Friday: 9:50 AM flight to Albuquerque meant that I left home at 7 AM, which means I slept on the entire flight--I was passed out before they shut the door, and didn't wake up until they put down the landing gear. I slept so hard that as I walked past the pilot and flight attendant at the door, the attendant said to me, "Mr. Freeman! We were very impressed with how well you slept! Also, congratulations on your recent Gold Medallion status!" I was so confused that I didn't know what to say.
Anyway, we got to Albuquerque and then took a limo van to Santa Fe.
The scene for this birthday party was a private compound of sorts on a hill just outside of the city. Multiple buildings and spectacular views all the way around. The house manager even pointed out Carol Burnett's house on the adjacent lot. Good company!
The backline...was not very good on this one. Lots of weird stuff--a Nord Stage and a Nord Electro 5D (that I didn't quite know how to use), giant projector tables that served as percussion tables, and a guitar that Mark Dannells had to to solder back together before he could use it. Most importantly, the Roland Fantom X6 that they'd brought me had a problem with the card reader--even though it said "CARD PROTECTED!", the problem was not with the compact flash cards that had all my sounds and settings. This was mildly terrifying, though. because I couldn't be sure that it was their keyboard's fault until they brought another Fantom X to try out.
If I was wrong, it'd be a lot of synth programming in a short period of time!
Fortunately(?), they had one other X series Fantom at the shop, but unfortunately, it was a humungous weighted-key-X8, which dwarfed the little Nord like an Imperial Cruiser over the Millennium Falcon. It did recognize and read my compact flash card right away, so it'd have to do.
All set now, so back to the amazing scenery.
Around a half hour before our start time, a storm inched towards us, eventually coming close enough that we had to tear half the gear down and tarp the rest.
The storm subsided about forty-five minutes later, and we reset everything and played the gig.
Everything went ok. The combination of a long day and the bad combination of gear gradually wore me down, and I don't think I could've played much more than we had to. Not only was the giant top keyboard a hassle (the weighted keys, plus the fact that the thing was pitched slightly away from me, forcing me to stand up to read the screen and change sounds), but the unfamiliarity of the Nord 5 meant that I had to toss my sunglasses aside more than once to try and figure it out while I was playing something else. It was tough.
Saturday: Our travel day didn't begin until 11 AM (which felt like 1 PM to us), so I got up and early and squeezed in a run.
Back in the limo van, back to Albuquerque.
We flew from New Mexico to Salt Lake City, where we changed planes and headed to Boston (and picked up actor Scott Glenn! DUUUUUDE! That's cool.)
Other than that...the sky was so clear leaving SLC that we had incredible views of the ground for a couple of hours, and then the sun set, and it was even more beautiful.
I wonder if the two guys next to me were more weirded out by all the pictures I took, or the fact that I ate five bananas and an apple for dinner.
We landed in Boston after 11 PM, went to the hotel, and went straight to bed.
Sunday: Off to Martha's Vineyard. We drove for about an hour and a half down to the meet the ferry. Wet weather all around, and a choppy ride to the island.
Check out this tent!
Because of the bad weather, we were mostly confined to one of the tents on the beach volleyball court (next to the flooded out bocce ball court).
With a few hours to kill between soundcheck and the reception, I squeezed in a quick run to the beach and back.
Soooooo nice to see our own gear again (we had a friend drive it up to Boston while we were headed west). I played much better with this stuff. Some of the guys in the reception got a little too frat-boyish for me, though, and it gradually drained my enthusiasm for the evening.
We spent the night at the Summercamp Hotel, a really cool 19th century building right on the main drag. Three to a room!
Monday: Yesterday in reverse, but with exquisite weather! We loaded our suitcases into the trailer and walked down the street to the ferry.
From there, it was a van ride back to Boston, and then a flight home. We even managed to squeeze onto an earlier departure, delivering us back to Atlanta around seventy-five minutes earlier than we'd originally planned.
This week, we are headed to Texas. Thursday's show in Houston was cancelled, but we are in Dallas on Friday, Ft. Worth on Saturday (wedding reception), and Austin on Sunday. Our gear will be there, and it should be a great trip! You can see where we'll be by regularly checking out the Pleaserock website.
