January Tour

photo courtesy of Pete's magic phone

Yacht Rock returned earlier this week from a very successful January tour.  What's not to love about having a gig in January, when most musicians are trying to live off holiday gig pay until the world goes back to spending money on entertainment!

The toughest part of this trip was the fierce cold that we all traded (and incubated daily in the van).  Greg had it at the show Tuesday night at the Tabernacle.  Nick picked it up a day or two later, Mark Cobb a day or so after that, and I could feel it by the end of the ride.  Pete, Monkey, and Bencuya were sniffling along with us.  This tour is sponsored by DayQuil!

Wednesday:  travel day.  We left in the afternoon and drove to Greensboro, NC to spend the night.  Dinner at Hooters.

Thursday:  our first gig was the beautiful Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville, VA.  Wow--nice room!  I also dig it when the load out goes off the stage and straight into the trailer.  You can't beat that (well, maybe you can at The Orange Peel).  The crew was really cool and helpful.

Anyway, it's a beautiful place.  We had a hundred and something people turn up for our first try at Charlottesville.  Success!

Friday:  we boogied over to Washington, DC for a private party.  Last year they had a solo cellist…this year, they got Yacht Rock!  Quite an upgrade.  Our buddy Ronnie who ran sound for us in Baltimore on a previous trip manned the PA.  In spite of the acoustics (glass wall, glass ceiling, hard floor), we had a good show and good sound.  The crowd was thin.  Maybe they were intimidated by us?

Saturday:  our next show was nearby, so the band was afforded a little sightseeing.  First, we ate brunch at some hipster restaurant.  Next, we swung by Chocolate City Beer for a free tasting (good stuff).

Bencuya poses:

We still had some time, so we found a couple of parking spaces in front of the Department of Education and walked over to the National Air and Space Museum.  So cool!

Our evening gig was at the Maryland Live! Casino.  It's not sad enough to see a bunch of people wasting money on gambling…let's put the casino in a suburban shopping center!  The stage was in the middle of the casino, so we had to drag all of our gear through slot machines--no back hallway or underground passage.  Talk about a pain in the ass!

We set up, but soundcheck was delayed until the end of the Ravens/Broncos game.

This gig was the toughest one of the week for us.  The drums were behind one of those plexiglass shields, and though it kept the drums out of the vocal microphones, we weren't used to not being able to hear them directly.

Other than that (and the load in/out and the casino food), it was a pretty easy gig--one set.  We had a pretty good crowd, too--it filled up the concert area, so probably a couple of hundred.

Nice lights!

Sunday:  we were up WAAAAAAAAAY early to drive all damn day to get to The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC.  It's worth mentioning again how awesome it is when you pull up to the venue and the crew takes all your gear from the trailer to the stage.  Ahhhhhh…

This room is super cool.  The sound is kind of boomy and loud, but it has a great vibe.  We had a good show for around two hundred people--better than last time, and not bad for a Sunday night!  If we could figure out a way to get here more often, I'd love it.

photo by moovyphreak

After the show, I had a chance to hang out for a minute with Ben Lovett.  I played on his record a couple of years ago (Highway Collection).  He's been busy scoring movies.  So cool!  Here's one of his best (Karl Liberatore, Wes Funderburk, and myself are the horn section on the record):



Monday:  before we headed back to Atlanta, we made a pilgrimage to the Moog factory in Asheville.  I wish I had a need for one.  Super neat.

Upcoming dates!

January 19, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)
January 24, Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)
January 25, Visualite Theatre (Charlotte, NC)
January 27, Hidinger Benefit at King Plow (Atlanta, GA)
February 1, 40 Watt (Athens, GA)
February 15, Taste of Dunwoody (Dunwoody, GA)
February 16, Cannery Ballroom (Nashville, TN)
February 24-March 1, Rock Boat XIII (the ocean)
March 2, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
March 14, Wonder Bar (Asbury Park, NJ)
March 15, Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
March 16, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
March 17, The Hamilton (Washington, DC)
July 11, Mohegan Sun (Montville, CT)
July 20 (Atlanta, GA)
October 19 (Atlanta, GA)

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tabernacle

Yacht Rock played a private event at the Tabernacle last night.  I've done a few private/corporate gigs  there, and I guess it's just where I'm at that this show wasn't nearly as big a deal as the previous ones.  I remember that the first couple of times, the room was huge and the stage was huge--it was like Madison Square Garden to me.  Now, it feels about right for us.  A neat place to play a show, for sure.

We played a good gig, though it took me almost an hour to finally get comfortable with the stage sound.  The room is pretty boomy and loud, and I kept messing with my stage volume until I found the right spot.  Once I got there, everything was cool.

We're headed out TODAY!  Upcoming gigs:

January 10, Jefferson Theatre (Charlottesville, VA)
January 12, Maryland Live! Casino (Hanover, MD)
January 13, Orange Peel (Asheville, NC)
January 19, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)
January 24, Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)
January 25, Visualite Theatre (Charlotte, NC)
January 27, Hidinger Benefit at King Plow (Atlanta, GA)
February 1, 40 Watt (Athens, GA)
February 15, Taste of Dunwoody (Dunwoody, GA)
February 24-March 1, Rock Boat XIII
March 2, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
March 14, Wonder Bar (Asbury Park, NJ)
March 15, Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
March 16, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
March 17, The Hamilton (Washington, DC)
July 11, Mohegan Sun (Montville, CT)
July 20 (Atlanta, GA)
October 19 (Atlanta, GA)

In other news, I finished editing my videos from the other night's trio gigs.  You can watch them here:



davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday Church Gigs

Sunday was the usual AM/PM church gig day.

The AM service was pretty thrown together, though we did play a very cool tune that had Stevie Wonder kind of changes…Ab, Db/Ab, AbMaj7/C, Db, Gb13, Fm7, Bbm7, Db/Eb for the verse.  Very hip!

The PM service was decent.  My mix was pretty good and my tuning was pretty good.  I didn't play anything memorable, though I my attention was divided between the gig and monitoring the football game on my phone.

Yacht Rock is headed out this week, with upcoming gigs in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina.  Plus, we're sort of gearing up for another big show at the Variety Playhouse.  Here we are doing the beginning of Dark Side of the Moon.



Upcoming shows!

January 10, Jefferson Theatre (Charlottesville, VA)

January 12, Maryland Live! Casino (Hanover, MD)

January 13, Orange Peel (Asheville, NC)

January 19, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)

January 24, Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)

January 25, Visualite Theatre (Charlotte, NC)

January 27, Hidinger Benefit at King Plow (Atlanta, GA)

February 1, 40 Watt (Athens, GA)

February 15, Taste of Dunwoody (Dunwoody, GA)

February 24-March 1, Rock Boat XIII

March 2, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)

March 14, Wonder Bar (Asbury Park, NJ)

March 15, Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)

March 16, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)

March 17, The Hamilton (Washington, DC)

July 11, Mohegan Sun (Montville, CT)

July 20 (Atlanta, GA)

October 19 (Atlanta, GA)

davidfreemanmusic.net

Trio Gig

My trio (with Kenny Banks Jr on keyboard and Kevin Smith on bass) played a corporate reception Saturday night at the Aquarium.  The usual stuff…background music.  With the exception of the first tune, we played my originals.

I'd never played with Kenny  before.  Very cool!  I played at a jam session with his dad years ago when he first moved to town from Ohio.  Faced with the difficult task of sight-reading all night, he fared well.  We had a great time.  You can also hear him on Darryl Reeves' newest CD, titled Mercury.

Here's the audio from our gig:

davidfreemanmusic.net

New Year's Eve

Yacht Rock closed out 2012 with one last near-riot of a gig at the Park Tavern.  Everything you'd expect from 1,804 drunk people.  It's always amusing for a minute:  girls crying, guys trying live up to being the biggest douchebags ever.  Then they're just people in the way while I'm trying to load out.  The Park Tavern is a great place to play and the fans are pretty incredible, but I think it's time to invest in some security people to keep everything cool.

The gig itself was pretty great--we had a good time and everybody played well.  I had (I think) the best solos I've ever played on Reminiscing, LA Lindsay, and Good Thing.  I was feelin' it!

We finished at 12:15 AM.  Yay!  I was home an hour and a half later.  Not too bad.

2013 looks good…here are upcoming public shows with Yacht Rock:

January 10, Jefferson Theatre (Charlottesville, VA)

January 12, Maryland Live! Casino (Hanover, MD)

January 13, Orange Peel (Asheville, NC)

January 19, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)

January 24, Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)

January 25, Visualite Theatre (Charlotte, NC)

January 27, Hidinger Benefit at King Plow (Atlanta, GA)

February 1, 40 Watt (Athens, GA)

February 15, Taste of Dunwoody (Dunwoody, GA)

February 24-March 1, Rock Boat XIII

March 2, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)

March 14, Wonder Bar (Asbury Park, NJ)

March 15, Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)

March 16, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)

March 17, The Hamilton (Washington, DC)

July 11, Mohegan Sun (Montville, CT)

July 20 (Atlanta, GA)

October 19 (Atlanta, GA)

Lots of holds and private stuff, too…I'll do my best to keep it up to date.

Happy new year, and thanks for reading!

davidfreemanmusic.net

High Beams

My AM church gig didn't happen…they were reinstalling the carpet in the sanctuary.  The current carpet was "defective."

My PM church gig included the service before ours--a doubleheader.  Nice.  Two shots at everything.

Not much to report playing-wise.  Evidently, the church is trying to save money by not turning on the heat (thank you busty coed in the third row for reminding me of our chilly situation for an hour).  Yesssssssss.  The cold made tuning difficult--every time I picked up a horn, it was ice cold and twenty cents flat.  Nooooooo.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Christmas with Dan

I played two Christmas services at the church where I play my PM services, both in the parish hall/deadest room on the planet.  It's the one with the band in the little nook off the main room, and the band plugs into the wall and the sound comes through speakers in the ceiling.

Both services were fine, but in the second one, I started playing around with the reverbs on the mixer, especially with the "cathedral" sounding one.  In one song, I had one of the vocalists at a normal reverb level and the other (who was singing a counter line) totally wet, and the piano somewhere in the middle.  As vocal one gradually made her way to the same part as vocalist two (Silent Night), I washed her and the piano out, too.  The song eventually distilled down to the two vocals.  It sounded great in my headphones.  I was pretty happy with myself, even if no one else in the room noticed it.  Dan (Lanois, of course) would've been proud of me.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Nashville

Yacht Rock returned yesterday (Sunday) from a couple of holiday shows in Nashville.

Friday:  we played a private party at The Bridge Building, just across the river from downtown.  Super cool venue that's only been open for a couple of weeks.

The room where we played was an acoustical nightmare.  We were surrounded by floor to ceiling windows in a two story box with exposed I-beams and a concrete floor.  Needless to say, it was loud and washy.  Looked great, sounded not so great.

The attendees made this gig look like a Carrie Underwood look alike contest.  What do they put in the water to make all of the women blonde?

Speaking of which, this gig created a new rule for me, effective immediately:  NOT UNLESS SHE'S TOPLESS.  Some dude requested Hey 19, and we obliged him.  While we were playing, he then tried repeatedly to get his date to get on stage and stand next to me while I was playing for a picture, like I'm the Wille B statue at the zoo or something.  Really, dude--not unless she's topless.

Saturday:  we played the Mercy Lounge again.  Great venue, and the crowd is always enthusiastic.  I like playing here much more than downstairs in the larger room (the Cannery Ballroom).  For this particular evening, we played our holiday show, with roughly the same setlist as the previous week at the Variety Playhouse.  The horn section for this was Dennie Kirtley (trumpet), Michael Guitierrez (tenor sax), and Diego Vasquez (trombone).

Another great show here!  The playing was good, the crowd was great.  Here's a video of Africa:



How about some more lighting for the guys outside of the posts?  Bencuya and I are in the dark!

People in the audience started asking for Baker Street late in the first set, and by the time we finished our show, it had grown to a full voice chant!  Pretty cool.  We gave it to them as the first song of the encore.  All Night Long finished out the night.

Sunday:  we were up and out of town at a decent hour.  I got home, changed, swapped gear, and ran out the door to my church gigs--both evening services.

Church gig number one was pretty good.  It's mostly Christmas carols at this time of year, so no big deal.  The band and choir were joined by a guest soloist from Veritas--a pretty awesome tenor (the guy right in the middle of the picture).  The service ended with candlelight and Silent Night.  Always cool.

Church gig number two was also pretty good, though the congregation was so thin, it looked like Super Bowl Sunday.  We played pretty well.  The lineup was two vocalists, piano, and me.

I'm wringing a couple of more gigs out of this holiday season, and then it'll be time for a break!

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Day After

I staggered home from the Variety Playhouse, put all my gear away, took a shower, and went to bed for a few hours.  Shortly thereafter, I was up again to make my way to my AM church gig.

I played everything I brought--two hymns on flute, a song on tenor, an song on soprano, and the closer on clarinet.  Matt had me on a large diaphragm condenser this week--I don't know if it sounded any better, but I felt like it sounded better.  Bigger microphone, bigger…sound?

I went home and slept all day.

My PM gig was in the parish hall--the cathedral choir had a concert in the main sanctuary (shows you how much they like our mass when we can get kicked out of the church for something of this level--would they do that to the 10 AM Sunday mass?).  Anyway, the parish hall sound is usually a horrible place to play--it's really dead, the band is in a little nook off to the side of the room, the speakers are all in the ceiling, and there's no headroom in the system.  I guess somebody finally dealt with the headroom issue because the band actually sounded pretty good in the room.  Maybe I'm getting better at mixing live sound?  You never can tell.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Holiday Special 2012

Last night was the Yacht Rock Holiday Special 2012, once again back at the sold out Variety Playhouse.  This year featured a horn section of Jordan Shalhoup (from the Schooner), Paul Poovey, and Eric Alexander.  Great playing!

Wow--what a show!  Some things were sloppy/horrible/temporarily catastrophic on my part (Hip to Be Square solo, All Night Long intro, parts of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Raspberry Beret), but I played good solo stuff on Good Thing and L.A. Lindsay, and got lucky when I screwed up the recorded solo on She's Gone and improvised something decent on my own.  Take that, Joe Farrell.

Congratulations to everybody at Pleaserock:  Nick, Pete, Kristen, Esther, and Nackers--for putting together a hugely successful event!

davidfreemanmusic.net