A Week Off

I've had more or less the entire last week off.  Since playing the 40 Watt last Friday night, I've managed only my PM church gig (at that to a Super Bowl-shrunken congregation).

I'm not gonna lie…other than the fact that I made no money and we're living off savings this week (ouch), this has been a great week.  I got plenty of sleep, plenty of exercise, plenty of time with my family, and time to practice.  Ahhh!  It's been awesome!  During the day, I had to time to tinker with equipment, bang on the piano, watch YouTube videos.  It's kind of what I imagined my life would be like as a professional musician (except for the whole no gigs/no money thing)--that I would have time to practice (the kind where you work on universal things, not the "holy shit!  I have to play this Friday!" kinds of things), and still have time for my life outside of music.  This is it!  I'm lovin' it!

Next week is a lot more busy, with gigs Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and a rehearsal Thursday.  Feed me, Seymour!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Super Bowl Sunday

I slept in this morning because my AM church gig did not use me this morning.  Boo.  Last week, they did two services when I was out of town.  Boo.  Bad luck for Dave.

My PM church gig was sparsely attended, as it is every year.  I have not seen the first half of the super bowl in twelve years.  Good to have a gig, though, and I am not one to bail for something like a football game, or really anything short of death.

It's been a slow weekend with no Saturday night gig, either.  Last night I watched the new Dave Grohl documentary Sound City.  I highly recommend it.



Another slow week ahead, but things will be picking up soon.

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

40 Watt

Yacht Rock made the trip out to Athens to play the 40 Watt--one of our favorite places to play.  All the usual stuff happened…sat in traffic on 316, loaded in, set up, sound checked.

In between soundcheck and the show, we wandered across the street to Ted's Most Best.  Good pizza.  Yacht Rock recommends it.  While we were there, the lady who books the 40 Watt informed us that our show had sold out.  Nice!

Our show went pretty well, I think.  We played two sets, the first one beginning with Baker Street.  I can't complain about that!  The first tune can be a little tough because in any room it takes a few songs to get comfortable.  Dannells wiped out on the intro to the guitar solo--the lights had gone out for a second, and he described it later as a Helen Keller moment:  he could neither see nor hear.  It was a little touch and go for all of us--I had to check a couple of times to make sure my sax microphone was working.  All of this, we later concluded, was the result of the packed room which ate up so much of the sound in the house.  We'd sound checked to an (obviously) empty room, and perhaps set our levels hearing the PA bouncing off the back wall.

Once we got going, things were fine.  I played well in the first set;  in the second, my mind wandered a little bit.  We had Daniel Morrison subbing for Mark Cobb--that changed the set list around a little and brought out some songs we haven't played in a while.  For instance, I couldn't tell you the last time we played Who Can it be Now?.  I pulled that solo out of my butt.

650+ was the overall attendance.  Thank you Athens!

In other news…videos from last Monday's trio gig with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith:



davidfreemanmusic.net

Pleaserock Weddings

Yacht Rock's parent company Pleaserock has opened a new branch…Pleaserock Weddings.  It's geared towards couples who don't want a wedding with a typical Atlanta wedding band and grumpy old photographers and an anxious/bitchy wedding coordinator.  I mean, cool people get married, too.

Several Pleaserock affiliated bands played little twenty minute showcases in the acoustic nightmare that is the upstairs room at the Park Tavern.  We closed out the evening with a couple of songs.  It was a snoozer, but if it helps the keep the Pleaserock machine humming along, I'm all for it.

We're in Athens tonight at the 40 Watt!

Upcoming dates:

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

Tyrone's Return

I hadn't played a trio gig with Tyrone Jackson on keyboards since before Thanksgiving--his schedule had gotten out of control.  Currently, he's finishing up his masters degree in Georgia State (and doing the grad assistant B.S.);  at the same time, he's teaching classes at Kennesaw State.  The actual playing of music has been mostly limited to his Sunday morning church gig.

In spite of the noisy crowd, this gig was a treat!  It's pretty awesome to have my tunes interpreted by two musicians of the caliber of Tyrone and Kevin Smith.  Great stuff by fantastic people.

Here's the audio:



davidfreemanmusic.net

North Carolina Tour

photo by Pete

Yacht Rock had a tough little tour last weekend up to North Carolina and back.

First indication that things weren't going to be easy:  we made it to 85 and Clairmont before we pulled over to add air to the trailer tires.  It was then that we noticed the steel tread showing through on the left wheel!  No good…change that tire!

Several hours later, we were still on 85 (this time just north of Charlotte) when we noticed smoke coming off the right trailer tire.  We peeled off at the next exit and investigated--it seems that the bearings in the trailer axle were fried.  Some quick smartphone work found us a UHaul place in Salisbury, NC where we could rent another trailer.  Unfortunately, we had trouble hitching it up to the van.  We eventually got the UHaul hooked up and all the gear in it, but weren't able to get back on the road quickly enough to make it to the Lincoln Theatre, so we had to cancel our gig.  Bummer!

hiding from the cold in our empty trailer

We spent the night in Salisbury.  There was a Japanese steakhouse nearby that provided dinner and entertainment.

The next morning, a couple of the guys got our trailer over to a repairman, who quickly fixed our axle bearings and got us back on the road in a couple of hours.  We reloaded our old trailer and got back on 85, this time headed to Charlotte.  We stopped this time (in a sleet storm) to add air to our van tires.

Our first gig was to be at the Visulite Theatre.  We made it, though we had to jump a curb to get around a downed power line.  It's a pretty easy load in, through the back door, down a half dozen stairs and on to the stage.

Soundcheck provided me with the discovery that the octave key mechanism on my alto was messed up--it must have taken a hit somewhere along the way that bent the rod.  I noticed last week at my House Live gig that a few of E and F# with the octave key felt weird and then felt fine.  The bent rod was causing the octave key to close slowly (thus the weird note and then fine once it closed).  I pulled the mechanism apart, WD-40'd the rod, and then forced the key tubing over it until it smoothed out the bump.  Scary stuff for saxophonists.

The show was pretty awesome!  Our first show in Charlotte drew 350 people on a night with horrible weather.  It might've sold out under better conditions.  Yay for us!  The room was cool and sounded good;  everybody (except for Dannells) played well.  I had a really good solo on Takin' it to the Streets.  It was a fun night (except for Dannells).  Hopefully, this gains us a foothold in Charlotte, as it makes for a good stop on our tours to the Northeast.

A couple of videos from the show:





A tweet from a fan:

This guy made sweet, sweet love to that sax @yachtrockrevue #clt twitter.com/samanthaAmakeu…
— Samantha Smith (@samanthaAmakeup) January 26, 2013

The next afternoon, we loaded into a club for a delayed wedding reception--they were married a few months earlier.  Another neat looking room, though they were having some sort of trouble with the furnace, so it was freezing!  It didn't help that the front door was open for half the night.

This gig was pretty good.  Private gigs never have the same vibe that public gigs do.  Later in the evening, a couple of attendees were drunk enough to get REALLY obnoxious, grabbing microphones, falling down on the monitors, knocking over the PA, and grinding on Pete.  Hmmm.

Bencuya front lines it

We hauled ass out of there as the club was opening to the public.  Fifty minutes after the last night, we had our gear and the PA loaded into the trailer.  Not quite our record, but in the top five.

We drove back to Atlanta, swapped out gear, and made our way to King Plow for our final gig of the weekend--the Team Hidi benefit.

Friend of the band and local chef Ryan Hidinger has stage IV gall bladder cancer which has spread to his liver and lungs.  Yacht Rock helped out by playing a benefit to help raise money for his treatment.

It was an amazing event.  A lot of the local restaurants chipped in for the event (which was packed to the gills!).  Good food everywhere!

Our set was a throw-and-go situation.  We plugged in and went for it without much of a line check, let alone a proper soundcheck.  Knowing it was going to sound rough, I had low expectations, and they were met.  Still, no biggie--it was tolerable for the hour or so that we played, and if it helped the event, I could deal with anything.

We're at the 40 Watt in Athens this Friday night.  Come see us if you're around.

Upcoming public dates:

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

Sunday stuff

After another wild night at the Variety Playhouse, I was up early to hit the first of my two church gigs.

The AM gig is back to a horn section, at least for the week.  The three of us (David Trumble, Garrett Anderson, and myself) sounded good together.  We had a good balance.  We played a tune we'd train-wrecked a couple of months earlier, and this time it sounded waaaaaaaay better (and no train-wreck).

My PM gig was OK.  I didn't find much that I wanted to play on, so mostly I monitored the mix, which I think was pretty decent.  Also, there was a football game on, and I monitored that, too.

More videos from Saturday!













Upcoming dates!

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

Anchorman and Dark Side at the Variety Playhouse

Wow!  Great show.  We're really getting good at pulling something together at the last minute.  Yacht Rock played the Variety Playhouse last night (Saturday), performing the Anchorman soundtrack and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  The Anchorman stuff came together in a couple of days--we decided on that album after a gig Tuesday, January 8, and then left on tour the next day.  I don't think anybody did any work on any of those songs until we got home the night of Monday, January 14.  We had rehearsals January 15 and 17, and played the thing Saturday, January 19.  That's called pulling it out of your ass.

with special guest Peter Stroud

I think we got everybody's best performance of this stuff at the gig.  On the Anchorman stuff, the only thing I really messed up was the string part to She's Gone (one which we play with some regularity).  The sax solo was pretty good, though.  In the Dark Side stuff, I missed an altissimo G# in the Money solo, and the butchered the rest of that phrase, but I got back on track.  Everything else was fine.

There are already some videos from the show posted on YouTube.

Here's She's Gone:



Here's Carry On Wayward Son:



Here's Grazin' in the Grass:



Here's Who's that Lady:



The encore was Led Zeppelin's Kashmir.  I think we nailed it.

Yacht Rock is headed to North Carolina for some shows this week!  We'll be at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh on Thursday and the Visualite Theatre in Charlotte on Friday.  We're also playing the Team Hidi Benefit at King Plow on Sunday night.  Come see us!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Back to Yacht Rock

The Full Tilt gig ended at 2 AM.  I was home around 3, and asleep by 4.  Unfortunately, I was up at 8:30 AM to get out the door to a recording session.  Bob Lewis and I laid down four horn parts (Bob on trumpet and trombone, me on alto and bari) for a new Dustin Cottrell song.  Pretty cool, with a nice horn arrangement by Fuji Fujimoto.

The end of the session left me just enough time to go home, eat lunch, and pick up my gear for the night's gig.

Yacht Rock played a private gig last night at the Dunwoody Ravinia, which now eclipses the Buckhead Ritz as the most foul smelling loading dock on the planet.  Thanks also for the numerous puddles of god-knows-what, especially the one at the bottom of the ramp.

This was a run of the mill corporate function…bad load in/out, bad PA, taped together non rectangular stage, tentative crowd, all in one very sterile hotel ballroom.  Ahh, the glamor!  Things got better as we went along, but the beginning was really tough.  The guys running the sound system had big problems with shrieking feedback and strange reverbs coming and going, and really horrible EQs on everything.  Wow…it sounded really, really bad in that first set.  Imagine what it sounds like when you turn the radio up in your car as loud as it will go, and then let a two year old mess with the treble and bass controls.  Later on, they got things kind of leveled out and it was tolerable.

The hotel had some sort of issue with their elevators.  It took us more than fifteen minutes to go from the third floor to the lobby.  There were no easily accessible stairs to get us there.  Time to bulldoze the Ravinia and start over.

In case you haven't heard, we have a huge show tonight at the Variety Playhouse, performing the Anchorman soundtrack and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  The best part of tonight's gig was that it gave us one more pass through the Anchorman songs.  That, and we got paid, and we finished at 10:20 PM.  In bed by midnight.  A couple of more days, and things get back to normal.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Double Dip!

I played two gigs as part of the same function last night.  Big money!  It turned out to be lots of standing around, too.  Wayne Viar and Paul Poovey were on the gig, so it was a good hang.

The first hour and a half was a House Live gig across the hall from the main ballroom.  Easy stuff.  We then had a couple of hours of down time before the main show kicked off, so we got a chance to eat and hang out.

The second gig was a four hours of continuous music cover band gig with the band Full Tilt.  Not only did the band not take a break for four hours;  most of the time the drummer went right into the next tune!  Michael Magno's band acted as rhythm section subs so those guys could step off for a couple of songs.  It was kind of insane, but the crowd hung with it much more than I thought they would.

Paul and I played on eleven tunes in those four hours, so mostly we sat at a table off to the side of the stage and people watched.

At 2 AM, the gig ended.  The client had paid for us to valet--nice!  In all the time I've worked in Atlanta, I've never entered or left through the front door of the Ritz.  The loading dock I know far too well.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Trio Gig

My trio (with Kevin Smith on bass and Kenny Banks Jr on keyboard) played a four hour jazz gig.  Long gig!  We were pretty fried by the end.  This was definitely one of those gigs that should've ended an hour earlier than it did--a dozen guys standing around the bar held us all hostage while they talked about god knows what.

Great gig!  This was the second gig I've played with Kenny.  Really good stuff.  Check it out:



My hands didn't work well on this gig, and as the room got colder, I got worse.

davidfreemanmusic.net