Usual Thursday night 10 High gig. It was really fun, but geez…I sucked really bad. It was like I haven't thought about any of these songs in a month. Some particular low points were the little synth break in Heart of Rock and Roll (which I practiced and played well in Nashville last week, but haven't thought about since), and All Night Long (which completely bit me in the ass).
My last big equipment upgrade of the year was a new effects pedal for my sax stuff. I bought a TC Helicon Voicelive 2. Super fancy and very state of the art. It seems to be infinitely programmable. I have the first preset built as my basic thing--just reverb. Then, I can turn on (or turn off) chorus, slap reverb, and doubling within that preset by stepping on the different buttons. Crazy. Before, I would have to have a preset for each one. Then I have a big stack as another preset (like three or four octaves wide) for Silly Love Songs. For Heart of Rock and Roll, I have the solo sound, then one harmony set for the little back and forth thing, and then another harmony set where me and another voice move in thirds, and there's a note on top of us that stays the same. Is that crazy or what? I also have a thirds thing for Kodachrome and a couple of settings for I Want a New Drug. Wow. Cool.
It's XLR in and out, and also does fantom power, so I can use my Shure clip on mic without having to power it separately. Plus, the noise floor on it is way lower than that cheapo Digitech pedal, and the effects are much better sounding.
Last night was its maiden voyage. First set, I had some feedback issues because the gate wasn't really doing its job. Boo. I managed my way through by keeping my body between my monitor and the mic. On the break, I jacked up the gate. Unfortunately, I just guessed, and I guessed poorly! I had it at -15 db, so it would only open when I was playing full blast; it kept opening and shutting mid phrase on Silly Love Songs. Oops. Fix it next time?
Bjorn Borg on drums!
Anyway, it was a good gig and everybody else played well, but I was not good. We all had a very good time and the room was moderately crowded, so everybody went home happy! Yay!
Today I had a pianist come over to take a lesson with me on improvisation…like I know what the hell I'm doing! I did my best to interpret my own stream of consciousness stuff. I guess it's kind of good to stop and think about my playing--a lesson for both of us. Since I don't have any kind of "system," I suggested we get together and play, and he could stop us and ask questions. Here are a couple of tunes we played. My time is not too good on either.
So…yeah, the gig at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville was a high point for Yacht Rock. We kicked ass, and the crowd (great numbers, too! something like 320 people all together) loved every note of it. The sound was good (super loud, but what else is new), the vibe was great. When we came off stage after the second set, the crowd was screaming for an encore. Bencuya declared "We're killin' it!"
Once we finished and celebrated and pack up, we drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky in the middle of the night to get away from the Bonnaroo traffic. We arrived at something like 4:30 AM, crashed for a few hours, and drove to Carmel, Indiana (on the north side of Indianapolis). There we set up and played a pretty cool outdoor show for Rock the District 2011. The weather was perfect; low eighties and slightly breezy. We were in a parking lot, but the crowd got thicker as the gig went on, and by the end, people were into it, dancing on rooftops and such.
I was kind of weirded out by the gig. Being back in Indiana--just the smell of Indiana!--was enough to bring back all the stress and tension of being at I.U. I swear I could feel a wave of guilt pushing me to go practice instead of wandering around town for a half hour. It kind of freaked me out.
When we started the show, Nick let the crowd know that five of the seven of us are Indiana University School of Music graduates, and the crowd went wild.
Our three native Indianans (Indians?), Mark Cobb (Carmel), Nick, and Pete (both from Columbus) received a hero's welcome, and all three had large numbers of family in attendance. The big midwestern hug from the crowd made the whole gig feel really good.
We got in the van at 10:30 AM Sunday morning and drove all the way back to Atlanta. I think it was about ten hours by the time we unpacked the trailer.
Speaking of which, this was the first big test for all my cases. I added foam to a couple of cases (one for my speaker and one for miscellaneous crap). A nice job if I do say so myself, and way cheaper than buying them with the foam already inside. Way to go, Dave.
I cut some more foam away from the knobs on my Fantom and had no issues all weekend. I guess that really was the problem. Now I know. Somewhere between here and Indianapolis, I researched the loose knob thing, and it according to the internet, there knobs are all held to the circuit board by solder, so I will probably need to get in there and tighten them up at some point.
We've got a really light week. Don't expect too much from here.
Wow! Great gig last night at the 10 High. The band was really happening.
It looked for a minute like we wouldn't even have a gig. Fifteen minutes before we were scheduled to begin, there was one guy in the room (other than the band).
People came downstairs right as we began. Just in time!
Back to the show…we played great! Mark Cobb was on fire. I think it was the best that he's played (on an entire gig) in a couple of months. He had a great groove and just the right amount of aggression, and the rest of the band fell in behind him. The whole night was like that. Every song felt great. Plus, Vistalites in the 10 High! Hell yeah!
I played pretty well. I played a wrong chord in the intro to Lonely Boy. Damnit! I was thinking about where to play octaves in my left hand in the prechorus, and I forgot to change chords in the intro. Oops. I hate that I messed that up--we play it so rarely, it'll be months before I have another opportunity. Plus, it was just a dumb mistake--not something that I can't play.
After a couple of weeks, I finally got a good solo on Taking it to the Streets. More logic, less BS.
We bailed on Kiss You All Over. Booooooo.
All in all, a really fun night. I hope the whole weekend goes like this.
Other possible titles: Paid in Toothpaste; Greetings from the Land of Poor Fitting Khakis; Let's Get Excited about Shelf Space; My First and Last Day of Business School.
I participated in a really strange gig this morning (and also Tuesday night). The guys who make up Yacht Rock were hired to be the house band (kind of like the Letterman band) for a private event for Proctor and Gamble. It was not, however, a Yacht Rock event--we dressed "like rock stars" (I wore a t shirt and jeans with a leather blazer) and played a much wider variety of music--mostly in the classic rock vein. I had almost nothing to do, so I ended up turning the volume off on my keyboard and faking it for most of the show.
Tuesday night we loaded in to the Marriott downtown. At that time, the song selections were still up in the air, so I brought my full rig: 2 keyboards, EWI setup, amplifier, and a saxophone. Once they settled on songs, it turned out I would only need one keyboard--everything else could go home!
The production team provided in-ear monitors for us, but then they blew threw the soundcheck so quickly we never got good mixes set up. Too bad--we missed an opportunity to really enjoy the benefits. If we could have taken the time to get each guy's ears dialed in, I bet it would have sounded great. Instead, it was pretty bland. I think a couple of the guys ended up not evening wearing them because they could hear the stage sounds better (and the vocals in the house).
We rehearsed the presentation a couple of times. Four upper management P and G guys tried their best to deliver the Steve Jobs-esque presentation. A bit stiff. Do they sell a product to fix that? The entire thing was scripted, rolling along on giant teleprompter screens hung in the back of the room. Easy for us--even the band cues were written in. I drank beer onstage.
Wednesday morning came way too early--had to be there at 7 AM. Ouch! Not fun. We did the show three times. Each show was approximately forty-five minutes long. Lots of business-speak: leveraging assets, SKUs, shelf space, NOS, and some other acronyms that meant nothing to me. Is it a shelf or a display? I dunno. I went numb pretty fast. By the time we were hearing it for the third time, it was almost impossible to pay attention.
I guess it was because there was nothing else for me to do, but I ended up drinking five cups of coffee. When we began the first show of the morning, I was rocking out on tambourine (um, yeah), and I thought I was going to fall off the back of the stage! My head was spinning. Somehow I avoided falling over on my keyboard. By the middle of that presentation, the coffee was burning a hole in my stomach, and I started making plans for my emergency exit from mid stage (how in the hell I ended up sitting in the middle of the stage with the least to do out of anybody is beyond me!). I decided that when the time came I would step off the back of the stage, climb underneath, and puke--there was no other out-of-sight place for me to throw up. I thought if I could get far enough under the stage I wouldn't get it on any of the cables or lights, and it might not smell so bad on stage.
The feeling passed. I went to the restroom many times to set my coffee free.
I spent almost all of second show contemplating how the four guys could all be wearing khakis, and they were all radically different cuts, and yet none of them fit them well, particularly from behind. I wrote an entire presentation in my mind about their pants.
I became fixated with the teleprompter during the third show. Sometimes the presenter was right on it, and sometimes he was all over the place, and I got frustrated when the guy and the operator couldn't get it together. The screen would scroll in reverse trying to pick up the rambling man. Then I started reading along and totally missed the beginning of Beautiful Day.
Songs from the show:
Rock and Roll: tambourine Let's Go Crazy: synth Black Dog: nothing Beautiful Day: synth Who Are You: nothing Imagine: strings Help from my Friends: nothing (actually, I did play wurly on this) Join Together: nothing Back in Black: nothing Pump it Up: nothing Vertigo: tambourine
The third show ended with a fifth executive reading his heartfelt thanks to the "team" off the teleprompter. Very moving. They'd brought a bunch of people out of the crowd and up on stage for Back in Black, and they all stood up there and read it along with him.
We finished around 12:30. They fed us a big mediocre lunch, and we loaded out.
I got home, slept for 10 minutes, got up and taught a clarinet lesson, and went back to sleep for a couple of hours. I'm feeling almost normal again.
I played a trio gig tonight with Tyrone Jackson (piano) and Kevin Smith (bass). Good stuff. The gig was supposed to be 7:30-10:30, but we found out at 6:30 that it had been changed to 7-9 (the money stayed the same, though). Uh, no problem!
We played pretty well, but the crowd was incredibly loud. Really…we could hardly hear ourselves! It was nuts. Fortunately my recorder is kind of directional, so the roar isn't too bad except for a couple of songs in the middle of the gig.
A few videos from last week's duo gig with Trey Wright!
On to the wrap up…
Friday night, Yacht Rock played our monthly show at the Park Tavern. Space Capone opened for us. Great stuff! The band sounded really solid, and their songs are really good. I guess they wanted to wear black suits for the show, but only the trumpet player actually owned a black suit. The rest of them wore…they did not look good.
Our set was really good. No problems other than a crappy tenor reed. I'm scared to death of my equipment right now (keyboard and EWI, I should say), but everything worked fine. That knob thing on my Fantom still comes and goes, and I'm betting that the SKB case has something to do with it. I'm going to cut some more of the foam away and see if that helps. My solution (when the keyboard asks me to save over and over) is to push the knobs into the board (a couple of them kind of pop into place) and up, and that seems like it fixes it, so I bet the foam is pushing them down towards the keys.
I worry a lot about my laptop overheating. The EWI also will play itself in hot, humid conditions, but I can adjust that with the settings. I kind of have to set it for the summer, and then reset it in the fall when conditions are cooler.
I guess it's just the nature of the Park Tavern tent and the lack of monitors, but when I jump up to play saxophone solos, it feels like my microphone isn't even on. I worry about soloing in vain. I guess somebody would push a vocal mic in front of me if mine was not working.
The crowd at the Park Tavern was huge, and for the most part very receptive. Lots of singing along!
Saturday night, Yacht Rock played a private party at the Golf Club of Georgia. My old friend Lee Shealy was working the show, setting up video screens. I hadn't seen him in probably ten years--probably back to the days when he played keyboards in Atlanta Beat. I was excited for him to see what we do.
The band played well for the first two sets. Kevin Spencer filled in for Nick (attending Gina's graduation from SCAD! Woohoo! Check out her website here.) We closed out the first set with Kiss You All Over…hadn't seen that one in a while! Bencuya's phased strings were right on the money.
Andrew Gold died Friday. I was hoping we'd hit Lonely Boy, but it didn't happen. I wish that song was more popular in our repertoire.
The third set was a drunken disaster. Pretty embarrassing--hopefully Lee didn't hear that part. The gig then went into overtime! Greeeaaaaaaaaaat…I guess they couldn't tell the difference.
The whole third set and overtime we had to fend off requests that we "pick it up." Some amazon woman came on stage and stood next to me for about two minutes during a song, then finally bent down to ask if we would play Let's Get it Started. Umm, no, and coming on stage to ask doesn't increase your chances. Rich people can be a real drag.
Sunday means church gigs. Church gig number one was ok. I used one earbud--it definitely helped hear the guitar and the bass (and the vocals), but the mix isn't very good, so I don't think I'll go to two earbuds. The leader played organ instead of piano, and it really threw the rest of the band off--we gotten pretty good about playing off what he's doing there. The organ's not even in the headphones. To top it off, we had a sub sound guy.
The band guy who asked for more money got his more money. He and the drummer are now making fifty percent more per gig than me.
Church gig number two was in the parish hall instead of the cathedral due to a deceased air conditioner. I think it sounded pretty good, but I (and the mixer) was buried in a corner behind the band. Once the service started, I couldn't get out in the middle of the room to hear the mix. I used headphones and hoped for the best.
The fingertip drummer did not use headphones and played way better. I suggested afterwards that he try it without next week too--he matches the volume, groove, and intensity of the piano much better without them. I guess he was trying to play to the headphone mix instead of playing with the band.
My first gig was a flute/guitar duo with Trey Wright. We played for the opening of a condo building in Marietta (very convenient that both of us live about fifteen minutes away!), providing mood-setting music for people exiting the elevator. Sounds romantic! It was fun--I never get jazz flute gigs, it was cool to play with Trey again, and nobody bothered us. The crowd got a little loud at some points (don't they know they're ruining my recording!), but we enjoyed ourselves. Easy gig, easy money.
Here's some audio!
I ran home, swapped gear and clothing, and headed out to the 10 High for the regular Yacht Rock gig. A very different playing environment.
The first set, I was Sloppy Joe Saxman. I had lots of little blips where I just couldn't quite get my stuff happening. I did hit on a really nice idea for my sax solo on Reminiscing, but I had a couple of hiccups in the duo thing right before that. The first few songs were like that…I think I was just trying to get accustomed to the sound of the stage that night. It took about half the set before I was completely comfortable.
The second set was irritating as hell. It felt like a couple of the guys phoned it in, and it made the second set take forever. I was not happy. Some of it, I'm sure, was because I was tired, but I couldn't put up with most of the bullshit last night. For instance, the pulling the rug out from under Dannells' solo on Baker Street has been done to death. It's not funny anymore, it's not surprising, he knows it's coming…stop. It hasn't been funny for a while. You're not Mark Cobb--stop telling his jokes.
I'm cool with everybody having a good time--I want to have fun, too--but take care of the music first. The 10 High gig DOES matter.
Yacht Rock continued our crazy string of gigs with a wedding Sunday night in Athens. Friend of the band Ben Allen (producer/engineer/studio guy) hired us to play the reception at his parents' home in Athens, GA. You (if you were a wedding band) couldn't have asked for an easier reception. We backed the trailer up to the back of the stage; loaded in; soundchecked; hung out/drank/eventually ate; played what we wanted, and ended at 11 PM. Easy easy easy gig, and some familiar faces that made it feel less like a job and more like a party with our friends. Yay Ben!
It was mostly the usual Yacht Rock stuff--some 70s, some 80s. We did throw in a few funkier songs for the dancers. Dig it:
My alto was really out of tune. I don't think I like what I played, but the band sounded funky. And what a great time to play a couple of wrong notes right as I go into the solo. Hmm. Not too good there. Everybody else sounds good, though.
On Kiss, I thought I would play tenor so that I didn't play the same solo twice. Then I thought that when it went to the four chord, I'd instead go up a half step from the one…so for me B9 to C9, instead of B9 to E9. Not a good call. Sounded gross. Now I know. Take it from me: don't do that.
Plus, holy crap. Dannells slaughtered me. Not a good time to experiment.
We learned You Are So Beautiful (Greg Lee sang the hell out of that) and Sleepwalk (Dannells played the hell out of that). Very cool. My contribution was some strings on You Are So Beautiful. I'd give my self an A- on that--I got most of it. I didn't play any wrong notes, but I wasn't terribly relaxed. I omitted a few things.
The band ended up staying at the Hotel Indigo in Athens. I highly recommend it. Very nice accommodations. We were pretty wiped out--I think everybody crashed hard. Good thing, too, because we were up at 7 AM to head back to Atlanta to play at the Braves game.
Playing at the Braves game doesn't pay any money, but it is one of the coolest opportunities EVER. We were invited to not only play a concert ON THE FIELD!! after the game, but we also had the chance to sing the National Anthem. How cool is that? Very.
We set up on the humungous stage in the tunnel under the centerfield stands.
We went out on the field and practiced the Anthem.
it looks like Bobby Dews is trying to get away from Greg and me
Back in the tunnel we went to finish setting up and soundchecking (and get out of the sunlight). At some point in setting up my equipment, I suffered a massive heart attack and died. Remember how my Fantom (top keyboard) was doing that thing where it wanted me to save over and over again? I was checking things out, and the sounds would sustain uncontrollably. NOT TODAY! NO!!! NOT TODAY?!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!!!!!!!!!! (sounds that would be echoed by Mark Dannells in a few short hours). Also, my volume pedal was not working. It wouldn't change the volume.
After I finished dying, it dawned on me that the volume pedal was causing my Fantom to sustain. I flipped out again. WHY IS MY KEYBOARD SO SCREWED UP?! IT WORKED FINE LAST NIGHT!!!! WHY TODAY?!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought the "brain" of keyboard had completely failed. My Fantom was trashed.
Then…a light bulb. More like a flat foot in the…anyway, it turned out that I had the volume pedal plugged in where the sustain should be, and the sustain plugged into the volume jack. Flipped 'em around: problem solved; disaster averted; funeral postponed.
The view from our suite:
We went up to our suite and hung out/ate/hydrated. Right before 1 PM, we went down and sang the National Anthem. We went out and took our positions on the field. Somebody gave us some sort of cue, and we started singing…
Oh say can you see
and I'm thinking "Oh shit! They forgot to turn on our microphones!"
By the dawn's early light
"Shit! SHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT!"
What so proudly we hailed
and then the PA announcer said something like, "And now, would you please rise as we salute or fallen soldiers with a moment of silence." Oops. We weren't supposed to sing yet. Maybe nobody heard us.
A couple of minutes later, we got the cue, sang the National Anthem with it reverberating around the stadium like a pinball. Cool. We sang well. Once we got back in the tunnel, there was lots of laughing and "What the hell happened?"
Up to the suite. I hung out with my family. Jack ate a bunch of chicken fingers, drank a Sprite, ate half a bag of cotton candy, and threw up. Big day!
In the eighth inning, we went back to the tunnel to check out stuff. I got my things set and sat down--I'd decided to ride the stage out to the field. It bounces quite a bit, and I wanted to make sure none of my stuff fell. We were waiting to go out, and the game went into extra innings. I practiced saxophone--trying in vain to keep my reeds somewhat hydrated.
tip money from the audio crew
The game ended--Braves lost. I rode out. It was super hot (mid nineties). Got my stuff set. I put a towel over my laptop to try and keep it from frying/overheating/shutting down. I put a towel over my sax effects pedal to keep the display from overheating. I got up to move my saxophone stands to a better spot, and when I sat back down on my stool, it was like sitting on a hot griddle.
The rest of the band came out and we played our set. We had some technical difficulties. Dannells had a bad cable that silenced his entire rig for about a song or two (fortunately we had an extra amp on stage). Bencuya and I could barely see the screens on the keyboards--all the crystals in the LCDs came to the top and blacked out the screens. Yikes! It was fun, though, and once we got rolling, I think it sounded pretty good. Here's the first tune (you can hear Hans dialing stuff in as the song progresses). That's me on synth and strings, my man Bencuya on piano. Check out how loud I am in the mix. You can hear my parts! Totally awesome.
Some time later on in the set we did Taking it to the Streets. A diarrhea-of-the-tenor-saxophone kind of solo. Not my best work. The camera was on me and I couldn't convince myself to leave any space in my solo, and I just kind of pentatonically spewed BS. I tried to sell it with body language, but as far as ideas, not really happening.
My parents saw Yacht Rock for the first time ever. I could see them up in the suite watching us. I bet my dad thought, "We paid out of state tuition for your degree in woodwind performance, and you picked up a saxophone twice during the entire show!"
Did I mention it was very easily hotter than hell? Wow. Super hot. Not a good day to wear a wig. Or a plastic shirt. Or pants.
likes it?
nobody in the stands, but the Vistalites look awesome!
Oops. Jumbotron camera man got me.
The stage went back in the tunnel. We packed up, ate, drank, changed, and went home. A job well done.
Yacht Rock played an event at Sunset Cove on Lake Lanier yesterday evening. It was an event sponsored/disorganized by Rock 100.5 and our old buddy Mike Key, who it appears was singlehandedly charged with every part of the event: running sound, managing the stage, moving gear, MC'ing the event, finding food for the band. Methinks it was too much.
We showed up to the scene…as far as the eye could see, enormous boats, sand, sun, skin. I was turned on and repulsed at the same time. It was, as Nick described, a giant frat party. Goodie! Some guy had his ski boat right next to the stage blasting music; distracting not only because of the competing sound (most of the boats on the water had comparable sound systems) but also for the escort he hired to dance for him all afternoon.
There was a miniature riverboat moored behind the stage, so we hung out on there (in the air conditioning!) while our gear made its way from the top of the hill down to the stage. Once the opening band finished, we set up, line checked and changed.
The first song was a disaster. The PA started making a strange howling sound and everybody looked at Mike behind the soundboard (positioned perfectly in the back corner of the stage so that he could never hear what the PA sounded like). Mike, you hear that? Uh, no. The system kept feeding back until it became unbearable and we had to stop in the middle of the first song. Not good!
While they were trying to sort it out, some dude walked out to the stage and got Pete's attention. This may not be the exact exchange, but this is how I remember it (also, I was laughing so much it was hard to hear):
Dude: "Hey guys--y'all sound terrible."
Pete: "They're working on it."
Dude: "Everybody said y'all were awesome, but it sounds terrible."
Pete: "We're aware of it. They're trying to fix it."
Somehow (luck, I think) the problem with the monitors feeding back was rectified to the point that we were able to continue. Unfortunately, it probably never got any better out front. Let's put it this way: when your sound man calls people on the beach with his cell phone to try and gauge what the people are hearing, things are probably not good!
In spite of all that, I think the gig went OK. If nothing else, it was a good tune up for the gigs we are playing tonight (wedding in Athens) and tomorrow (concert at Turner Field). I could hear myself pretty well and I pretty well. I fumbled through a few measures of Greatest American Hero, but other than that, things were cool. My solo on Takin' it to the Streets got a good reaction.
We packed up in record time and got the hell out of there. I kidnapped Mike Key's watermelon. Ample payment for the time I will spend getting the sand out of my gear.
Getting out of Lake Lanier in the dark was difficult to say the least. I set some kind of record for the number of U turns.
