Loose Ends

Park Tavern Santa

Monday night was the company party for Pleaserock at Park Tavern.  A good time was had by all, and Jack started ice skating.

Here are a few YouTube videos from last week's appearance on the Regular Guys.

Bencuya, our new keyboard tech, and me

davidfreemanmusic.net

Almost Back to Normal

Yesterday was the first day in a week that my hands weren't sore when I woke up.  I guess it's from pounding on a keyboard more than usual, but I could hardly stir my coffee in the mornings.  After an hour or so, the strength would return to my hands.

A recap of the past few days!

Friday:  The big Yacht Rock Holiday Special at Park Tavern.  Two shows, both sold out.  Maximum awesomeness.  The venue was cool…we were upstairs in that acoustical nightmare;  Schooner was downstairs in front of the fireplace;  ice skating outside on the patio.  I think all our fans had a wonderful time.

Nick had a new white three piece suit.  I'm so jealous.  It's got me shopping.

That room…ughhhhhh…we were set up in front of all that glass, which always makes for a horrible musical experience, and Friday was no different.  It looks great with the lights and the city in the background, but it felt like somebody had a screwdriver jammed in each of my ears!  I had two choices on stage--turn down and hear everybody else (and guess at what I was playing), or turn up and hear myself, but not be able to hear the band over my amplifier.  I tried both, and failed at both!

Bencuya said he had so much trouble hearing that he had to take his ear plugs out.  I noticed that Cobb actually put some plugs in!  His mom would be happy.

It definitely made me aware of how much my ear is involved in playing--even the keyboard stuff, where I'd/you'd think that I would be playing more literally "this chord, this chord, this chord."  I thought that's the way I was doing it, but in subtracting the sound, I couldn't remember if I was supposed to to hold a G or F on the chorus.   I think I played some really horrible stuff!

The other oddity of playing in that room was that some of my stuff sounded really out of tune, and I am not talking about saxophone issues (I only played sax on two or three songs per show).  The upper octaves of my synth sounded horribly out of tune--like more than a quarter step.  How is that possible?  It was an acoustical problem, not wrong notes.  It really freaked me out.  Things that I knew I was playing correctly sounded so wrong that it would make me second guess myself.  It was really bizarre.

my ice skates

Mark Dannells!

Anyway, everybody said it sounded good out front, so I guess that's all that matters.  Hopefully Bencuya's recording of the performances won't get me fired.

Nick is having a good time

In between the two shows we all went out on the ice rink and sang We Are the World.  I did two laps before we sang.  Not too bad!

All in all, an awesome night for us.  Nick and Pete really put together a great show.

Saturday:  Yacht Rock played a wedding at Greystone in Piedmont Park, a new venue right on the lake.

The room looked like it could be another problem (shoebox, hard surfaces), but the it turned out to be a great spot for us.  The stage was big (so we weren't right on top of each other), and the acoustical panels on the walls ate up the bad reflections.  Everything sounded great.  It restored my faith in my playing!

For their first dance, we were asked to play Supertramp's Give a Little Bit.  Cool with me!  It's got a nice little sax solo in there:

I hope we keep that song--if Nick can stomach it.

The batteries on one of my sax mic transmitters died…changed those out.  Later on in the gig, my EWI started blinking, so I had to change those out.  Six batteries just like that!  I was kind of relieved that the EWI batteries finally gave up--I spent too much energy worrying about them dying during the Friday show (but strangely not enough to just switch them out for fresh ones).

The gig was over at 11, and we were out of there at midnight.  Yay!  That was great.

Mark Dannells is blue but awesome

Sunday:  Church gig number one is finally finding a groove!  No disasters, no confusion.  I think it helped that we played Christmas carols for prelude music, so there was no guessing about what we were playing or where we were in the music.  Cool.  We played more than usual, but it was no big deal, and I was more awake since I'd gone to bed a little earlier than usual.

Church gig number two was fun.  There were two songs sung over drones--it's Advent, and so there seems to be lots of minor key drones.  On one, I played flute--lots of bends and flutters and sound effects to kind of fill it out.  

On the second drone, I played soprano sax--lots of false fingerings and overtone kind of things.  I must be in an overtone kind of mood.  We played The Biggest Part of Me on Saturday night, and my solo at the end had the same sort of overblown/overtone kind of stuff happening.  I guess it's kind of in my ear at the moment, though I don't know why.

One more big week of gigs and then things slow down.  I'm looking forward to practicing more regularly again.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday Night Tune Up

Last night was supposed to be the final tune up for the Second Annual Yacht Rock Holiday Special, but Nick felt himself getting sick and decided to take the night off (turns out Cobb had diarrhea and projectile vomit happening last night, too), so it ended up being just another night at the 10 High.  K Spence in on lead vocals and Ganesh on drums.

Is there such a thing?  This one was really good, especially in the first set.  We were really going for it.  I was having a great time, playing well.  Everybody was playing well.  All my stuff sounded good and felt good.  I got through Lonely Boy with no issues (mental or otherwise).   Even Dannells seemed satisfied with himself.

Dannells is awesome.

Just like last week, the cold arctic air coming down the stairwell made my horns unhappy.  Both instruments had potato chipped reeds when I picked them up, and I had to quickly rehydrate them to return them to normal.  Why is it that I only have to do that once, and then they're ok?  The potato chipping thing only happens one time per gig for me, no matter how long they sit after I flatten the tips out.

We went on break and I sat down and got really sleepy.  Not tired, but sleepy like my contacts were bugging my eyeballs and I wanted to take them out and go curl up somewhere.  Alas, the show must go on!

The second set was pretty good, too.  I remember Bencuya playing a really cool synth solo on Lowdown, and evidently Han's pitch shifter mutilated what I was playing in the PA on Baker Street (I couldn't hear it over my on stage sound).  People stayed until the end, and they were not disappointed.  It was fun, and we made good money.

Tonight's show at the Park Tavern should be awesome.  Usually I kind of dread these special ones because I feel pressured and unprepared, but I'm confident I'm going to nail it tonight.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Preparation

I've spent the past few days preparing for the Second Annual Yacht Rock Holiday Special coming up this Friday at the Park Tavern (tickets still available for the early show, but the late show is sold out!).  We learned some holiday songs and some new Yacht Rock songs.  It's gonna be good.

We did a rehearsal Tuesday night.  What a difference a year makes!  Last year, I was struggling in my attempts to do anything useful on the keyboard--very much gritting my teeth and holding on for dear life.  This time, I am a much more comfortable.

I practiced the new stuff a ton--I pretty much had it all memorized going into the Tuesday rehearsal, so I had no problems.  Things went so well, in fact, that I impressed Bencuya with one of my synth parts!  I was showing Cobb two missing measures, and I ripped off the bridge for him, and Bencuya said something like, "Holy shit!  That sounded REALLY good!"  How 'bout that!  I feel like I never have to play it perfectly again since he heard me.  I almost called Brandon on the way home to tell him the good news.

Wednesday morning, we did a live performance on the Regular Guys show.  It went well, though in the back of my mind I was cognizant of the fact that I was playing keyboard on the radio, and if I crashed and burned, many many many people would hear it.  However, it went fine.  I had no mistakes that I can recall.  We did Wonderful Christmastime and Imagine a Jump (Dannells sang the hell out of it!).

Wednesday night I did a Schlock Rock performance--my first years.  Schlock Rock is Jewish musical parodies of popular songs.  So, there was La Bamba with Hebrew words (about something Jewish).  There was a song built on Lady Ga Ga's Pokerface.  There was a song by "The Kosher Police" about keeping kosher, sung to Every Breath You Take.  There were Beatles melodies with Hebrew lyrics.  It was bizarre.

Lenny Solomon played an old DX7!  I texted Bencuya "A working DX7!"  and then it cut out during the first song.  Oops.

Thursday morning was another Yacht Rock rehearsal.  Same kind of thing--I feel better about this gig than I have about any other Yacht Rock special event.  I'm ready to kick ass.

davidfreemanmusic.net

So Schoon Me

I played another Yacht Rock Schooner gig last night--a holiday party at a country club.  Hans on sound!  Not much I can say about it.  This one was three sets of music, so the sax stuff was really spread out.  I think I only played two tunes in the last set.  It was super duper easy.  In a way it was kind of boring, but it was nice to take it easy.

I had lots of people asking me why I wasn't playing.  "Putting out the vibe."

Earlier in the day I played my morning church gig, which seems to have kind of calmed down from the chaos of a few weeks ago.  We were spread out along one edge of the stage due to an orchestra concert that night, so I was very far from the piano.  It was me and drums, as far as I could tell.  At least I finally found a place to sit down!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Saturday Schooning

I played a gig last night with the Yacht Rock Schooner--just saxes and flute--for a holiday party at the Cobb Energy Center.  It was really sweet being that close to home.  20 miles round trip!

It was pretty easy, but as always, it's really weird to not play the other parts of the song the way I'm used to doing in the Revue.  I spent about half the gig sitting off to the side of the stage, playing games on my phone.

The band sounded pretty good, though the mix could have been better.  You'd think (if you were a sound guy) that a band with two keyboards must have a significan amount of keyboard stuff going on in the music, and maybe you'd want to hear that in the mix?  The times that I was out front (when not playing games on my phone), it was all drums and bass.

Other than my lack of faith in the sound production, it was good.  I played pretty well, and I was home before midnight.

I took my attire inspiration from this video of David Sanborn playing with Paul Simon.



davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday

Usual Thursday...I redeemed myself on Lonely Boy.  I experimented with the difference between vibrato  and leslie on my organ stuff.  Not too much else happened--my awe inspiring setlist (complete with clip art) was about all I had.  It was a weird night where it seemed like I couldn't get my levels set quite right--too much of this, too little of that.  I'm trying not to set my stuff up wide open, but when I stand up (to play saxophone, for instance), and I don't get the feeling that I've got any kind of volume happening.  Even Nick asked me if my sax mic was on.  Hmm.

I will say this...my reeds are old and soft, and I played Baker Street sooooo flat.  I would've needed a hacksaw to get up to pitch.  Soft reed, and then all the cold air blowing down the stairs hit my horns.  Boo.  Time to start breaking in a new batch!

So much for that.  In the mean time, check this out (with fellow IU alum Sara Caswell on violin):



davidfreemanmusic.net

Beatles vs. Stones

We played a AWESOME gig last night.  The Main Street Exiles were rockin'--best gig I've ever played with that band.  Please Pleaserock Me then took the stage, and played the best gig we've played in a long time!  Great stuff, great set list.  Even the crowd was great.  I had a wonderful time.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Protec's Secret Glue: Vomit

I had a rehearsal yesterday for the upcoming Yacht Rock Holiday Special (Friday, December 10).  We also went over the Beatles stuff for the Please Pleaserock Me show (tonight at Smith's).

I used my bari sax at rehearsal...I opened the case for the first time in probably six weeks, put the thing together, and got ready to wail.  As I drew my breath for the first note, I was nearly killed by the smell of...puke?  I don't know.  My horn smelled like somebody/something had thrown up in it, and then baked it.  I nearly died.

When I got home, I washed the mouthpiece, the neck, the mouthpiece cap, my hands.  Total sterilization.  I squirted some mouthpiece disinfectant into the neck and left it there.  But where was the smell coming from?  It turns out my new Pro Tec baritione saxophone case is glued together with barf.  I Febrezed it and dumped an entire box of baking soda in it, and it's currently outside sunning itself.  Here's hoping the odor is eliminated, or there may be trouble.  Funny that I did a google search, and I'm not the only person who has dealt with this particular problem.

I did a House Live gig last night at Ventanas.  The usual stuff...how many more pictures of that place do I need?  Nothing else of note happened, though I did notice my effects pedal was very uneven--some sounds were much louder than others.  This morning I checked it out--I used a TRS (stereo) to XLR (microphone) cable, and only some of the effects were only coming through on one side of the stereo, while others were both.  Oops.  Gotta use a TS (mono) cable to a DI to an XLR, even though the quarter inch output says stereo.  I guess you've gotta be stereo on the other end, too.  Live and learn.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Usual Sunday

I got home from the trip to Athens at something like 4 AM, unloaded the truck, and went to bed around 4:30 AM.  Ouch.  I was up three hours later to chug some coffee and head out to church gig number one.

Church gig number one was the typical circus that I've described in the past few weeks.

The service began a half hour later (10 AM), and last week I asked if rehearsal would be a half hour later.  Yes was the answer I got.  Of course, I showed up at 8:30 this week and they were knee deep in the music, making me look late.

Other than that, it was the typical one song of this, one song of that, one song with a choir I'd never seen before, one song with handbells.  I didn't get any preparation emails earlier in the week this time, so there was nothing I could have done differently.

I've been wearing my glasses to this first gig so that I don't have to force my contacts into my face so early in the morning, and once again I noticed how much I need my peripheral vision--a little cue, or eye contact with someone.  That's too bad.  My eyeballs aren't in the mood that early in the morning.

I don't know if it's by design, but when I began this gig we were playing a lot more gospel sort of stuff, and now it's turned more towards the contemporary christian stuff--less tenor and now more soprano.  Less blowing for me (and more sneaking around in the music).  It remains to be seen how this will play out.

I went home and went back to bed.

Church gig number two was also the same as it has been.  Fewer singers than past weeks...drummer plays too softly--he should take off his headphones and balance his volume to the rest of the band acoustically...drummer should mic the suspended cymbal...some of the regular music has changed with the liturgical calendar, which is nice after playing so much of the same thing all summer/fall...my infatuation with the tight clothes usher is waning...

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Melting Point

Yacht Rock played in Athens at The Melting Point last night.  A great gig!  The sound was wonderful and the room was really cool.

We met up at the office and headed out of town, stopping along the way at our favorite gas station.

The stage was kind of small, but we were able to make it work.  The sound was great!  It was a really good volume on stage, and I really dug that I didn't have to turn up that much because I could hear myself in the house.  Yeah!  The sound guy--Mike--was very good and paid attention to us.  All the solos got a good bump in volume.

I got kind of worried when I set up and we tried my line and got nothing--same thing as at Andrews!  Mike fixed it, though.  It was a problem on his end.


Ganesh played drums with us.  Danni covered for Greg Lee.

My only major flub of last night was the breakdown on Lonely Boy.  It was a reverse brain fart!  I was going along and not really thinking about what I was doing, and right at the break where everybody but me drops out, I started consciously thinking about what I was doing, and then I had NO IDEA what I was doing.  Damnit!

Mike Bielenberg filled in for Bencuya.  He did very well!

Pete and Nick covered the stuff that Bencuya and Greg usually sing, and they were perfect.

Dannells played some great stuff on Doctor, My Eyes.  He started the first solo with this AWESOME bent note.  I wish I could do stuff like that.

Great gig, great night!  I even took a nap in the van on the way home--woke up back at the office.

davidfreemanmusic.net