Shamrocks and Church Gigs

Saturday:  Yacht Rock played our first Park Tavern gig of the year, a long three sets celebrating Ireland and alcohol. This gig was big enough to call for an opening band, which I guess needed its own opening band.  Anyway…three bands.  First two…hmm.  No thanks.

Our first set was all U2-we were Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce.  As I mentioned the other night, I don't have much to do except worry about my timekeeping on tambourine and shaker.  I drank a lot of beer.  Not sure in hindsight if I should have challenged myself in this way.

If I may so, I thought we were pretty slammin' on the U2 stuff.  The band sounded really good.

After a costume change, we returned as ourselves for two sets of 70s.  More good stuff--in spite of the long day, we hung in there really well.  Steve subbed again on bass.  He kind of bit it on a few tunes in the second set, but we made it fine.  It's easy to forget how many times we've screwed up these tunes in the past three years--now it's automatic for us.  We had a couple of good laughs at his expense!

The crowd was good the entire day--very little of the annoying idiot drunk types.  They even cleared out pretty quickly after we stopped playing, which made load out a little easier.

Sunday:  I did church gig number one.  The big fun of the morning was a sixteen page chart--what the hell?  Those vocal score plus piano accompaniment charts suck.  The rest of the gig was super easy.  I had a good reed and my flute face was good.

Sunday afternoon, I passed on my usual church gig for the chance to play a gig with one of my heroes, Bryan Lopes.  We played at Cross Pointe Church in Duluth--part of the North Point Church system.  Lopes and I played on one tune that had a sax section thing, so he played bari and I played tenor.  It was fun--the song was fine, but the cool thing was that he and hung out for five hours (and played a single four minute song).

The gig itself was fine, but having Lopes there was pretty intimidating.  I got a solo at the end of the song, and as much as I wanted to play something impressive, I ended up aiming more for not playing anything flat out wrong or just really stupid.  Success, I think.

Lopes and I made it a food gig;  they had dinner for the band before the service, and he and I each ate a mountain of Mexican food, and then burped it up for an hour.  It wasn't even very good, but we made the most of it.  They had chips and salsa, and I'm weak.

davidfreemanmusic.net

U2 Tune Up

Yacht Rock played U2 at The Ivy Buckhead last night…part of the Thursday Night Concert Series that Keeps Us out of the 10 High.  It was a paid rehearsal for us…nobody showed up and nobody in the bar cared.  They didn't even turn the lights on, so we played in the dark.  They must have been busy with the Shake and Bake.

My night was pretty easy, but that's what happens when you're the seventh guy in a U2 cover band, playing second keyboard and percussion.  This pretty much sums it up:

I did get out of there really quickly.  Not much to load out--tambourine, shaker, and one keyboard.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Rehearsal and Recording

It's almost March, so it's almost time for the Yacht Rock Revue to play U2!  We had a rehearsal for a couple of U2 shows coming up--one on Thursday and one on Saturday.  Easy stuff for me…mostly hand percussion, with the occasional one handed keyboard part.

After rehearsal, I made my way over to Madison Studios (where Exocet Studios used to be) for a recording session with Paul Poovey and Eric Alexander.  We did a horn section thing for a Yacht Rock original called Can't Wait for Summer.  I think it turned out well.  Famous last words:  How's this going to take three hours?  It's one tune and we have charts!  Oops.  Peter Stroud produced, though we had a few other "producers" in the room also helping steer the ship.  Russ Fowler engineered.

I put a couple of solos on the tune too.  I think I've mastered the art of not quite nailing it…got close a couple of times, but I couldn't quite get to the end of anything.  Boo.

At least the bari was done in two takes!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Children's Museum, The Fifteen Minute Gig, and Live from Deep in the Cave

Saturday:  the Yacht Rock Revue played a benefit for the Children's Museum.  It was our second year doing this gig.  It was just about the same as the year before--crappy load in, weird room, trouble with the PA, crowd loved it.

I had a good time, and I played well.  My flute solo on Lowdown was better than usual.  I heard from Pete that my sax solo was breaking up in his monitor, but my friend who was at the gig didn't hear this.  Hopefully it was just in the wedges.  I had ear plugs in, so I couldn't hear the PA over the resonance in my head.

I found some good passing chords to play on the chorus of Go Your Own Way (I'm playing a wurly part that doesn't exist on the record).  The basic chords are D minor, Bb, and C.  So I'm adding A minor around the D minor, F around the Bb, and F and D minor around the C.  I'm giving it my best Bencuya impression!  I've been trying different stuff during the past couple of months, and this combination seemed to work the best of all.  Fun for me!

My old friend Steve Florczykowski subbed in with us on bass and did a terrific job.  I've known Steve back from when we played in Atlanta Beat together in the late 90s.   The best compliment I can give is that I didn't even notice he was there!  He fit right in.  Awesome job!

Sunday morning:  I showed up to church gig number one--another weird "play with the orchestra" gig where I played soprano sax/oboe.  We played two songs--that's it!  Fifteen minutes and we were done.  Very nice.

Sunday evening:  we were back in the main church, but somebody had messed with the amplifiers in the main church.  Big, three story stone cathedrals do not need extra reverb!  It sounded like we were in the back of a cave.  Nothing I could do about it--I'm just there with a mixer and two lines plugged into the house patch.  The bandleader went in the back and spoke to somebody about fixing it.  I think it got better for a song or two, and then went back to reverb and more reverb.  Madness!

I got a couple of good flute solos in tonight.  It felt pretty good!

Slow week ahead…

davidfreemanmusic.net

40 Watt, Smith's

The past two nights have been a break from the Yacht Rock grind--we played Zeppelin and Pink Floyd Thursday night at the 40 Watt in Athens and the Beatles Friday night at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta.

Thursday:  not much playing for me.  I played tambourine on Rock and Roll and flute in the beginning of Stairway to Heaven.  Dark Side of the Moon has a decent amount of saxophone stuff, but I'm just reading stuff off the page.   Feels like I'm filling in the blanks.

We ended up with a hundred people in the crowd.  In a room like that (especially when they're not right up against the front of the stage) in doesn't feel like there's anybody there.  Everybody was sitting down watching the show, and though they liked it, they didn't give off much energy.  It made the gig feel kind of flat to me.  That said, it was a something different, and we weren't in a stinky basement, so it was worth it.

Friday:  Please Pleaserock Me played Sgt. Pepper's and then an entire second set of Beatles stuff at Smith's.  Fun show!  This one was packed to the gills with an enthusiastic crowd, and we delivered it.  It was loud on stage, but the sound was good…and no Dylan!

Here's some of Jealous Guy.  Dig Cobb slipping in a little shuffle.  Also, you can't tell it from the recording, but that snare drum sounded awesome.

 Jealous Guy (Please Pleaserock Me) by David B Freeman

I love all the Lennon solo stuff--best part of the gig.  We also did my other fave, Whatever Gets You Through the Night, as the second encore.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Ashes to Ashes

I had an Ash Wednesday church gig tonight.  It really sucked.

It was at church gig number two, in their parish hall.  That room is no fun to play in because the speakers are in the ceiling and the band is in a little nook off to the side.  The sound inside the nook is completely different from the rest of the room.  To mix sound, one has to walk most of the way to the doors to room in order to hear the speakers.

Tonight, I couldn't get hardly any volume in the house without pushing the master fader almost completely up.  When the band really got going, the mixer would hit the red and send a distorted signal to the house.  At one point, the priest came over (after putting ashes on everybody) and said, "I think it's clipping."  Ouch.  Interesting that he wouldn't say "breaking up" or "distorting."  I guess in a way that makes it worse;  he might actually know something about what I was doing.

she's gonna blow!

My guess is that the amplifiers that power the speakers are set too low, so just when I start to get some volume out there, I'm waaaaaaaaaay into the yellow on the mixer.  Then I hit the red, it distorts, and I look stupid.  I wanted to get up on a chair and yell (can't use the PA!) "PEOPLE OF GOD!  IT'S NOT MY FAULT!  THE PEOPLE WHO INSTALLED THIS STATE OF THE ART SPEAKER SYSTEM ARE MORONS!  THE AMPS ARE TOO LOW!  IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"  I can only hope that God was able to silently convey this message.

I never played a note.  I stood there the entire night riding the master fader…push it up when the band is quiet, back it down as the get louder.  Fun.

davidfreemanmusic.net

More Good Stuff

Church gig number one went pretty well.  Maybe I was still riding some of the energy from last night, but I felt pretty plugged into what was going on.  The rehearsal seemed kind of casual, and then suddenly we had to run upstairs to play without having gone through everything.  I think we kind of winged it on some stuff--there was a lot of music in the book today.

Here's something from the first service:

 Mt Bethel, February 19, 2012 by David B Freeman

Tremendously phallic waveform.

In the second service, we accompanied the big choir for one song.  When we went downstairs to rehearse it, I brought my clarinet.  Mid song, the band leader called me over and said, "this should be sax, not clarinet!"  I said, "I'll tell you about it later."

Upstairs, I told him that because the choir director hates my saxophone, I played clarinet for rehearsal so she wouldn't notice me.  During the actual service (when she couldn't do anything about it), I let wail with the tenor.  I'm pretty sure she thinks I cover up her highly polished singers;  I'm pretty sure I add some soul to her square Methodist choir!  She thinks I'm Albert Ayler.

Anyway…

Church gig number two was kind of blah.  I played mostly flute…it was a pretty dull service as far as my input.  There just wasn't much for me to do.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Ain't Misbehavin', Closing Night (for me)

I played my final night of Ain't Misbehavin' with the Atlanta Lyric Theatre tonight.  Great stuff!

Everything I'd messed up last night was right tonight.  I had a great time and was able to enjoy the show instead of panicking about whatever was coming next.  Too bad opening night had to be my rehearsal, but I was a thousand percent more comfortable on this one.  I know I played WAAAAAAAY better than last night.  It was suddenly an easy gig!

One of the most important changes I made between last night and tonight was to better situate my instruments.  Rather than keep my sax stand off to my right, I put a clarinet peg between my feet and kept my alto in my lap.  Much faster!

Here's how my opening (How Ya, Baby) sounded tonight.  It seems like my iPhone doesn't like snare drum.

 How Ya, Baby by David B Freeman

I had a wonderful time.  After the gig, I was so excited, I probably would have done a victory lap around Marietta Square if it hadn't been raining.  I was really pumped up.

Eric Alexander and me

Scott Glazer and me

I look kind of like the detective handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot him.

the guys in the band!

I hope to do it again soon!  Congratulations to the Atlanta Lyric Theatre on a great show!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Ain't Misbehavin', Opening Night

I subbed in with the Atlanta Lyric Theatre last night, playing the show Ain't Misbehavin' at the Strand Theatre in Marietta.  Super duper fun show!

The book is mostly clarinet, with occasional alto.  I practiced the hell out of the book and played along with the cast recording--I felt good going into it, even though I wasn't fortunate enough to attend any rehearsals.  The speed of the transitions was really tough, though.  There's almost no dialogue between songs, so as soon as one ends, you have to be ready to go (sometimes grabbing the other horn).  That part kicked my butt.  In a couple of spots, I turned to pick up my saxophone, and when I looked back at the music, I'd lost my place, so a few things went flying past me.

It was a really fun show, though!  I don't get calls for stuff like this…wish I did.  I love it.  To top it off, I got to see some really awesome old friends--Eric Alexander, Andrew Fazackerley, Jeff Macko, and the one and only Scott Glazer!  Great playing by everybody…I'll try and keep up!

We're on stage, lined up across the back wall.  Here's my view.

I've got one more night to get it right.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Yacht Rock at The Ivy

Yacht Rock played The Ivy in Buckhead again last night.

It felt like we were playing in a train station.  It was crowded and noisy, and the people could not have cared less about what we were doing.  Too bad, too, because if they'd paid any attention they would have noticed Mark Cobb empty his head of all the drum stuff that was building up.  We witnessed the open handed high hat, the Ringo hit hat thing, playing on the bell of the hi hats, the Purdie fill in various permutations, a few moments with the beat turned around and then back, some crazy fills incorporating the stuff on his left, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember at the moment.  He was even played one handed so he could pose for a picture.

Hopefully I can avoid getting sucked into watching Purdie videos for the rest of the day.

I played pretty well (except for the Little Jeanie, which I practiced and still screwed up).  I had some keyboard trouble with my Fantom--it freaked out in a couple of spots.  It dawned on me at the end of the first set that Cobb's "crash of doom" was smacking the bottom of the keyboard (that's how close we were on stage).  I moved back a couple of inches and that fixed it.

We played Kiss You All Over for the first time in a long time--probably over a year.  I know it's C, F, G, and A minor, but it's so fun to play.  I hope we don't go a year before we see it again.  I played the hell out of that one.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tuning!

On the heels of the successful Yacht Rock tour, I dragged myself out of bed really early Sunday morning to make it to my church gigs.

Church gig number one was a bit odd.  I received an email late in the week saying we were playing both services (double money!), but we had to be there a half hour early (boo!).  I showed up with all my horns, only to find out that we were playing the entire service with the orchestra (a few strings added to a concert band).  I ended up playing the oboe parts on soprano sax.  Unfortunately,  I was seated in the back next to the low brass, so the flutes and clarinets played the oboe cues on their parts;  I assume they didn't hear me.  No oboe, no problem.

This gig did offer me the opportunity to concentrate on tuning for my soprano--looking for the spot where the left hand can be in tune and I can lip down the right hand.  Fun.  At least that gave me something to do.

Just for the sake of bitching, let me also mention that we're still on the "all black" dress code, which I still don't get because the band leader doesn't follow this rule;  the organist doesn't follow this rule;  the vocalists don't follow this rule;  the orchestra wears choir robes (as you can see in the picture).  Uhh…so it's just four sleepy guys wearing all black.  I think the goal was for us to look a little dressier, so why not say "no jeans?"  I don't think you can make the argument that we were trying to look uniform.

I did talk to one of the members of the orchestra, who seemed surprised that I could read music (and that I was reading the oboe part up a whole step on the fly).  I think there's the misconception that because I am an improvising musician, I must only play by ear.  Ha!  I have a classical performance degree in flute, clarinet, and saxophone.

Church gig number two was more of the same kind of stuff.  The music didn't seem to need much in the way of solos or fills, so I focused on playing in tune.  Cold churches are tough on wind instruments.

davidfreemanmusic.net