Waiting is the Hardest Part

Last night was the big Pleaserock takes over Virginia Highlands night--multiple Pleaserock bands playing around the Dark Horse, Limmerick Junction, and Blind Willie's.  Yacht Rock played the 9-11 PM slot in the parking lot.  We had GREAT weather.  Last year, it rained;  there was no cover for the stage, so we never even played.  The year before that was pretty good, but it got cold once the sun went down.  The year before that was colder still.  The high was in the mid-70s (how appropriate!), so we were still really comfortable through our sets.

The toughest/worst part about the gig was the fact that we loaded in at 4, but didn't play until 9.  In the mean time, we stood around.  The Stooge Brothers played.  Then the Main Street Exiles played.  Then the Ill-Eagles played.  Finally, we got up there--frantically threw our gear on stage and got started.  I preset as much stuff offstage as I could, but everybody was still waiting on me to get set (and I heard about it).

I played well.  The big song of the night was Moonlight Feels Right, which we haven't attempted in about a year.  I was really pleased with myself for figuring out a nifty keyboard split that allowed me to sustain a string sound with I played a two handed synth part (the chorus stuff, if you're checking it out).  The string part was the one thing Bencuya and I could never grab before.  Yay!  I hope that one stays in the setlist;  I like having something new to do.  Maybe it will bump some of our warhorses off the map for a while.

Once we hit the 11 PM curfew, I dragged all my stuff offstage and packed it up.  After locking it in the cab of my truck, I clawed my way into the 10 High and sat in with the Schooner (who was covering our usual gig).  They sounded good.  It's funny how the two bands play the same stuff, but the sound and feel can be so different.  Anyway, I played on a few tunes and then the night ended.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tuesday-House Live

Tuesday night was the final leg of our House Live tour…not really a tour, but after a couple of months of not having any gigs, we had Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday.  Good stuff!

This one was the easiest of all--just a quick two hour gig at Ventanas.  We made our usual pilgrimage to Baja Fresh across the street, and then came back and hit it.

It was blue dress shirt/dark pants night, and mostly dudes.  Lots of one-on-one business talk.

Here's a couple of audio clips from the evening.  In hearing these recordings, it's striking how different the levels appear in comparison to when I'm playing.  On stage, the DJ component sometimes seems to be too much, but listening back now it seems that it is I who is too loud in the mix.

 House Live (soprano) by David B Freeman

 House Live (alto) by David B Freeman

At the end of the night, I put my phone on a cocktail table in front of us for a video.  I guess it turns out to be mostly a video of Wayne.



davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday Stuff

Sunday morning started off an hour too early.  Why the hell do we still have daylight savings time?  Not cool.  I'd gotten home from my Saturday night gig by 9:30 or so;  I practiced until midnight, and then poked around thinking I still had plenty of time to sleep.  Boo--the time switch snuck up on me.  No good.

Anyway, church gig number one went off without a hitch.  In fact, the leader even mentioned that it was one of the tightest services we'd ever played.  Pretty high praise, considering how often it is dished out.

Sunday night, I played another House Live gig, this time at Stats--some private party for a technology company.  Pretty easy stuff.  We played for an hour, then had about forty-five minutes off, then played an hour and forty-five (with a break).  I continued my stream of consciousness playing, for better or for worse.  We had a table of guys sitting right in front of us for most of the night, and I wondered why it took so long for them to get sick of me!

On the break, we were able to go out and enjoy the patio and the weather.  A great night to be outside!

Here's some audio from the end of the night.  Some saxophone and some flute.

 House Live (alto) 1 by David B Freeman

 House Live (flute) by David B Freeman

 House Live (alto) 2 by David B Freeman

Video?



davidfreemanmusic.net

Payback, circa 1992-93

Yacht Rock played our second gig as a U2 cover band (Uno Dos Tres Catorces) tonight at Meehan's in Sandy Springs.

This one was much better than last week's effort.  For one thing, none of us was throwing up (though Nick tried)!  Also, I think on the whole we were much more rested and ready.  I was also able to spend an hour or so going over my stuff (as well as a few hours over the past couple of days).  I felt good.  It was easy, though I can't say that there was really much for me to do.  I played lots of shaker and tambourine.  The toughest part of the night, in fact, was trying to look cool playing shaker;  for that matter, trying to look cool doing nothing on stage!

The crowd was good.  They seemed to be really into it.  I wonder how many people showed up thinking it was going to be smooth 70s soft rock, though.

We opened for Ed Kowalczyk, former lead singer of the band Live.  The girl I was dating at the end of high school (and long distance into college) got really into Live around 1992-93.  I associate that band with that girl--they were the soundtrack to the cataclysmic end of that romance.  I feel like they should bear some of the blame for my pain.   I had thoughts of ambushing him backstage tonight.

So ha!  Now Ed's playing in Kroger parking lot for a suburban beer festival.  She's doing well, too, I see.

I feel better.

davidfreemanmusic.net

House Live

House Live hasn't played a gig in a couple of months.  I guess nobody's been having trendy parties the past few months!

We were hired to play a 50th birthday party at a really cool space--a new room at a complex called White Provision.  Pretty cool…at one point it was a slaughterhouse, and more recently a U-Haul place (that's how I remember it).  Anyway, there's no blood left, and it looks really good, and the room where we were had really great views.  Upton Sinclair approves!

The gig itself was really refreshing.  I haven't had a lot of opportunities to just improvise and let it all hang out.  About an hour into the gig, I finally felt like I'd played through all my crap and had gotten to a point where I was coming up with some different stuff.  At that point, I kind of zoned out and just played.  It wasn't until later on that I realized that I was no longer playing in the context of the DJ's tracks--it was beyond that.  Maybe that's good, maybe not.  I don't know if anyone would want to stand in front of us and hear my stream of consciousness playing go on for ten minutes straight, but it was cathartic as all get out for me.

I had chicken fried steak and a biscuit for supper.  Good stuff.  It's been too long since I had that.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Ugh.

Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night.  Nick was sick and Cobb was out, so we had Kevin Spencer and Ganesh working with us.  I wore my new suit.

I know what you're thinking:  Kevin Spencer has an unofficial fan site?  More than one, it appears.  Here's another.

The first set was pretty good.  I got off a really good solo on Biggest Part of Me--remarkable because I haven't had a saxophone in my hands much at all this week.  Kind of a dud reed, but it was able to take the air, so it ended up being more of a feel issue for me and nothing else.  Not much else to report in the first set…it was pretty solid, though the  tempos felt slow to me.

The second set…ugh…the second set was a drag.  It felt slow, and the talking between songs was really annoying, and the crowd was ambivalent.  Brutal.  There was no flow to the set, and the space between songs made it feel like we'd never played a Yacht Rock gig before.  It had all the momentum of a morning rehearsal.  I thought we'd never get to the end.

It got even longer when the entire band stopped, mid-song (Takin' it to the Streets), to have some drunk guy thrown out.  We waited and waited and waited (and yelled at him on the mics) while Nate (our security guy) slowly walked him out of the room.  I think his exit was longer than the song itself.  It sure didn't help make the gig go.

When we finished, I never even bothered to get off the stage--I just started packing up.

After all that, we made pretty good money!  Ahh...the happy ending!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Ashes to Ashes

I had a rare mid-week church gig tonight.  It's Ash Wednesday, and my number two church gig was asked to play the overflow service (people that couldn't fit in the cathedral were bumped over to us).  We ended up with a standing room only crowd.

The most challenging part of this gig was the mixing.  I am rarely ever in this particular room, and I was using unfamiliar sound equipment.  Plus, we were plugging into the ceiling speakers.  Weird stuff.  I think I ended up with a pretty good mix, though I had to ride the gain on a couple of the singers.  Frickin' singers! Half the time they sing with the mic at their breastbones, and half the time it's an inch from their lips!

I played flute but no saxophone on this one.  Lent is supposed to be somber, and I was reminded (once again) that that means no solos for Dave.  For some reason, this doesn't seem to apply to the frickin' singers.  Oh well…one less horn to pack up!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Greater Vavoom

Remember The Greater Vavoom show where we opened for Juliette Lewis?  You can read about it here.

Here are two sax solos from that show:

 Fuck My Boss (edit) by David B Freeman

 Boomerang (edit) by David B Freeman

You can follow The Great Vavoom here.  And you should.

P.S.  We really kicked ass that night.

davidfreemanmusic.net

More Non-Sleeping Madness

Sooooo…last time I wrote, we had played a pretty good gig at the 10 High.  Since then?  Madness.

Friday morning, I got up, made a few notes about the U2 stuff, packed my clothes, and met up with everybody else down at the office in Candler Park.  We loaded the van and drove to Nashville for a gig at the Mercy Lounge.

The Mercy Lounge is really cool.  All of the gigs there feel like significant events in the band's life--as opposed to the 10 High, which can feel like more of an obligation when we're not into it.  The Mercy always has good sound (though it can get really loud), and the sound guys generally care about what's happening.  I mean, it is Nashville--I think because there are so many talented people floating around, the sound guys have to be on it too, or they're likely to be replaced.

We rolled in, set up, soundchecked, and went and ate at Fiesta Mexicana, which is where we've eaten the past three or four times we've been up there.  I had a spinach burrito--a bold move for such a picky eater.  It was ok.  I probably wouldn't order it again.  I'm really only there for the chips and salsa.

When we got back in the parking lot of the Mercy, we got the trailer hung up on a fence, so somebody suggested that the six of us get out and pick up the trailer and carry it away from the fence.  Great, except that when we put it down, I slammed my forehead into the steel frame of the door and got a nice big bump.  Ouch.

The gig was good fun.  I was really tight through the whole first set, and made lots of little mistakes--holding a note too long, bumping a key, that kind of stuff.  Not the major catastrophe variety, but the little mistakes of not being comfortable on stage.  A keyboard playing friend of the band was in the audience, and I couldn't get it out of my head that he might be focused on what I was playing.  Every little blip felt huge.

On Reminiscing, I turned on my sax mic and it started to feedback, so I turned it off and looked over my shoulder for the monitor guy, but he was nowhere to be found.  I waited as long as I could (and kept looking), and finally I just turned it on and let it wail until he came running.  He chopped the offending frequency out of the wedge in front of me, and things were fine.  My solo on that tune was much better than the crap I played the night before.

I played a pretty good flute solo on Lowdown.  They have this really big mic for me at the Mercy, and they put a foam windscreen on it that I hate.  On a regular mic, I get right up against the grille, but with a foam windscreen, it totally messes up my airstream and makes playing difficult.  I feel like they're not getting all of my sound, though, if I'm not right up against it.

Greg and I hung out on the break talking to a couple of girls;  one had really big hair.  She asked me if my hair was real.  I said, "No.  Is yours?"  I've always wanted to say that.

The second set, I was much better.  I guess I finally got used to the sound on stage.

We ended an encore.  Always a good feeling!  We did Baker Street and Footloose.  I did really well on Baker Street--that song is getting to be really difficult to play if the crowd is not into it.  My mind kind of wanders sometimes.

After the gig we packed the trailer and went to the hotel.  Somehow they gave us rooms with king sized beds, so I slept in the same bed.  Fortunately/Unfortunately, he did not spend much time in the bed!  He spent the whole night throwing up his Fiesta Mexicana.  Food poisoning?  I bet he puked five or six times in the four or five hours that I slept.  He puked again in the street right before we pulled out for Atlanta.

We drove straight from Nashville to the office, got our cars, and went on to our next gig at the Park Tavern (the 2011 Shamrock Fest).  We loaded in in the rain, through all the people who were already there drinking bad beer and eating fried food.  It was cold, and the tent over the patio was leaking in several spots around me.  Not good for saxophones or electronics!

The U2 set was at 6:30.  It felt like we hadn't played the stuff in a month.  I was confused about the notes I'd make on my charts, and it was loud and I couldn't hear.  At one point Greg put his guitar down and went and puked again.  For a first shot at it, I guess it went well.  It didn't feel like us, though--it felt more like somebody had dared us to play it.

We changed and hit the stage again at 8:30 to play two sets of Yacht Rock.  These felt much more comfortable.  The crowd was really into it, and I was cool with the sound on stage (once again, though, it was really loud).   I liked the sound guys we had for this one--I think they ran the house speakers a little bit louder, and when I was playing saxophone up front, I could hear it really well.  Most of the time, it feels like I am playing into a pillow, so hearing it in the mains was very encouraging.

Some girl asked if my mustache was real.  I said, "Yes."  I wanted to reply "Is yours?" but I didn't--but I wanted to.  No question about the wig, which always makes me wonder if they think it's real, or it's so obviously fake that they move on to the 'stache.

Sometimes I get asked if my chest hair is real.  Can you fake chest hair?

We called a sub for Greg and he went home on the break.

Early in the second set, we started Lowdown, and that was around the time that it dawned on me that on the break I'd put my flute away (inexplicably).  In eight measures, I went from flute in case to flute on face.  Nice move, Freeman.  A mere minutes later, I played one of my worst flute solos in recent memory!

Weird--at the end of the night, it dawned on me that I never picked up my tenor for the entire gig.  I played four or five alto songs and that was it.

When the gig ended, I packed up my gear and ran like hell to get out of there.  Beth had called after the U2 set to say that her father had suffered a major stroke that evening, so I dumped my gear at our rehearsal space and went straight to Grady.  He's in the intensive care unit of the stroke center.  I was there for a few hours before returning to the space, grabbing my gear, and heading for home.

I got up a few hours later and ran over to church gig number one.  Everything was really relaxed, and we burned through everything with ease.  In fact, the rehearsal ended early--usually it runs seventy minutes or so, but this time we knocked everything out in about forty-five.  The service itself was a bit more chaotic, with the leader trying to whisper directions to us about intros, and lots of pushing and pulling (and small train wrecks) of tempo.  Chris, our drummer, was furious--all that stuff made him look bad, and it was the leader's fault.  At one point, the main singer/cantor was singing and conducting at one speed, the leader/pianist was plowing ahead at another speed, and the band was caught in limbo between the two, and the leader was glaring at Chris.  Not cool.  I thought Chris was going to quit mid-gig.  He cooled off enough to get through it.

We were asked to stay and play the next service (yay! more money!).  When we got on stage, some old guy with a trombone said, "Hey!  You guys need to be wearing robes!  Where's your robe?"  I thought he was joking, so I said, "Can I borrow yours?"  Steam shot from his ears.  Evidently, there's some friction coming from the "orchestra" that plays sometimes at the second service.  So…we went downstairs and got suited up.  What do I care?  I'm guessing he hasn't seen what I usually wear to gigs.

I went home and took a nap, a shower, and then went to church gig number two.  It sounded pretty good.  I mixed with headphones this week to double check what I was doing.

The church attempted to show a video of the bishop's appeal, so a guy pushed a black metal A/V cart out into the middle with a projector on it and tried to hook his laptop up to it, but it wouldn't work--like it's 1995 or something!  It never ceases to amaze me how technologically deficient this church is, and not for lack of money.  Sadly, I think that the laptop/projector set up is a step forward for them.  Last year they set up a TV on the altar and just turned the sound up.  Then again, at least it worked last year...

This was right after the priest bragged about how they'd received $30,000 beyond what they'd needed last year for the appeal.

I was able to get a lot of sleep today.  Good thing--it's going to be a tough week.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Build Up

This week has been relatively pain free after last weekend's crucible.

Most of the focus has been on the U2 stuff.  We did two rehearsals; one on Tuesday, and then a wrap up one on Thursday to check everything.  Both went well--everything sounded big and powerful.  After doing some more research, the guitar guys (Greg and Dannells) ironed out their respective parts a little more clearly.  Now it's up to Nick--this Bono stuff is super humanly high to sing, and a whole set might kill a lesser vocalist.  We lowered most of the keys a half step, but it's still tough stuff.

Last night at the 10 High was pretty good.  As usual, the first set was really tight;  everybody played well.  I did crash and burn on my solo to Reminiscing--things we going well, I was following a cool succession of ideas, and then my hands couldn't keep up with my head anymore, and that was it.

I played my best palm slide ever on the organ part to Thunder Island.  Ever.  I think I'm going to make a point of high fiving myself for things like that.

Also deserving of a high five:  Mark Dannells' solos on Reelin' in the Years were on fire!  Totally awesome.

On the break, some guy was telling me how good the guitar duet sounded in Reelin' in the Years (Dannells on guitar, me playing the other part on alto sax).  He said, "it sounded so good--I couldn't tell where the other guitar was coming from, and then I looked over and saw you playing!"  I said, "I guess if you didn't notice that it wasn't a guitar, then it sounded right."  He said, "it sounded great.  What patch were you using?" Huh?  I played along…"it was my 'saxophone' patch."  "That sound was perfect.  It sounded like a guitar."  Thanks, I think.

The second set was a slow descent into silliness, led by Cobb's Roland drum pad.  By the time we got to the end, I was playing the tenor solo to Old Time Rock and Roll (we got multiple requests for Bob Seger last night) on EWI (using a bari sax patch) over the verse to Lido Shuffle.  Then Hans (the sound guy) took it one step further and used his pitch shifter to destroy my synth build up on that tune.  Crazy.  We amuse ourselves.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Oscar Goes to…David Freeman!

This weekend was all about the movies.

Thursday morning, we (Yacht Rock) had our first U2 rehearsal.  We're playing (under the name Uno Dos Tres Catorce) a couple of shows in March.  It's a pretty easy set for me--I'm mostly percussion, and a few little keyboard parts to help out Bencuya.  The bulk of the music is guitar with delay!

In going back and studying the stuff, I was really impressed by how much The Joshua Tree impacted me.  I wouldn't have said I was a huge U2 fan, but checking out that album made me realize how deep I really was into it in the late 80s.  Very powerful stuff, now and then.  

Thursday afternoon, I got an email from Ben Lovett asking if I would like to be part of a movie.  He's doing the score for an independent feature film called The Proxy, and they were looking for a street musician to play bass clarinet (huh?).  I said yes, I 'd do it.  A lady from the movie emailed saying she'd be in touch with more info.

Thursday night, Yacht Rock played a private gig at 200 Peachtree.  It sounded great, considering the acoustics.  I liked it a lot more than I did a few weeks back at the Beatles show there.  We played for the Meeting Planners International party--hopefully we'll get some really good gigs out of it.

My effects pedal that I use for my saxophone died.  One of the buttons (the "up" button) that allows me to scroll through presets stopped working.  That would not be a huge deal, but I have a couple of them set up as intervals, and I need to change the interval mid-phrase!  Yikes.  Only the "down" button would work, so I would play on one setting and then frantically scroll through eighty presets to get to the on above it.  Not cool.  On the break, I took a screwdiver and attempted a little triage (using paper to help activate the "up" switch inside), but it didn't work.  I plugged it back in right before the set, and the "up" button still would not work.  A minute or two later, I looked down, and the the thing was scrolling "up" so quickly that I could barely make out which direction it was going!  The thing went Poltergeist on me.  I unplugged it and went without effects for the rest of the night.

I played well, and I had great reeds on both horns, though my tenor reed had a chip in the corner.  It still played fine.  

Friday morning, Yacht Rock had a photo shoot at the Atlanta Humane Society for an upcoming gig.  We played with four or five dogs and they took pictures.  The dog I had made my suit and shirt really smell bad.  

Friday afternoon, the costuming lady from The Proxy called, asking about clothing she'd seen on my website.  I agreed to bring a few loud Yacht Rock suits.

Friday night we played a sold out show at Andrews Upstairs/8 Traxx Disco.  The usual stuff--crappy stage, weird sound, darkness where I was sitting.  It's not a really fun place to play, but it's a good money maker, so I will only complain so much!  I played well, especially considering I was sitting next to Bencuya, who only hears me this clearly when we play this venue.  I fared well.  Bencuya gave me a gold star for my playing.

In between soundcheck and the show, I got an email about The Proxy.  No one had bothered until now to mention that the shooting date was Saturday morning.  Great.  The email she sent me had the call sheet--7 AM!  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  Not good.  I couldn't find a phone number on the sheet (and I didn't think calling and yelling at the costume chick would do me any good).  I didn't feel like I could back out of it, and I didn't want to do that to Ben, but I was NOT HAPPY.

Saturday morning, I got home from Andrews, unpacked my truck, took a shower, and went to sleep at 4:35 AM.  I was up at 6 AM, and on the set (downtown Atlanta) at 7 AM.  They started with me, so I thought hopefully I'd be finished in an hour and I could go home and sleep.  Not so!  I spent four and a half hours standing on the corner of Fairlie and Walton in my brick-red three piece suit (white shoes, of course), playing bass clarinet, while they shot this scene of the movie two or three times from EVERY CONCEIVABLE ANGLE!  It was really boring (and for the first three and half hours super cold and windy).  As non-movie people walked through the set, I did manage to get 1. a tip ($1);  2. someone telling me to go to Buckhead instead of downtown;  3.  lots of strange looks.  I guess that was better than the homeless character across the street, who was told he couldn't lie there!

I have no idea what the movie was about.  The main character walked up to me, had some sort of epiphany, and then walked off.  I guess a futuristic movie with street musicians in 70s attire playing bass clarinet will do that to you.  

Anyway, keep an eye out for it.  I'm sure I was magnificent.  The 2012 Academy Award for Best Street Musician in a feature film goes to…

There was some discussion about the next day's shoot (again at 7 AM), but I told them I was unavailable due to church gigs.

I am still wondering if I will get paid for it.  It all came together so quickly, I never had time to ask.  Once I was on set, I never knew who to ask.

I got home, packed my truck, and left for my gig that night.

Saturday night, Yacht Rock played a gig at the Children's Museum.  I was going on fumes.  It was some kind of benefit…I really don't know.  I think it was for the Children's Museum.  Whoever put the gig together must have never done it before because they forgot to get us a PA.  We showed up (thinking that the sound was provided), and Nick had to race back to the rehearsal space and get our PA.  Ouch!  Other than that, the gig was cool.  The crowd was really into it in the second set.  

Sunday morning, I got home and unpacked around 2 AM, slept a few hours, and got up at 7 AM.  Church gig number one was a little strange.  The drummer told me he'd gotten an email asking him to stay for the second service, and it also told him that (in case I asked) that there I was not involved in the second service.  I asked the leader, and he said yes, stay for the second service.  Weird.  We played through the stuff we need for that first service (kind of blew through it).  Things got a little tense in there (the leader said something about "spoon feeding" us the alterations).

Interestingly, we finally got some clarification about extra money for staying late.  When we have been asked to play part of the next service, I (and others in the band) have asked if we would be compensated.  Generally, we have, but when there is no mention of it, I ask.  My thinking is that it is not just one (or more) songs extra--the second service begins a half hour after the first ends, and so we end up staying forty-five minutes to an hour later, and that time has value (in my case, it means SLEEP!).  

It's not like this church doesn't have the money, either.  Last fall, I heard crazy-big numbers about how much some of the Atlanta Symphony guys were being paid to fill out the holiday music.

The new plan laid out by the leader is thus:  stay for the opening song, no money; stay up to the sermon, extra money.  That's fine with me.  The leader asked that we "stop asking about the money."  Now that we're clear about what the compensation will be, I don't think that will be a problem.

Sunday afternoon, I finally slept.  Basically, from noon to 5 PM I was out.  I got up, showered, and hit my second church service.  It sounded pretty good!

Sunday night, I watched the Academy Awards and started thinking about what my acceptance speech would be…"I accept this award on behalf of bass clarinetists and street musicians around the world!"

davidfreemanmusic.net