Let's Go!

Friday, August 13: Nashville. This summer's trip through Tennessee took us to Marathon Music Works for a Friday night show. Not a bad room! It's a big old warehouse converted into a concert venue and sounds like it, but I can dig it. Big stage, great backstage area, and a massive group of fans. No food in the area, though, so I'm glad I remembered to bring something from home for dinner.

I stole this picture off the internet, but it's me, so that's fair, right?

Saturday, August 14: Indianapolis. We were very lucky to play the White River Pavilion in the middle of downtown Indy--the sixth concert at this brand new venue. Wow! It's amazing. I feel like Indianapolis does everything well (or at least the way I like it).

Even after a good warmup on my instruments, I still had time to sneak in a run around the canal walk, and the weather was perfect. This is a cool little spot.

Dinner for Indy was catered, and this sad plate of carbohydrates (especially you, big scoop of instant rice!) was a pitiful attempt at midwestern vegetarianism! I spoke too soon, Indy!

Anyway, I had two of these plates--I was hungry. I also ate most of the fruit tray, and a big hunk of Mark Cobb's birthday cake. Not a banner day for my diet.

We came out at 8:15 and jumped on the first tune (the Isley Brothers version of Summer Breeze), only to have the power go out on the whole city grid! Woah! Nobody'd ever had that happen before. We tried to buy a little time by playing Take It Easy with acoustic guitars (I'm gonna bet the only thing you could hear was me on tambourine), and then bailed on that and went backstage. After about fifteen minutes, they restored power, and we crushed the rest of the show. This place is awesome, and our Indy fans are really great. Coming back to the midwest is always fun.

Thursday, August 19: Gilford, New Hampshire. I'd never heard of this place, but the people who run it are big music fans, and they have it set up to be a venue where bands want to go and just hang out--in addition to the big stage with lots of seats for fans, there's a pool, a fire pit, a putt putt course, catering, showers, laundry, bikes, scooters, basketball...it's set up for a good time. If you were on a bus tour that rolled in at 11 AM, there's plenty to keep you occupied until the show.

This was not our most massive crowd by any means, and it was a rainy Thursday and our first time in New Hampshire, but it was still pretty great. Hall and Oates was here just ten days before us, and I bet they'd say the same thing. 

We spent the night at a DoubleTree, which means you get a warm chocolate chip cookie before bed. Thank you very much.

Friday, August 20: NYC. We drove for a long time to get to New York, and trying to get into the city on a Friday afternoon was challenging. 

Our show was at a new venue for us, Pier 17, right off the FDR. When we arrived (NO JOKE!), the NYPD was LITERALLY FISHING A DEAD BODY OUT OF THE EAST RIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the local crew was like, "Oh yeah, happens every couple of days. Some of the bodies come from way upriver! The current kind of traps them right here." 

Now that's New York!

fishing for dead guys

Pretty much everywhere we play in NYC is cool, but this was something particularly special, with the most insane rooftop views we'll ever get.

It also had the most "Hello Cleveland!" labyrinth of hallways to get to the stage.

This one was epic. A couple of thousand people, the Brooklyn Bridge behind us, the Statue of Liberty in front of us. Amazing.

Also, a lot of nerves--I think we were all really tense. It would be nice to enjoy these big ones more.

I did ok, all things considered, though my evening was marred by the malfunction of my wireless sax mic system, so I had to stay very close to my keyboards or risk signal dropouts. My ego! There are no incredible pictures of me at the front of the stage, sax god for all to see. That and holding on for dear life during the Africa solo are my only memories.

After the show, we drove about an hour north of the city to spend the night. It was a long day in the van.

Saturday, August 21: Webster, Massachusetts. Indian Ranch is this weird venue in the middle-nowhere-Massachusetts, kind of in a campground/trailer park. The shows are also in the afternoon (1 PM), so we had to get up way early and drive a lot so that we could load in at 10 AM.

The people show up, though! I don't know how all these people knew to come see us, but the place was full, and they really dug the music. After the previous night's pressure cooker, this one felt really easy.

For this show, I used my wireless receiver that I keep with my fly date gear (which I'd forgotten I had in the trailer), and it worked flawlessly. Damnit! I wish I'd thought of it one day sooner.

I guess the trailer is getting pretty hot this summer. The shellac that glues the pads into the keys on my saxophone is melting and oozing out! That's probably bad.

We drove away around 4:30 PM, headed south to our hotel in New Jersey. Tropical Storm Henri was headed right at New England, so our timing was perfect (and lucky). Surprisingly, I was unable to get any food delivered--I tried the Indian place, the Thai place, the burrito place, and a pizza place. Maybe they were closing up because the storm was coming? I thought it would've been pretty easy on a Saturday night at 9:45 PM. Maybe it was a sign. No dinner for Dave.

Sunday, August 22: Wolf Trap, Virginia. Another big day of driving. Our van stopped near Newark for lunch, and I opted for a Qdoba burrito. The food was fine, the service was underwhelming, so it was exactly what I was expecting.

Sooooo...Wolf Trap is right outside Washington, DC, and it is amazing.

Right off the back of the loading dock, there are some trails through the woods, which I happily checked out on my run. I was hoping for a loop (and there appeared to be one on the map of the facility), but all the trails I tried were just kind of spiderwebs of single track that usually turned into small loops or dead ends.

After trying every trail that I could find, I gave up and ran a few laps around the parking lot. Not as pretty, but I needed to hurry up and get some miles in. I'm sure all the yacht rock fans were like, "Who's this weirdo running laps out here where we're tailgating?"

Wolf Trap catering was outstanding. I had two of these plates. Not pictured, but after the gig, I ate the entire fruit tray, too. And a few bananas.

This place was crazy cool. There were enough dressing rooms that even our crew could have individual spaces. Here's mine.

the lounge

catering

And the gig! We sold over 4,000 tickets, mostly to people on the lawn just outside of the bottom level, but the seats were pretty decently full, too. Hell yeah!

Also, my wireless was perfect again. I am officially condemning the unit in my rack and using the fly date receiver. Amazon has been contacted, and the replacement is on the way.

Monday, August 23: Madison, Wisconsin. We were supposed to fly out of Dulles in DC to Madison (with a pit stop in Detroit), but when we arrived at the airport, we found out that the first leg had been delayed enough that we would miss the second leg. Rebooking! Delta was able to get us there, but we had a layover in (of all places!) Atlanta. Let's go!

Airport breakfast and silliness. Killing time.

this is not worth $10

Today's gig was a corporate party for some health insurance people. Easy, but it was guaranteed to not be as exciting as the night before. It was indoors, though, and over at 9 PM.

Tonight's vegetarian entree was (I think) chana masala. Do these people get me, or what! It was great. I would've eaten two bowls of it.

Unfortunately, the gig was delayed a couple of times, but we finally got on stage and did our thing. This is pretty much what we had for an audience for two hours--kind of a snoozer! There were several tables of people listening, I should add. Completely painless, though. And the backline gear was excellent, which I always appreciate.

...and then it was over! I packed up my saxophones, flutes, EWI, and all my other crap, and we got on the bus to the hotel (that's a lot of vehicle for nine dudes).

Tuesday, August 24: Homeward bound! Most of us flew Madison to Detroit, and after a brisk walk, Detroit to Atlanta. 

I wish the Atlanta airport looked like this.

We made it home! This week is our big Atlanta show at Chastain. Sleeping in my own bed for the next ten days.

Before I Forget

 I'd better update this sucker before I forget everything. 

After a weekend of no gigs, we got back into it in Milwaukee at the beautiful Pabst Theatre. Looks good, sounds good, and the definitely an upgrade over our previous trip here (where we played on a raked stage (tilted down towards the audience). 

The audience was small; we definitely didn't have anybody in either balcony, but the few hundred people in the floor level were very appreciative that we made the trip this far north. 

Late in the show, I went up front for the solo in Maneater, and when I returned to my usual position, I noticed that the F key felt weird--I'd lost the pearl! NOOOOOOOOO!!!! Luckily, it fell off right in front of me, so I scooped it up to be reattached later on.

The following day, we headed down to Chicago to play at the hallowed ground of the Pavilion at Ravinia. In the hundred years of its existence, this stage has hosted (in addition to annual summer series by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Barry Manilow, Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, Sharon Jones, Dolly Parton, Sheryl Crow, Tony Bennett, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the Atlanta Symphony Chorus featuring the talented vocals of a first alto named Beth Freeman, and some other people. You get the gist of it. Big show!

What you can't see from the stage was the lawn outside, which was completely covered with people picnicking and listening to the music. I think the lawn spots may have sold out--it was that full. Inside, it was significantly thinner. Still, it was a pretty epic night. My love of Chicago remains strong.

Also, I was thinking when we arrived that the area totally looked like the neighborhood from Risky Business, and I was right--we were a mile and a half away from Joel's house! I wish I'd looked up the address--my run that afternoon took me one street over from his.

Oh yeah...after the gig, we mapped ourselves to the wrong hotel, and Nick just about lost his mind on the lady at the front desk before we realized that our reservations were somewhere else, and that was the reason there were no beds where we were. Oops! Get back in van! 

The next weekend, we began the slate of gigs at the massive Pavilion in Boston. It is an enormous, intimidating place.

I was a bit concerned about weather for this show, as the forecast put the temperature in the sixties with rain and wind. With the venue being right on the water, I thought I might end up with cold, stiff hands and shitty playing, kind of a replay of our gig in Cape Cod a few weeks previous. Fortunately, that was not the case. I wore a suit jacket to begin the evening, but I was warm enough to eventually take it off.

The following morning, we headed to the airport for a fly date to Cleveland, Ohio. But first, a flat tire!

We landed in Cleveland in the late morning with several hours to kill before heading to our gig. As usual, I went for a run (it was terrible! I was exhausted! it was hot and windy!), and then refueled with pasta.

The sprinter van that was supposed to pick us up from the hotel and deliver us to the gig turned out to be a party bus with no room for gear or luggage or our knees. It was funny for a minute, but we made them send us a more conventional van/bus thing with seats.

Our gig for the evening was a party in Canton, Ohio, for newly selected NFL Hall of Famer, Steve Hutchinson. Pretty cool! We had good backline gear, and I felt extra stupid that I took my wireless microphone receiver out of my fly gear and thus had to use a regular old microphone on a stand. 

I saw Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, and Matt Hasselbeck. There were many other guys there who were obviously pro football players--enormous dudes amongst the normal sized humans. Hutch came back in our dressing room before the gig, and he couldn't have been a cooler guy. And he could also probably break your neck.

Also in attendance was Guy Fieri, who lit up a cigar early in the gig and proceeded to send a continuous cloud of cigar smoke our way for pretty much the whole two hours we were on stage! 

The gig ended late (12:30 AM), and we had to travel (via another sprinter van) back to Cleveland. A few hours later, we were back at the airport, this time headed to New Jersey to return to our gear and regular gigging.

The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, is a legendary venue mostly because its connection to Bruce Springsteen during his formative years. Playing the Summer Stage (outside, basically a giant festival stage in a parking lot one block over from the beach), is pretty amazing.

Limp Bizkit did not end up playing their show the night before us. They showed up with a sick band member (with COVID),  set up and soundchecked, and then decided that they couldn't do it, so they bailed. Soon thereafter they canceled the rest of the tour.

lunch!

Extra cool. There were about a billion people there; the weather was great; the atmosphere was great. We were rock stars. 

My only blemish was the middle of the Africa solo. I'm trying not to let two measures out of twenty-five songs ruin my night, but COME ON! I'm again having some major mental hiccups with this. 

Everybody slept like the dead after these two days of gigs and travel.

Onward we traveled! The next day, we made our way back to the Bottle and Cork in Dewey Beach, Delaware (weren't we just here a week ago?). Somewhere along the way, we ate lunch at a strip mall, and they had an Indian restaurant! Score!

Bottle and Cork...and Bencuya.

The venue repaired some blown out speakers in the PA, and this place sounded waaaaaaay better than last month! It was loud, but in a good way. I liked it. The energy of the crowd makes for a fun hit, even though it's a shitty dive bar kind of place.

Maybe the best version we've ever played of I Keep Forgetting--because it was louder and more aggressive than we usually do it.

We slept late again, and I had some sort of veggie burrito for lunch in my hotel room as the rain swept through.

The last show of this run was at the Freeman Arts Pavilion--a socially distanced event somewhere in Delaware. We tried to do this gig a month ago, but it got rained out. This time, the rain cleared off, and we were able to get it in.

This show was just ok; there wasn't a whole lot of energy from the crowd, and I crashed and burned on the goddamn Africa solo again. No matter how many times I play it perfectly before the gig (and during the gig, with the volume turned off), my psyche is kicking me in the fucking nuts. 

Tuesday morning, it was over. We drove a couple of hours to Washington, DC, hopped on a plane at Reagan National, and flew home.