Vegas and LA

The beginning of a long week.

Friday: We assembled at the Atlanta airport for our flight to Las Vegas, where we would meet our gear and faithful crew of Kip and Zach for a public performance at the Silverton Casino. The van and trailer had left three days and 2,000 miles earlier.

Atlanta legend Bill Hatcher, stationed at the airport

over Bovina, Texas

over Kingman, Arizona

Lake Mead in the distance

over Henderson, NV

over Las Vegas

The gig was a public show at the casino's event facility, which was sort of a permanent tent off the side of the main building. The whole thing was rather surprising--1. that anyone would show up, 2. that anyone would know who we were, 3. that the place actually sounded pretty good! A nice size stage and an easy load in, and one ninety minute set eased us back into gigging.

Saturday: Mid morning, we loaded up the van and headed to Los Angeles. The local crew guy in Vegas tried to scare us into thinking it would take eight hours with traffic (for a four hour trip), but we fortunately didn't believe him.

I'd never made this trip across the desert before. It's really beautiful.

We made a pit stop in the middle of nowhere (Baker, CA).

After lunch in Fontana, CA, we were making great time, and the guys decided to add a little air to one of the van tires. Kip noticed that the tire was leaking at the valve stem and opted to swap it out for the spare.

In the process of removing the lug nuts, one of the wheel studs broke off. The two neighboring lug nuts proved to be especially difficult, and were later determined to be stripped.

After an hour of work, they got the good wheel on the van and we were on our way.

Our first LA show since last year's Club Bahia dud was at the legendary Roxy Theatre on Sunset Strip. Tickets sold out the day before (500 person capacity). Super cool!

We had a camera crew in tow for this one. Here they are getting footage of us ordering pizza.

The show was amazing! Everybody was really pumped about the gig, and the wave of excitement in the first set was was incredible. We had the guys from the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast open the show, and Elliot Lurie and Matthew Wilder came and sang their hits (Brandy and Break My Stride) with us. An audience member sang along to Africa with his hand over his heart. A guy held his phone aloft as it continuously scrolled "MONKEYBOY!!!!" during the guitar solo on Hotel California. As for me, I had a big solo on Biggest Part of Me, accompanied by the voice in my head screaming THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW AT THE ROXY IN LA!!!!! THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!

Big night for the band. We came; we saw; we conquered!

Newberry, Austin (Again)

On the road again...Yacht Rock was in Newberry, South Carolina Friday night for a show at the Opera House. Nice place! Also, loaders! Thank you very much.

The pre-gig meal was a "Sunday dinner" style homemade buffet of chicken/turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, bread, fruit, and dessert. The cook was standing by, mostly (it seemed) to check out what we were eating. I got a whimper of disapproval for passing on the meat and potatoes in favor of doubling up on the green beans, bread, and salad.

Nice crowd, though significantly older than our usual audience. They liked it all the same. Mark Cobb left me a nice a long time to go apeshit on the end of Biggest Part of Me, which I greatly appreciated.

After the show, we packed up super quick and headed back to Atlanta, arriving at our hotel around 2:30 AM. It was a short night of sleep before Saturday's 7:25 AM lobby call. Ouch.

Saturday: Off to Texas again! We flew to Austin (super damn early) to play a wedding reception. I slept on the plane.

After dumping our gear and suitcases at the hotel, most of us made the pilgrimage to Curra's Grill. So good. I had the veggie tacos, and a ton of chips and salsa.

That still left us plenty of time to take a nice big nap at the hotel. Thank god for that.

The wedding reception was for some cool people. Easy gig, though we were all pretty flattened by the end because it ended at 11:45 PM central time. It'd been a long day at that point.

Abbey Road Again

Thursday night, Yacht Rock gave an encore performance of the Beatles Abbey Road at Venkman's. For me, it's as easy as pulling the charts up on my iPad and running them down. I had a good night playing, and an excellent time hanging out with Rob and Rich in the horn section.

Mardi Gras

Sazerac played a show for Mardi Gras at The Vista Room Tuesday night. I was really looking forward to this one, particularly because of the horn section (Justin Powell, trumpet; Richard Sherrington, trombone; Gary Paulo, bari sax; and me, clarinet and tenor sax). Jeez..what a section! I played really well, too, so this gig was really fun.

Texas

Deep in the heart of Texas! Our first attempt at establishing a Texas run, with shows in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. It looks like it's going to be great.

Thursday: Zach and Kip drove our gear out the day before. We flew out Thursday morning. The Great Bencuya has mastered the art of sleeping on a plane.

First stop: lunch! This parking lot security guy followed us from the van to the restaurant, and then from the restaurant back to the van. I'm not sure if we were the threat, or if he was protecting us from some local menace.

Even after lunch, we still had a few hours to kill before we could load into the venue. I went for a walk. Here's some stuff that I saw:

Our first gig was at the House of Blue in Houston. The local crew took our gear up the freight elevator to the stage, and I thought I knew the other way to go up, but I did not, and we got stuck on the loading dock.

This show had a pair of obnoxious DJs as the opener. They played appropriate music, but they talked over everything they played. Also, is this really a two man job?

I tried to bribe a local crew person into sabotaging their microphone, but she said, "Sorry, but I'm the lighting person."

Ugh. The crowd endured these two and stuck around for our show, which went well. Our second public show here was pretty well attended, and set up good vibes for the rest of the trip. The Houses of Blues are cool rooms to play, and the local crew moves the gear from the trailer to the stage. I love that.

Friday: On to San Antonio! Along the way, we made a pit stop at a Buc-ee's.  It's a cross between a gas station and a Wal Mart. You could get lost in there.

Friday afternoon in San Antonio was sublime. The Aztec Theatre where we played was right next to the river walk, and the weather was perfect for hanging around until it was time to load in.

What a room! The Aztec is a beautiful theatre. They even brought the disco ball out of storage for our show. I liked everything about playing here: the crowd was once again excellent, with several hundred people in attendance, the green rooms were plentiful, the local crew was helpful, and the DJ was pretty and didn't use a microphone. I think we made a lot of new friends here. It felt like a pretty spectacular night.

Saturday: After the show, we trekked to our hotel in Austin. It kind of sucked to go that far (85 miles) before going to bed (well...I slept in the van, so I can't really say that it was too terrible, but Zach drove us and I'm sure he was tired), but the good news was that we had the whole day in Austin.

Lunch time wandering around:

fried pickle

Our show was at the smaller room in the Austin City Limits complex--3Ten. We came within a dozen people of selling it out! There's big love for us here, which hopefully means we'll be moving to a larger venue. This one was a little tight! That being said, it sounded great! My in ears mix was so clean and balanced that it didn't even sound like we were on a gig.

photo cred: Zach Wetzel

Sunday: Off to Dallas under grey skies.

Lunch at In and Out Burger. I ate it, but I don't understand what's so great about it.

Another Buc-ee's. Miles of aisles.

House of Blues, Dallas. Another terrific room. This was our first public gig here, and I think we aced it, based on the the turn out for a Sunday night show.

This evening's set list was particularly strong, though it took me the first five or six songs to get going.

In other news, I farted almost continuously throughout the gig. 

The only video I've seen from the Train cruise a couple of weeks ago:

Upcoming shows 

with the Yacht Rock Revue:

Friday, March 3, Newberry Opera House, Newberry, SC

Friday, March 10, Silverton Casino, Las Vegas, NV

Saturday, March 11, Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

Thursday, March 23, Fillmore Silver Springs, Silver Springs, MD

Friday, March 24, Irving Plaza, New York, NY

Saturday, March 25, The Sinclair, Boston, MA

Tuesday, March 28, Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra, Cafe 290, Atlanta, GA

Friday, March 31, Zeppelin vs. The Who, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA

Mojo Dojo

Last Wednesday night, I got the call to play with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie's. What a band! Mace Hibbard on tenor, Micah Caldwell on guitar, Brandon Bush on keyboard, Justin Chesarek on drums, and Scott on bass. The gig was fun--who wouldn't love standing in the middle of all those guys! I did the best I could to keep up...it was a nice hang, regardless!