Colorado and California

Big trip time! The Yacht Rock Revue was out for over a week, with our initial foray into Colorado, a private gig in San Francisco, and then gigs in San Diego and Los Angeles (and a clunker in Vegas).

Saturday: We flew from Atlanta to Denver. Our gear had left earlier in the week, and Hans (driver of the gear) handed off the van and trailer off to us at the airport.

"We've landed on Hoth!" said Zach, after we touched down in the midst of a snowstorm. I've never seen that much snow at an airport before, but I guess if you travel through this airport, you get used to it.

another thing I've never seen: baggage claim for skis!

Mile High Stadium

Our first stop (after hitting the dispensary--Colorado has legal weed now) was the Gothic Theater in Englewood. It reminded me of the Vogue in Indianapolis, and holds approximately the same number of people. Bigger dressing rooms, though!

Surprise! Our first gig in Colorado, and we came within twenty people of selling it out (1030 in the room). How'd that happen? Who knows, but that's pretty cool. We played pretty well--Minute by Minute was still a work in progress, but we added Hold the Line-one of my favorites that we've tried to play in the past.

Here's video of the show:




After the show, we drove on to Boulder to spend the night.

Sunday: The next stop on this run was (obviously) Boulder. But first, we had most of the day to kill in this really cool town.

I went for a run. The altitude didn't seem to be a big factor, but there was lots of slush and still slippery snow.

On the way back, I stopped to meander through University Bicycles, the largest bike shop I've ever been in. If we're back here again with time to kill (and no snow on the ground), I might have to rent a bike.

Lunch: vegan pizza from Whole Foods. Lots of veggies and no cheese...

...and then a stop at another bike shop. Lots of cyclocross bikes here.

So...Boulder Theater. Nice room, big stage, plenty of dressing rooms (this time with heat!). We didn't knock it out of the park with the attendance, but it was solid--a couple of hundred people on a Sunday night is pretty damn good.

Monday: Off to Aspen, but before that, another run. It was too cold to go outside, so I ran on the treadmill.

hell no

the view from our hotel room

The ride to Aspen was beautiful, weaving through the mountains, in and out of the snow. The weather seemed to be completely different depending on which side of the mountain you were on.

At one point, we were crawling up a hill in a heavy snowstorm, and I wondered if we'd make it to the show.

Finally, we arrived at the Belly Up in Aspen. Despite it's small size, it's a legendary venue, hosting acts such as:

Widespread Panic, John Prine, The Flaming Lips, Jane’s Addiction, Thievery Corporation, The Raconteurs, Ben Harper, B.B. King, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Pitbull, SEAL, ZZ Top, Chris Isaak, Gomez, G Love, Bassnectar, John Legend, Damian Marley and Nas, Stephen Marley, Lucinda Williams, Snoop Dogg, Tiësto, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker, Wyclef Jean, Ice Cube, Umphrey's McGee and many, many more.

We had a great night! I think the room was (by the numbers) half full, but it didn't feel half empty, and people were digging it. I wouldn't be surprised if it sold out the next time we come through here.

Tuesday: We spent the night at a hotel in Snowmass, with rooms, as Monkeyboy put it, "made out of spare parts."

By far, the strangest thing in this room was the vintage "artwork."

A well hung family

Onward! We flew a regional jet to LAX. Most of us were upgraded to first class!

The Aspen airport is surrounded by mountains, so we went all the way to the end of the runway, gunned the engines, and just cleared the ridge at take off.

Very pretty views once we were aloft.

From LA, we turned north and flew to San Francisco, landing on a perfect afternoon in the Bay area.

We each had our own hotel room for the two nights we were in town to play a corporate party (same people who took us to Greece last year). Sweeeeeeet! Two blocks away from Fisherman's Wharf.

I set out on a run. My first thought was to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, but I got there a half hour after they'd closed it to pedestrian traffic for the evening.

I worked my way back the Presidio. (Meg Ryan never looked better than in The Presidio)...

...through the Palace of Fine Arts (built for the World's Fair to show the world that San Fran was back from the earthquake of 1908)...

...back across the city...

...down Lombard Street...

...up Telegrah Hill to check out Coit Tower...

...down the hill to the Transamerica Building...

...and back out to the piers along the bay.

I was tired. Two burritos for dinner, and I crashed.

Wednesday: I slept late and then went for a walk around the Wharf.

Alcatraz in the bay

also, this bird in the bay

tulips for Beth

We had a mid day load in/set up (backlined gear for this show--our van and trailer were in route from Aspen to San Diego). Pretty good gear from SIR San Fran (the guitars were not so good, though).

We had the afternoon off, so I went for another run, this time exploring a different part of the city.

First, I went by The Fillmore....

...and then the hill (Alamo Square) from the opening of the TV show Full House...

...then past City Hall...

...and this sweet Mustang...

...and the turnaround for the trolley. Pretty cool.

The gig this evening was a bit of a snoozer--two hours in a dark, cavernous room. Easy enough, I guess, but not the manic energy we'd experienced at our recent public shows. We finished around midnight, packed up, and headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep.

Thursday: Surprise! The fire alarm went off at 1:40 AM. I think I'd fallen asleep around 1, and we had to be in the lobby at 5:45. This sucked. Everybody outside!

We were almost immediately sent back inside. Somebody had burned something in the lobby's snack shop microwave. However, the two guys manning the front desk had a lot of trouble turning off the alarm. For maybe ten minutes after I'd crawled back in bed, a different alarm went off, with the request from the front desk to disregard it (he kept saying something like "please return to your daily business," which I think must have been a mistranslation).

Zach's solution

So...5:45 AM. Off to the airport for a flight to San Diego, connecting through LA. Greeeaaaat. We did get upgraded again, which was cool. I slept for the entire flight.

the Bay Bridge in San Fran

front row seats

LAX had stress relief dogs that you could pet while you were waiting to board. What a sweetheart!

leaving LAX

I woke up when we touched down in San Diego, and actually didn't feel too bad. We passed Jason Nackers (who drove the gear from Aspen) at the gate, hopped in the van, and headed to the gig.

We played The Music Box in San Diego. Great sounding room, though I think the giant video screen behind us gave off a lot of interference--every sax solo had issues with the microphone dropping out, and there was plenty of static to dodge. Still, the crowd was pumped (our second show EVER in San Diego, and the first in years).

We had a little bit of time, so I went for a short run around the bay.

Fun night. I like this place. It feels like it will be sold out the next time we play here.

After the show, we drove about an hour out of San Diego, making the longest day even longer.

Friday: Across the desert to Las Vegas.

Tonight's venue was another "Top Golf," but unlike the one in Nashville, this show was not in a separate room--it was up against a giant video screen, and we looked out at about fifty TV screens and the actual driving range. Very distracting.

I went for the customary pre-gig run.

This was our weirdest show of entire run, but the idea of playing a public gig here doesn't make much sense--everybody that works in Vegas is in the entertainment/service industry, so who's around to check us out on a Friday night? I think sixty people showed up. The entire set was a grind, and I was distracted and disinterested. Also, we were basically outside, and my hands got colder and colder as I sat there. Glad to be finished with this one.

We stayed in the Tropicana (woo? no.). Only in Vegas is there a line twenty people deep trying to check into a hotel at 12:30 AM, and the guys at the counter couldn't have been much more inefficient.

Saturday: Headed back to L.A. for the grand finale of this trip.

The big gig of the week was a sold out show at the El Rey, a super cool art deco theater. This place looked and sounded great--a perfect compliment to our music.

Since this is L.A., we had several friends sit in--Robbie Dupree (Steal Away) with Brian Ray (Etta James, Paul McCartney), Matthew Wilder (Break My Stride), Elliot Lurie (Brandy), and Peter Beckett (Baby Come Back). This was the most important gig on the run, and fortunately, it was the most exciting. We crushed it.

Brian Ray's SG

It was an amazing night.

Here's Peter Beckett doing his thing.



And here are a bunch of professional photos from the show:



After the show, we headed to our hotel by LAX. When we walked in, there was NO ONE AT THE FRONT DESK FOR NEARLY 10 MINUTES! Finally, some doofus employee came out of the elevator. He completely screwed up our rooms. Total moron. I thought Nick was going to strangle him.

We slept for a couple of hours. It didn't matter because we were finally going home!

Sunday: Our flight was delayed. All of the people in this picture got on the plane. I slept for two thirds of the trip. It's good to be home. The end.

Thursday

Yacht Rock played a Thursday night private party in Atlanta. One big set and home by midnight.

killing time

Minor weirdness on this one--our gear has already left town for our shows out west, so even thought we were local, we had backline gear, most of which was a little rough looking. One of the Nords (the one on Bencuya's side) was so weird that they ended up swapping it out, and the guitars and basses were a bit wonky.

Jason Nackers subbed on drums tonight, and played well, though he had some phantom count-offs that nobody caught. Oops!

North Carolina

Two more good shows for the Yacht Rock Revue, and home in plenty of time for the Super Bowl.

Friday: We didn't get very far before we stopped for gas, at which point Zach realized that we had a flat tire on the trailer. Luckily, he's dealt with plenty of these while driving our gear back and forth across the county, so he'd swapped tires in about ten minutes.

Our show in Charlotte was at the Fillmore Underground, our second time in this room and our second time selling it out. Unfortunately, we messed up on the load in/soundcheck/start time and had to make a quick pizza run around the corner before the show.

This evening's crowd did not disappoint! They were great for the entire show. The Fillmore was also very pleased, and it sounds like we'll be graduating to the big room next time.

photo by Zach Wetzel

Saturday: We spent the night in Gastonia, slept late, and headed to Asheville after lunch (which was really bad Mexican place).

The Orange Peel has a new PA, and we have a bunch of new fans! We came within a hundred people of selling it out (925 plus guests in the room). It's amazing--I can still remember what it looked like the for our first show here when there were 125 people in the room.

Another great crowd (even the old ladies are good looking in Asheville) that listened very attentively, and we gave them a good show. Also, somebody thought I was a keyboard player who also played sax and flute, which I will take as a compliment.

Zach took this

Here's the video from our Facebook Live feed:




My solo (the last 3:50 of the video) on Taking it to the Streets is a little better than average, with less bullshit more coherent musical ideas, though it does stay outside a little longer than I probably should have let it.

Here's an updated Yacht Rock calendar. The next Boston (5/18) and Washington DC (5/20) dates have already sold out!

With Alejandro

Monday evening, I got a random email asking me about playing a gig Tuesday night at City Winery here in Atlanta. I'd be playing tenor, flute, a little bit of piccolo, and some bass clarinet backing Alejandro Escovedo. Sure, I said. No idea who Alejandro was. The gig was a performance of his album A Man Under the Influence, and also an opportunity to raise awareness about Hepatitis B and C and the link to cancer (he is a Hep C survivor).

Here's the record. I guess you'd call it alt-country? Whatever it is, it's really good. This guy has a great voice and these songs are extra cool.



I met up with the music director and a local violist and cellist for a run through. After working through the music, we had soundcheck (I'd forgotten how long it takes to soundcheck with wedges, even with your own sound guy), a meal, and then the opener began.

I drew the unfortunate spot on stage between two guitar amps. Brutally loud. I didn't hear much of my flute. That's Mitch Easter on the left and Eric Heywood (HOLY SHIT he was good) on the right.

Alejandro's dog Suki was traveling with the band. She was really sweet. We had good games of tug-of-war and fetch while I was trying to change into my stage clothes.

This evening's set list. We skipped "Horizontal" and encored with "Rock 'n'  Roll" by Lou Reed

The gig was really cool for a variety of reasons. For one, it was interesting to be temporarily immersed in another band traveling by van and playing some of the same rooms that Yacht Rock has seen. I enjoyed the challenge of getting twenty charts to digest twenty-four hours before I would play them. I liked the band a lot, and the music was superb (and for the most part, the charts worked!). I even had one of those transcendental moments where the lyric ended and the part that I was improvising perfectly filled the rest of the phrase and I let go of it just right and the music flowed into the next section and I almost burst into tears because it was so perfect. I get that feeling maybe three times a year. It's magic.

One curiosity: for both sax solos I played on this gig, Alejandro asked that I channel Albert Ayler and give him as much of that angry/free jazz/screechy screaming thing as I could. Within the Yacht Rock camp, my explorations into this style are known as Primal Freem, and I would readily admit that I don't get it, and don't know what it's all about, but I went as berserk as could, as hard and as loud as I could, and everybody seemed to like it, so...this is a long way from Michael Brecker...I don't know, man...I kind of hope a clip from our show surfaces so that I can hear how it fit in with the music that was around me.

If you're not familiar with Albert Ayler, here's a representative clip. It sounds like King Curtis on acid.




Here's a Facebook video from the gig. Lots of guitar here.

Road Trip

Off we go...the Yacht Rock Revue was in Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta last weekend for three more sellout gigs. No plane rides, though...how am I supposed to accumulate Skymiles in the van?

Friday: This was our first time playing a Top Golf, which is basically a two story driving range attached to a music venue. How these go together, I don't know, but the room sounded pretty good and the load in was not too bad.

This week, we added the Doobie Brothers' Minute by Minute, so we spent a fair amount of soundcheck trying it out. Here's my chart. It took a long time to sort out those voicings! Bill Payne (of Little Feat fame) played the synth stuff on this as well as What a Fool Believes. I think he has six fingers on each hand.

After a few swings at this one, we sound checked Magnet and Steel with our old friend Walter Egan, who sat in with us at the end of the show. Before we changed, though, we ate, and before we ate, we took a few swings. I am really bad at golf--like missing the ball completely bad.

Greg Lee takes aim

Zach demonstrates his unique swing

Pretty good gig! I think we ended up attracting a different (older) crowd to this gig, and they weren't as rowdy as we've maybe come to expect--they would actually get kind of quiet in between songs, which felt kind of weird! We played alright, I think--after a week, there's always a little bit of hesitation. I didn't feel a whole lot of connection to what we were doing. Anyway, looked good, sounded good, felt pretty good. I'll take it.

photo cred: Meaghan Farrell

Saturday: The day started at noon, as we only had about three hours to cover between Nashville and our next stop, Birmingham. We had an equipment failure (broken snare drum stand), so the first stop was a Guitar Center. Monkeyboy was excited.

Kip bought me a shaker that looks like a banana.

So...Birmingham has been good to us! Tonight we were set up in the big room at WorkPlay, which holds about 900 people (they oversold it on this night--by fifty tickets!). Big room, big stage.

The guard dog Cheeto (with her ears dyed red) was relaxed...

...after pooping in the middle of the room.

I know--gross. On to the gig! This gig was a little better in terms of our connection to the audience, our own performance. Minute by Minute was a little rough at the beginning, but once we got into it, I think we all dug in a little more than last night. The only hiccup in this evening's show occurred when we returned from intermission and the local lighting guy did not--we played almost an entire song with no stage lights. Oops. Other than that, a good time was had by all.

photo by Zach Wetzel

Sunday: We drove back to Atlanta in the late morning, arriving for an early (1:30 PM) load in for the Team Hidi/Giving Kitchen event, a fundraiser that raises money for restaurant workers in need. We've played this annual even six years in a row, and it's a nice, easy gig for our friends at home. Also, it sold out--our streak continues!

After load in and soundcheck, we hopped into the van and drove back to get our cars and go home, since we would have most of the afternoon off. Ya know what sucked, though? I left my keys on stage, so when we drove back to midtown, I had to bum a ride from Kip and Zach BACK to venue, and then BACK to my truck before I could go home, burning a precious hour of doing nothing at home. Ugh. Not my best work.

The gig was a piece of cake, though (even though that room sounds bad), and the rain had stopped before we finished, so let's do it again next year! Home by 10:30 PM.