40 Watt!

Last night (Saturday), Yacht Rock played our first gig in Athens--at the 40 Watt!  Pretty cool way to start out!

The club is cool...really, Athens is just cool.  It was like being back in college, but without all the crushing stress of being in college.  Add Athens to my list of places I want to live after I retire.  Maybe it's just that I miss being able to walk around town.  No can do in the suburbs.

Kevin Spencer and Mark Dannells

soundcheck

dressing room graffiti

backstage

Mark Dannells

So...the gig went well.  The sound was great.  It seemed dimly lit, but who's to say--I had sunglasses on.  Despite this wonderful write up in the Flagpole, I didn't play much saxophone on the gig--maybe three songs, and two of those were "parts" songs instead of sax solos.  So it goes.

We were followed by Krush Girls--which was a pair of guys who were a DJ.  Really, it was one guy who was a DJ (of the digital variety, I should point out, for the vinyl purists), and another guy who just made lots of hand gestures.  I guess they were good;  I really can't tell.  I mean, I don't quite understand the hoopla over a DJ--aren't you just the guy picking the next song?

I got home between after 3 AM, and after unloading my gear, I was asleep by 4 AM.  I was up at 6:45 AM to play my church gig.  I was back in bed by 11 AM, and slept until 4 PM (I think).  Got up, ate, bathed, went to my next church gig.  Came home, ate, watched the football game, and packed for the next gig!  And...I have to get up again in 3 and a half hours!

Off to Orlando.

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Friday!

Gina and me

Last night Yacht Rock played a benefit at the Atlanta History Center.  We've played this gig before...not much to say about it.  Us, auctions, natural reverb.

After the gig, several of us attended Gina Niespodziani's birthday party.  It was like a college party--lots of people crammed into a tiny house, loud music, lots of alcohol.  I'm sure it's quite a mess in the daylight.  Happy birthday Gina!

The Mark Dannells!

Hans on sound!

Tonight, we are off to Athens to play at the 40 Watt.

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Thursday at the 10 High

Yacht Rock had a really fun gig last night at the 10 High.  All the regular guys were there except Pete, who's on baby duty right now.

It looked like it would be another thin crowd, but people kept filtering in through the break in between sets.  I think it got MORE crowded during the break, instead of people bailing out.  

Mark Bencuya dedicated Saturday in the Park to Sparky Anderson.

We played Lovely Day early in the second set, and that song got a really good reaction from the crowd.  After Nick made a comment about people liking Bill Withers, we kind of fell into Use Me.  I picked up my alto and played all over it.  The groove was good, my volume was good, my reed was good...I got closer to sounding like David Sanborn than ever before.  It was AWESOME!  Highlight of the night for me.

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Ketel One gig

Yacht Rock played a gig last night for Ketel One vodka.  It was a quick and easy two set gig at the Terminus building in Buckhead--the same place we played a few months ago.

Much of the same...it's still an unfinished office space, all concrete echo chamber.  Very loud.

In looking over the set list before the gig, I noticed that I needed alto on one song in the first set, and alto on one song in the second set, and the rest was keyboards and EWI.  I thought about leaving my tenor at home, but I brought it anyway.  Good thing!  Our encore was a tenor song.

my view

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Ben Lovett at Smith's

Last night was the big Ben Lovett show at Smith's Olde Bar.  Ben is known in the music industry for his young and hip movie scores.  This show was a live production of his solo project, which is of course young and hip.

The show went pretty well, especially considering all of the technical difficulties involved in getting the thing together.  Say what you want about the lack of leadership at the rehearsals or the theatrics over the music, but the guy had a big vision and he went for it, and by and large I think he pulled it off.  In the end, he got a band of fantastic musicians to get on stage with him and play his music (without really knowing if it would work or how they would be compensated).  There's something to be said for that.

Pictures:

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Halloween in Buckhead

Last night Yacht Rock played "the place that used to be called Andrews Upstairs but is now called 8 Traxx Disco."  We did a set of Yacht Rock and then Michael Jackson's Thriller in its entirety.

I used to really like playing Andrews/8 Traxx when the stage was a bit larger.  Since they converted it to basically a carpeted sidewalk, it's really hard to have fun on stage.  Now we're all in a row, with me on the opposite side of the stage from where I normally set up.  It's a drag.

Sitting next to Bencuya feels like I'm taking a keyboard test.  Last night's grade was probably a B-.  I just couldn't get going and I was tired and made too many stupid mistakes.  I hope he doesn't think I play that poorly all the time!  I was pretty embarrassed about all of my screw ups.  On You're So Vain, he mercifully offered to double me ("to make it sound bigger") after I choked on it at soundcheck.  He makes it look (and sound) so easy.

Pete and Alyssa Olson had a baby yesterday morning, so Vanessa Oliverez subbed for him.  She did a fantastic job.  Here's her costume (pilot for the Mile High Club).

Here's Greg Lee as Captain America.

The Great Mark Bencuya as Captain Fantastic (Elton John).

Nick Niespodziani as Captain Stubing.

Mark Cobb as Captain Chuck Yeager(meister).

Myself as Captain Jean Luc Picard.

My man Mark Dannells as Captain D.

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Friday in Nashville

Yacht Rock played last night in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge.  There was an 80s band and a 90s band downstairs in the Cannery Ballroom, and we played upstairs (with some bad glam rock opener).

Dig my John Oates look!

The gig was pretty good.  That stage (really, that whole room) is super loud.  It feels to me like the drums are in the monitors, and then everybody jacks up their personal amplifiers to balance that.

Anyway, the gig was pretty good.  We played Thriller again, to a pretty lukewarm reception.  In the quieter moments you could really hear the crowd talking.  When we finished, they wanted us to come out and play more Yacht Rock stuff (which I can dig), but it was like "Hurry up and finish Thriller so you can play Rich Girl."

I heard that Nick walked into the dressing room area after the show and one of the opening band guys was receiving some sexual favors on the couch.  Rock and roll lives!  It was the same girl that asked if she could play my flute (no), and then kind of seductively cheered me as I pulled a swab through my tenor ("yeah...clean it out...yeah").  I can't remember what else she said to me--I was trying really hard to ignore her (questions about what shoes I'd be wearing in the next set, things on that level).

The best part of this trip was that we stayed at the Hotel Indigo, which is a sweet boutique-style hotel with huge, cool rooms.  I roomed with the one and only Mark Dannells.

Other than that, it was pretty much the usual situation up there.  We showed up, we played, we slept, and we drove back.  Dannells, G Lee, and Ganesh got up at 5 AM and drove back early.  No thank you.  The room was awesome!  The beds were very comfortable, and the shower had those humungous shower heads (but no shower doors?).  You've got to take advantage of stuff like this!

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home.  Mark Bencuya got into it!

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Thursday

Last night Yacht Rock played our usual Thursday night hit at the 10 High.  The 10 High is under the Dark Horse Tavern in Virginia Highland (816 N. Highland Ave, Atlanta GA 30306).  Here's a MAP.

The reason I am being so specific is because THERE WAS NOBODY THERE!  Jeez!  The crowd was the size of an audience for an original act.  It was really sad.  We made no money.

Most of the highlights were supplied by Mark Cobb, who played with more energy than he's summoned in some time.  Everything was leaning forward tempo-wise, and so all the songs had an extra intensity.  It was pretty cool.  I think the pushing left less room for us to screw around, and made the gig a little tighter--everybody was playing like they were holding on  to him for dear life.  I dug it.

Ganesh Giri Jaya and Kevin Spencer manned the front tonight.  It seemed like Ganesh sang ninety percent of the songs.  I'm not sure why it worked out like that, but every time I thought about it he was on lead vocal.  Normally I am a big fan of the way his voice strains at the top of his range--I think it sounds really cool when it's sort of starting to break up (similar to a altissimo sax note that sort of splits), but last night it sounded like he was just getting abused and his voice couldn't do it.

Other than that, it was a night of equipment failures.  Mark Bencuya's amplifier speaker crapped out on him, leaving him with no way to hear himself.  On the break, he and Greg got Greg's spare bass amplifier out of his car, and the input jack on the amp went bad!   Somewhere in the second set, Mark Cobb's drum throne broke (the bracket that holds the seat to the tripod).  The weld just gave way.  What a night!  Fortunately, none of my stuff broke.  Weird, huh?

Iron Men invaded/manned the merch booth last night.  Dig it:

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