Holiday Special 2014

Yay!  Finally a good gig!  Yacht Rock played for a sold out Variety Playhouse (I'm pretty sure it sold out Thursday evening) for our sixth annual holiday show.  Good stuff.  I had a blast.  Special guest John Hopkins (of Zac Brown fame) sat in with us on You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch.

First part:


Second part:

Some crazy stuff made it feel like the 10 High without the smoke and the nasty load out--in the midst of us reorganizing to play Brandy on miniature instruments (ukuleles, kid drum set, melodica), a fight broke out in the crowd at the same time that two women jumped on stage and tried to get us to take a picture with them.  What the hell?  Everybody got thrown out.

Somewhere in the night, I think each of us had a personal disaster.  Mine happened to be in Rosanna--I accidentally turned the EWI channel feeding my amp all the way down, so I gave up on the solo because no sound was coming out, only to find out that it was only my volume that was off--the sound to the front of house was unaffected.  If I'd only played through it, no one would have ever known.

But whatever...we all laughed at each other's mistakes and carried on.  All part of the fun.

Some cool pictures from Emily Butler Photography:

One from Zach/Athens Sound (in between running monitors and chasing the two women off the stage):

Awesome night!  Kudos to the Pleaserock team for another great show!

Ugh

Another clunker of a corporate holiday party, this time with a pretty shitty downtown Hilton labyrinth load in/out.  Top it off with some pretty horrible load out music from Kip.

Lots of empty dance floor.

I fell asleep with the dog sleeping next to me and woke up with wet legs because she's peed on the bed in the middle of the night.  Big fun.

Durham

Yacht Rock played a private party for a corporate client in Durham, NC last Saturday at the Carolina Theatre.  What a beautiful room!

Unfortunately, very few people saw us.  I think we maxed out a around fifteen people in the room.  I suppose having the food and the booze out in the lobby kept people away?  They say we were piped into the speakers out there, but did it matter?  I don't understand why people hire us for these kinds of gigs.  Totally uninspiring.

Kip brought his new mixer...probably the most exciting thing about this very long trip.

On the way home, we passed the Marshall Tucker crew truck on I-85.  Nifty.

This week's big event!

Dave and Dave in December

David Ellington and I had another terrific duo gig at Sun in my Belly, our favorite little restaurant gig.  The crowd always likes us, the staff is awesome, the food is fantastic...what else, what else...the music's fun!  Good stuff.  I think we're in the rotation for once a month, so try and check us out the next time you venture out and about in Decatur.

The new tune for this gig was Horace Silver's Juicy Lucy (Confirmation contrafact).  I forgot to call our new tune from last month--Gregory is Here.  I'm losing my mind.

Check it out:



In other news, I reorganized/updated my YouTube page with new videos from recent gigs.  Here are a couple of duo gigs and a trio gig that we did last month:

Turkey Eve

Yacht Rock played our annual Turkey Eve gig this year at the Egyptian Ballroom.  Good gig!  Over 700 people showed up to see our old stuff and new stuff (You're No Good, Southern Cross, Forever in Blue Jeans, You Can Do Magic, and Only the Good Die Young).   Added bonus:  Peter Stroud came and played guitar on Hotel California, Carry on Wayward Son, and Ride Like the Wind.  A cool evening.

Video from last week from the Greg Lee Show at Eddie's Attic--no puking!

Going Back to Tally

Yacht Rock played a pep rally for FSU in Tallahassee Friday night.  I hadn't been to Tallahassee in twenty-five years, and was surprised to find it not as dirty and crappy as I remembered.  This seemed like it was going to be a horrible random gig with lots of driving, but it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable night.

FSU pep band

I limped home from the previous night's I-wanna-die experience in Decatur, arriving in my garage at 1 AM.  At that point, I had to resort my gear (putting the Yacht Rock gear back in its pile and separating it from the stuff specific to the Eddie's show) and pack my truck with gear and clothes for the trip.  I finally fell asleep around 3 AM.

Up at 6 AM.  First thing of the morning--rocket propelled diarrhea!  I took that it to be a good sign that whatever was upsetting my stomach was no longer fighting to go back up, and instead headed out the other exit.  I still felt horrible enough that I slept on the bathroom floor for around twenty minutes.  This is the only trip on which I can remember packing barf bags in my backpack.

I met the van and trailer at 7:30, loaded my gear, and crashed in the back seat, finally waking up around thirty minutes outside of Tallahassee.  At that point, I had a few bottles of water, a few bananas, and a few Papa John's breadsticks, and I felt pretty good when we loaded in at 2 PM.

Load in, no problem.  Soundcheck, no problem.  I sort of participated (if you count standing in the shot) in an interview with the local news about the evening's gig.  After dinner, I took a nap.

It was chilly, but the gig was a great success!  Numerous people told us that we were the best show they'd seen this year at one of these pep rally things.  Here's a great quote posted on the Yacht Rock Facebook page:

We had a really good time.  Good crowd--maybe 1,500-2,000 people.

Saturday was a pretty easy ride home.  Today (Sunday) after a few more episodes of blowout diarrhea, my stomach and my butt have returned to normal.

This week--Turkey Eve at the Egyptian Ballroom!  New tunes!  Big fun!

The Greg Lee Show

The Greg Lee Show!  Mostly the Yacht Rock guys backing Greg on his originals (and a few choice covers) at Eddie's Attic, just as we'd done earlier in the year with both Greg and Nick.  This one had Ben Holst playing bass most of the night--Peter was out of town.  I like the material a lot, and I also like that the fact that there we can focus on performing and not think about the rock show posturing.  Frankly, the stage is so small at Eddie's that there's no room for any kind of movement at all.

We loaded in and sound checked late in the afternoon, and then hung out for several hours while an entire early show checked and played (two full bands on an earlier time slot), and then our opener (Lexi Street) played.  I'm suspecting that I ate something that didn't agree with my stomach, and the hours of waiting gave it plenty of time to reach a boil.  By the time we hit the stage (around 10 PM), I was BARELY holding back an avalanche of vomit.  It was horrible, and the only way I kept from barfing everywhere was getting on stage and concentrating on something for three or four minutes at a time.  I was miserable;  probably played like I was miserable, too.  I'm really glad I didn't puke on stage.  I was one good stomach contraction away from hurling all over the table in front of me.

photo cred--Jim Ramsdell

So...that being said...as usual, I was better at rehearsal.  Cartoon Butterfly had a couple of disasters on the piano part, but a good flute solo.  Southern Nights, pretty good clarinet stuff.  Born and Raised was fine.  Nick and Tim Smith did a couple of Indianapolis Jones songs, to which I contributed a bit of flute.  Right before my first entrance on Loss is the Law of the World, I decided that my part would be better up and octave, so I laid into it, played a string of wrong notes (couldn't read my chart), and then realized that going up an octave was...a really bad idea.  I could see Nick flinch out of the corner of my eye as I ruined his song.  The second time the line came around I was much better, but I'd already blown it by that point. Not Ghosts Yet was better.  Back on Greg's tunes: Get What You Want and Good Thing were pretty good, as was Three Time Loser, all of which were excuses for me to pretend to be David Sanborn.  One Kind of Love was all right;  I'd kind of done all my nifty saxophone playing by that point.  Cruel to be Kind was just a tambourine part.  I don't even remember if we played the planned encore, Sailing Shoes.  In the end, I was hoping to die.  Somehow, I loaded out and drove home without throwing up in my lap.

Kinda wish we'd had a chance to do this one again...

Yacht Rock Two-fer

Yacht Rock squeezed two gigs into Saturday--a wedding reception and then a corporate event.  Double money?  Weeeeee.  It wasn't nearly as arduous as it looked on the day's itinerary.

Gig #1:  wedding reception for our buddy Brandon, talent coordinator for the Braves, in Peachtree City (30 minutes south of Atlanta).  We played on set (less than an hour) at the beginning of his reception.  We were crammed onto a corner stage of insufficient depth.  Mark Cobb had to play with his elbows against the wall in order to stay on the drum riser.

At 6:30, we dove off the stage.  All gear that was going to the next gig (guitar rig, both keyboard rigs) came off the stage and packed in fifteen minutes--a personal record, though in order to make it work, I didn't clean my horns, and all my cables and pedals were picked up in a pile and dropped in my case.  Kip ran sound on this gig, and we had Zach running set up and ready to run sound at the second event.

From there, we drove back to Atlanta to the Botanical Gardens for the next gig.

We made it!  All set up with 10 minutes to soundcheck--pretty much all we need at this point, once everything's been mic'ed.

Gig #2:  some kind of lawyer party.  They weren't that into it.  We played fine anyway.  That room (the cafeteria) doesn't sound nearly as bad I remember it.

Big thanks to Kip, Zach, and Hans for helping us make it through the day.

Big news today was that we will be switching to in ear monitors next year.  I'm really looking forward to it.  The better sound quality, consistent sound when I move out front for sax solos, lower volume, and one less big box for me to carry--all of these will benefit me greatly.  I can't wait!

Friday Night Duo Gig

David Ellington and I (the Dave and Dave Duo) played our monthly Friday night at Sun in my Belly in Decatur.  The restaurant is doing very well, with every table full during our set.

We had a good time playing, as we always do at this gig.  The staff is wonderful, the food is delicious, and the people are willing to listen.  Dave and I added Horace Silver's Gregory is Here as a new tune in our set (the original has the Brecker Brothers as the front line).  A little brisk for a first attempt, but nonetheless a groovy tune over which to blow.

Dave and Dave Duo at Churchill Grounds

our audience at the appointed start time of 9 PM

Dave Ellington and I played Churchill Grounds last night.  The audience was thin, as expected, and we were saved by a group of seven guys who came in, watched three tunes from the back of the room, and then got up and left.  The other guys--the conga player from a salsa gig I did years ago who randomly stopped by;  the dark haired guy;  the guy who asked if we'd be back next week;  and the cellist who thought that tonight was a blues jam (what?) and brought his cello.

We played well, though.  You can check out the mp3s below.



If these sounds tickle your ear, you can catch us at Sun in my Belly in Decatur this Friday, 7-9 PM.

Monday Trio

Week night corporate events are pretty sweet--good money on an off night.  This particular gig was a trio gig at the Aquarium with David Ellington and Moffett Morris.

Most of the excitement happened before the guests ever arrived.  The parking lot boss decided at 4:55 that everybody who needed to be there for the event were already there, so he closed the gate, locking out one third of my trio, a few servers, and THE CLIENT for the evening.  Nice work.  It took some begging to get the gate back open long enough for Ellington to pull his van into the parking deck.

Other than that...another gig.  They fed us, but it was a highly refrigerated box meal--even the potato chips were cold.

I didn't play particularly well.  Part of it, no doubt, was my decision to try and get through the entire gig on a dead reed.  At first, it wasn't too bad, but by the end, it was really dead, and so was my mouth.  It also seems like it took most of the gig before we agreed on where the beat was.  Everything  in the first hour rolled downhill.

Here's the audio if you'd like to take a listen: