Rock Show in Orlando

What an amazing experience!  Yacht Rock backed up several bonafide rock gods for a corporate event in Orlando Thursday night.  Eddie Money.  Jeff Carlisi (.38 Special).  Gary Wright (Dreamweaver).  Bill Champlin (Chicago).  Steve Augeri (Journey).  Epic.  Incredible.  Unforgettable.

Here's how it all went down.

Wednesday:  We were back at the Buckhead Theatre for another event--this time some sort of liquor distributor convention.  One set in the afternoon.  To say that the crowd was not interested in what we were doing would be an understatement.  Usually that would open the door for us to be silly, but this gig remained pretty tame.

I'm not sure what happened before we came on stage, but there were feathers on my keyboard

Whatever was going on last week where my hands wouldn't work is gone.  I'm back to normal.

Afterwards, Hans and Pete loaded the trailer.

The rest of us were no help.

Hans took us to the airport and we headed to Orlando.

Out of the van and straight into a late night rehearsal in one of the largest convention halls I've ever seen.

The first thing Eddie Money said to me:  "How come all you bald guys are getting all the pussy?"  I answered "Why don't you shave your head and find out?"

Thursday:  In the afternoon we had a quick rehearsal and then dinner, and then it was time to play!

Jeff Carlisi, Eddie Money, and Gary Wright

Eddie Money served as MC, and got the show started with Two Tickets to Paradise and Baby Hold On to Me.  Right as we were beginning the latter, I realized that I'd forgotten to pitch my keyboard down, so I missed the downbeat.  Ugh!  All these old guys have lowered the keys on their hits.  It wouldn't be the first time this bit me in the butt.

Next up was Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, who ripped through So Caught Up in You and Hold on Loosely.  Before he could get going, though, his amp died.

Once he got set on another amp, they rocked it.

We played a couple by ourselves.  The horn riff going into the first chorus of Rosanna?  Wrong key--I failed to bring my keyboard back to C.  Nice going.  We followed that with What a Fool Believes.  At least I got that one right.

Up next was Gary Wright.  We opened with Love is Alive.  He then played Dreamweaver.  There was a track (Nick, Cobb, Greg, and Bencuya playing along).

Pete didn't play on Dreamweaver either

Yacht Rock followed that with Africa.

Next up was Bill Champlin, probably best known as for his tenure with Chicago.  He was also a pretty major session musician and writer, penning After the Love is Gone and the first tune we played with him on this night, Turn Your Love Around.  He followed that up with the Chicago tune Look Away.  I didn't get any pictures of Bill on stage;  I find him so casually intimidating that I never thought to relax and pick up my camera.

Yacht Rock was back for Rich Girl.  Once again, my keyboard was in the wrong key.  Champlin had been down a whole step on both of his songs.

Eddie came back and sang Shakin' and Take Me Home Tonight.  A cool moment for me--all seven measures of saxophone solo!

The final star of the evening was Steve Augeri, formerly of Journey.  He came out and did Separate Ways, Any Way You Want It, and Don't Stop Believin'.

The gig was supposed to be over, but the crowd requested an encore, so we gave them Footloose.  Monkey started on his tuned down guitar.  Glad to know somebody else can screw that up too.

What a night, both as a band member and a fan of all of these guys!

Wayne Wins the Award

Wayne Viar and I performed last night at a corporate awards ceremony last night.  Easy stuff--the guy had charts for the dozen songs we did;  I think the most challenging thing was keeping everybody straight on the form of Pick Up the Pieces (the corporation's business involved data recovery--a clever musical choice!), though this dotted eighth/triplet rhythm was pretty much unfathomable:

Mostly it was a fun hang with Wayne, whom I don't see as much these days.

There was food (inhaled on the break) and free parking.  Not bad for a Tuesday night!

Eats/Beats

Yacht Rock played the Eats and Beats benefit at Buckhead Theatre last night.  It's a children's charity event which features a multitude of local restaurants, bands of chefs, and us.  Sort of a hipster Taste of Dunwoody, with (by my picky eater standards) some rather exotic food.

The stage is a good size at the Theatre, the green room is nice, and the load in is pretty easy.  It doesn't have any vibe, unfortunately, and I don't have any feeling for what it sounds like out front.  The crew is also pretty dysfunctional.  We made the best of it.

The chef bands were decent/fun.  We sang Fat Bottom Girls with them (uhhh...I don't know that song) and Bencuya, Nick, and I blew through a wildy chaotic version of Let's Go Crazy.  Ford Fry plays really loud guitar.  Don't go near it.

Our part of the show was one ninety minute set.  The crowd was with us right from the beginning.  Fun gig.

Monkey ran the Kemper through Ford's 65 Amp tonight and liked it better than his Port City cabinet.  Paging Mr. Stroud...

Next in Line

Just to round out the weekend...I played my PM church gig last night.  Things went pretty well except for a bad mic cable that I had to switch out on the fly.

I bought a box of clarinet reeds this week, and swapping them out for my old reeds made a big difference in sound (and thus performance).  Funny how that works.  One thing that didn't work so well was my upper lip for flute playing--what was up with that?  My flute sounded fine, but my upper lip felt weird--like I couldn't grip the air.  I felt like I had Mr. Bill's mouth.

Big week of gigs ahead, so stay tuned.