February 17-21, 2023: Sail Across the Sun Cruise. This Sixthman cruise, hosted by the band Train, takes place every other year, sailing from Miami to the Caribbean for what amounts to a four day music festival. We've been there since the beginning (back when it was the VH1 Cruise). It's an easy gig for the most part.
Not so easy was the travel! We were scheduled for an 11 AM flight to South Florida, and due to interstate closures, parking bullshit, airport TSA bullshit, and whatever, I almost missed the flight--like I came within about 15 minutes of them shutting the airplane door and me not making it to the boat. I was almost in tears. It was awful.
We landed, and this dumbass was pretending he had some kind of medical emergency or something so that he could get off the plane before everybody else. The aisle filled up before he could get out, though, and he and several band members traded verbal jabs until we could all go our separate ways.
Yacht Rock was scheduled to play the first night of the cruise out on the pool deck, but the weather was uncooperative, so our show was cancelled, and people were annoyed...like it was our fault, or our call. Anyway, we spent the night drinking and wandering around.
We saw the Bearded Bastard Irishmen. Crazy energy! It was loud, though, so I'm glad I snagged some earplugs.
We saw Fitz and the Tantrums. Their sax player was killin' it! These guys used lots of tracks, but their front of house guy blended it with the live stuff so well that it didn't matter.
We ate food in the middle of the night.
We saw Of Good Nature. Yay for horns! Also, the atrium sucks for live music. I'm glad we were able to avoid playing in here. The bass player was cool as hell, and he looked kind of like Urkel. I bet he hates hearing that all the time.
The next day, Yacht Rock was host the bingo tournament.
The boat changed time zones (for whatever reason), and our man, The Great Bencuya, got caught in it. He was late to bingo. We gave him a hard time.
Immediately following the bingo, we moved up to the front lounge for our turn at the meet and greet/autograph signing party.
Our first of three shows was rescheduled for this evening in the theatre. The first time setting up on these is always chaotic--this one was especially so. We were still trying to get things sounding decent right up to the point when they opened the doors.
I think it went ok. The bass supplied to Greg did not work, and the bassist from the Bearded Bastard Irishmen went back to his cabin and brought Greg his personal instrument to help get through the show.
Monkeyboy deemed his in-ear mix unfixable.
Pretty full room, for better or for worse.
We did a victory lap after our set. Train was on the pool deck, doing Christmas songs (that was the theme of the night).
We had some more food and drink late at night.
We ended up at the Dan Band show in the theatre. They were tight, and Dan had lots of cometic bits.
The following morning, we woke up dockside in Puerto Plata, on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.
Today's first objective: a band photoshoot with our buddy Will Byington.
Will in motion
Will took us to two spots that he thought would be good. The first was this street with all the rainbow umbrellas. It looked like it might be cool...
And then somebody drove these two old cars down the street, presumably for tourist photos?
We ended up getting some great pictures in and around the red one.
There were also some parrots hanging around--I think these were also for tourist photos.
We squeezed in some shots right here while we waited for the traffic to clear.
We then moved on to an alley that was hot pink, and took another set of photos there.
Back to the boat for lunch.
Also in port on this day was the Virgin Voyages ship Scarlet Lady.
It's been a tradition for Yacht Rock to dine at teppanyaki for one of the dinners aboard the ship. Our original reservation got bumped by Train, so we had to squeeze it in at 5 PM this evening.
The whole thing is...sort of annoying. I like that the whole band is together, but the chefs are loud and sing/yell the whole time and tell the same jokes that we've heard for about ten years at this point. The novelty of it has worn off.
As we are now heading back towards Miami, it's time to roll the time back.
Our second show of the cruise felt a little less chaotic. Things were a little less stressful. The boat was moving a lot, and we were all full from teppanyaki.
Another victory lap. I'm not sure what's happening in this picture. Zach may have a mouthful of food. Monkeyboy obviously does not.
Zach and I went around looking for things to see, and eventually ended up at the Irish bar for late night food. It was mostly fried chicken and chicken wings, and at some point (and for some reason), Zach paid $12 for the guy on duty to bring me a plate of cookies. I ate several. Guilty! The chocolate ones in the middle were pretty great. I may have eaten four. Or six. It was bad.
Day four of the cruise included a long hang with some of the guys from Fitz and the Tantrums. I drank six cups of coffee. I got sunburned. We watched the band Delta Rae in the theatre. Killer vocal harmonies.
Our third show of the cruise was out on the pool deck. This is a great setting, but the stage hands are never very helpful, so you have to mostly find and set up all your own gear (which brings in some unnecessary stress and frustration). The one guy who is in charge of the set up is completely overwhelmed.
Big crowd tonight!
The next morning, we got off the ship and flew home. The Miami airport is as crappy as ever, and the shuttle from the boat dropped us off at the wrong place to check our luggage, so we had to drag all of our stuff (mostly my stuff) quite a long ways. Then I ate at Subway.
Friday, February 24, 2023: Phoenix. We flew on Friday night to Phoenix for a Saturday gig.
The gig was some kind of private thing at the Phoenix Biltmore, which was kind a stone block place built by an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, and it definitely had some FLW undertones to it.
Here's the green room.
Of course there's no cover for the stage, even though it's a bunch of expensive electronics sitting out in the Arizona sun! I got lucky that my horns were able to avoid it.
Following soundcheck, I killed about an hour of down time by practicing flute in this conference room.
The lobby.
The gig was pretty easy for a corporate event, with an acceptable amount of ambivalence from the crowd. Lots of good looking people in the audience, so plenty to admire.
Nackers played drums on this one
One of the raffles for this event was an opportunity to sing Don't Stop Believin' with the band. The guy who won didn't really know the words, so he kind of did half of the first verse and gave it back to Nick. It was for the best.
It didn't even get too cold once the sun went down. We got lucky! Our part ended around 8:30 PM, too.
Ugh. 5:30 AM shuttle to the airport. Ouch!
I slept pretty much the whole plane ride home, finally waking up when we were about thirty minutes from landing.
That's it! You're up to date!
Here's a new video I recently completed, playing on Dizzy Gillespie's Woody n You. Give it a listen!
January 15-22: Marietta, GA. It's show time! I spent this week playing the reed one book for the musical Assassins by Stephen Sondheim. All four reed books (twenty-one instruments between the four of us!) were played by wind players--a rarity for smaller theaters where at least two of these books end up being "faked" by a second keyboardist. It sounded soooo cool!
The strangest thing in my book was a harmonica part (who plays piccolo, flute, clarinet, soprano sax, and...harmonica?). After a few discussions with the music director, I got the go ahead to play the part on melodica. Yay!
Here are some highlights from the dress rehearsal, beginning with one of my harmonica/melodica solos.
Here's a nifty thing I did for this show: I made a peg extension for my piccolo to bring its height up even with the other instruments. It makes it much easier to pick up and put down without having to look down in the dark.
It's just a fifteen inch piece of PVC with some bolts in the caps, spray painted black, but man, it worked like a charm!
Tuesday, January 24: Atlanta, GA. Yacht Rock played a corporate party in town. This one was pretty dull--most everybody stayed at their tables and watched with blank expressions. Those who got up and headed to the bar stations (located outside the ballroom) stood in the doorways and watched. Oh well--sometimes it's just a job.
Friday, January 27: Seattle, WA. We flew out to the Pacific Northwest the night before, so as to be at least slightly acclimated to the time change. However, Mark Bencuya missed the flight, had to wait three and a half hours in Atlanta for the next one, and finally made it to Seattle at 1:30 AM. Ouch!
Good times on this one--I'm a big fan of Seattle, these people, this room, the whole thing--it's fun! Plus, it sold out before we even got the gear in the room, so that was some extra energy. Leisl was there in the front row!
Peter Beckett, Voice of Player, now lives in the Seattle area, so he came and sat in on How Long and Baby Come Back.
There are lots of YouTube videos from this show by a dedicated fan--here's a sample.
After the show, we caught up with friend of the band Zack Albetta, who is currently playing drums with the national tour of Ain't Too Proud. They are currently working in Seattle, so when he was finished and we were finished, he suggested that we meet up at a bar in between our two theaters to say hey and share a beer. He's doing great!
Saturday, January 28: Portland, OR. We vacated our hotel in the late morning and began the roadtrip to Portland. Today's lunch stop was in some random Oregon town. I don't remember what I ate for lunch, but here's what I had for dessert!
Revolution Hall is a very cool room--the entire venue used to be a school, and the hall is the auditorium in the middle.
A little warming up in the stairwell...
Another big ol' sold out crowd! Good stuff!
After the show in the green room...
And that was it! The next day (Sunday), we flew back to Atlanta.
Monday, January 30: Marietta, GA. Home recording time.
Wednesday, February 1: Manteca, CA. Back on the plane we go, this time to San Francisco. The vans picked us up there, and we continued onward to Manteca to spend the night.
crossing the Rockies
We left the hotel at 11 AM in search of an early lunch before our gig. Our van landed in a shopping area with multiple restaurants, and most of us piled into a booth at the Black Bear Diner.
In the midst of eating, the waiter came by to say that the restaurant was being evacuated because of a gas leak, and that we must leave immediately. Uhhh, ok! I wrapped my veggie burger in a napkin and made my way out the door.
Our first show of this trip was in Modesto at the Gallo Center for the Arts, a really nice room smack dab in the middle of town.
The crowd was small (less than 300), and it was a nice gig to get some momentum heading into the weekend, but was by no means an epic gig or anything.
Afterwards, we drove to our hotel in Fresno.
Friday, February 3: Anaheim, CA. The trip from Fresno to Anaheim was supposed to take five hours, but SoCal Friday traffic got us, and it took almost seven. Ouch!
Tonight's big show was at the Anaheim House of Blues. The last time we were here, the HoB was in a different location, and it was pretty crappy--a dirty old room with a grumpy local crew. This place--way better!
Portrait of the artist as an angry old man...
Saturday, February 4: San Diego, CA. We played The Observatory again. Cool room!
This one sold out, and we certainly enjoyed the energy of a full room. Great gig. Even the security guards were dancing.
Elliot Lurie came and played with us tonight, sitting in on Dancing in the Moonlight, and of course, Brandy.
More from this weirdo...
Treats for the band! Nackers and I had big forkfuls of several. The chocolate mousse ball in the top corner was the best.
Sunday, February 5: San Diego, CA. We only had our hotel for one night, and we got stuck with having to be out by 11 AM, but the next hotel wouldn't let us in until 4 PM, so the vans dropped us off in the Little Italy section of San Diego for a leisurely brunch.
Kip and Zach's lunch spot was through a passageway in an Italian grocery store. Very old school.
After they'd wandered over to meet Peter in a doughnut shop, I left in search of my own meal. I have successfully eaten at Solunto before, so I tried it again. Bread/sauce? Excellent. Salad? Excellent.
I realized too late that I am not a fan of artichoke or squash. My fault. I still ate the whole thing, though. The crust was really good.
None of this did I eat, I promise.
We eventually reunited with Hans and rode in the van to our next hotel, the Coronado Island Marriott. It was much more of a resort looking place. Nice rooms, of course! I slept a lot here.
The TV is a nice place to let a week's worth of running clothes dry.
Monday, February 6: San Diego, CA. We played a private event for a company...their name escapes me. Crest, maybe? Anyway, the show was in The Music Box, a room we last played a few years ago.
This one was ok. Maybe a little bit of a letdown after triumph of The Observatory gig. Ganesh sang for Nick (who's off in Nashville this week producing a record for somebody), and both Peter Beckett and Elliot Lurie sat in on the usual songs. Not bad for a Monday, and we were finished at 9:30 PM.
Tuesday, February 7. Homeward bound! I slept for about half the flight home.
