

Things were ok for a second, but the next song was Somebody's Baby, and the sustain pedal went haywire again, so I reached behind the board and yanked it out.  That fixed it!  I moved my other sustain pedal down to the bottom keyboard and things were fine.  We labored through a few more songs, and then I needed the pedal for the top keyboard, so I reached behind and yanked the plug out and put it in the top board.  No sustain!  Is it really possible for me to have gone through three pedals in one gig?  I really wanted to leave at that point.  I kept stomping on the pedal and trying to play my part.  Afterwards, it dawned on me that instead of plugging the sustain pedal in, I'd grabbed the plug for the volume pedal.  Stupidity reigns again.

I came home in a foul mood thinking that everything I'd played was horrible.  I played through all the BeeGees stuff again, and found that I did have a good bit of it under my fingers, and I remembered all the things I did correctly.  Maybe the second set damaged my feeling for the first?  Now I'm not so sure it was really horrible.  The second set was pretty horrendous, for sure.

Today I have a new sustain pedal (and an emergency pedal stashed behind the seat in my truck.  I am practicing my stuff (again), trying to get it all a little more in my head and under my fingers before tonight.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

More House Live

Tonight was a House Live gig at Ventanas downtown for 3M.  Not much to say...it was around fifty men and a handful of females.

This is a picture of me pretending to play Wayne Viar's drum kit.  I have titled it "The Freeman Funk Machine."

I finally swapped out a couple of ancient soprano reeds (and played on a newer alto reed).  It made all the difference in the world.  I was thinking there was something wrong with my horns--and there was!  Old, dead reeds!

It is presently just after 5 AM.  I have been up for several hours desperately practicing my Bee Gees stuff for a Wednesday morning rehearsal.  I think I'm ready.  Time to sleep for a little bit!
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Dance Music all the Time

Last night (Sunday night), I played a House Live gig with Jeff Burnisky and Wayne Viar at the World Congress Center.  Like all of those gigs, it was very easy.  Nothing to report.  I ate all the fruit backstage and half of the raw vegetables.
It's 5:30 AM and I am still up, trying desperately to learn some Bee Gees stuff for a special Yacht Rock gig this Friday night at Andrews Upstairs.  We have a Wednesday morning rehearsal and I have a Tuesday night gig, so I need to get this stuff together ASAP.  I'm going to knock out one or two more songs and then crash.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Surrounded by Fish

Yacht Rock played the Georgia Aquarium last night.  It was an extremely easy gig...I think we ended up playing one hour and a half set and it was over.  The sound was great and the crowd was good looking.  What more could you ask for?  Well...when you're playing at the Aquarium, those things would be "can we load out through the parking deck instead of the loading dock?" (the answer was yes), and "will the parking be comped?" (again, the answer was yes).  That's tough to beat!

www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Just another Thursday Night

Last night's Yacht Rock gig was very plain.  I'm not sure if it was the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd or the absence of Mark Cobb, but the energy in the room was a bit low.  The playing was fine (more so in the first set than the second).  It could very well be that we were just flat.

For me, it was a pretty decent night.  No equipment problems last night, which leads me to believe that I have solved the mystery of my laptop.  It seems more "awake" and responsive...that seems like a strange thing to say about a machine!  What I mean is that when I bump the space bar to wake it up (so I can check what number is my next sound), it comes back up much quicker than it has in the last year.  One other thing that seems to be working better:  some of my sounds have a lot of delay (think the synth solo in Rosanna), and it seems like those delays start to add up over time and eventually overload the processor (and make my whole rig sound like it's underwater).  Hitting the space bar clears that up.  Last night, that was never an issue.  It could be the order of the songs, but I think at least some of it has to do with whatever it was I reset (the PRAM).

It was not a heavy saxophone night.  I did have a little hiccup in Silly Love Songs where I kind of stopped thinking for a second and messed up the little sax section thing.  I also got a little sloppy in Baker Street.

Before the gig we were watching episodes of The Midnight Special and heard a couple of songs that we perform on a regular basis.  I heard a fair number of things that I need to improve upon, specifically in the area of my keyboard playing.  When I first took on the role, I was just trying to get through the song, so I simplified things and eliminated things.  Now that I'm a bit more comfortable, I need to relearn them a little more accurately!

I have a busy week ahead.  Next Friday we are performing an entire set of Bee Gees stuff at Andrews, and the rehearsal is set for Wednesday morning.  I have gigs Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday.  Next Saturday I am performing on sax and keyboards with the Schooner (Yacht Rock B band), and there are a couple of songs I will need to learn for that.  No sleep and all the pressure I can handle!

One more quick note:  this week (Monday night to be exact), I made the decision to relinquish my position as saxophonist for a local cover band Platinum.  Platinum is an excellent band comprised of friends whom I have known for over ten years.  We have been extremely successful  and I have enjoyed performing with them.  However, my commitments to other gigs have made it difficult to play with them regularly;  I have been sending a sub to four out of every five gigs.  It seemed foolish to hold onto the gig when I obviously could not be there, and though the band was extremely patient with me, I could understand their desire to have someone in that spot consistently.  Though I'm sure we will miss each other, in the long run this is the best decision.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Sharing Music

I've been thinking the past the couple of days about the personal risks of sharing music--not sharing like "I'll burn you a copy", but sharing like "hey, I really like this song, please check it out."

In speaking with a friend, I made mention of a song by David Gray that I like.  My friend blasted the song--hated it!, but the lasting result of our exchange is that I feel like I've exposed myself as a person with inferior musical taste.  I'm not sure why.  I like the song and I like David Gray, and my opinion is just as valid as anyone else's.  Music is such a personal thing--when I'm saying I enjoy a song, I'm saying that it means something to me;  it speaks for me.  I have great respect for my friend's musical opinions--maybe I don't know what I'm talking about after all.

A strong response condemning that song feels like it is also a condemnation of me.  How can I not flinch at the next opportunity to talk about music?
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Yachting on Monday

Yacht Rock did a rare Monday night gig tonight at the Capital City Club in Brookhaven.  It was an extremely low key event, so much that I don't have much to say other than it was pretty loud and the room was (and is) acoustically awful.  We played a handful of tunes we hadn't seen in a while (Sailing and Too Hot) and a couple we wandered through at soundcheck that didn't even make it on the gig (I Keep Forgettin' and Human Nature).  I hope to see them again.

Perhaps the only excitement at the end of the night was the argument a few band members got into with the valet.  When Pete loses his cool, you know you've crossed the line!
www.davidfreemanmusic.net