August 2023

August 3, 2023: Sugar Land, TX. Tonight's show was another Kenny Loggins opener set--this one was in a theater/performing arts place just outside of Houston. There was nothing particularly memorable about this one, other than that we were there all day. I played a lot while I waited for the gig to start, and then I had time to go for a run after our part was over. It took a long time to get out.

Friday, August 4, 2023: San Antonio, TX. The Loggins tour had the day off, so Yacht Rock played a solo show in San Antonio at the Aztec Theatre. We played here once before, February 24, 2017 (you can read about it here). It was cooler on that day than it was today.

Hans and I walked two blocks from the Aztec to an Indian place.

That's not how you spell Revue. I heard among the band that we have it written into the contract that misspellings of the band name on the marque will cost you $2,000, but I don't know if that gets enforced. Regardless, this is lame.

Nice room, though.

As you might guess, we had a better crowd than last time. This place is worth returning to.

August 5, 2023: Austin, TX. Another Kenny Loggins show. This evening's show was outside...in Texas...in August. Not a good idea. I guess we're going to find out who REALLY likes Kenny Loggins enough to sit in one of these seats and broil.

Beyond that, though--wow! Nice looking venue.

Nailing the banana ripeness. I approve.

Hot hot hot. You know what it feels like when you get in a hot car in the middle of the summer and shut the door, and the heat just hangs there, and the seats and the steering wheel and the armrest are all hot? This gig was like that. We were hot, the air was hot, the gear was hot.

We thought we'd be spared a little of the heat because the stage faced east, but that building just reflected it back at us, like they were trying to fry ants on the sidewalk or something. Thank god this one was only forty-five minutes long.

Loo was so lifelike that after I walked by, and turned back to go and pet him (because I never pass up a chance to pet a good dog).

August 6, 2023: Travel day. We were supposed to fly home from Austin on a 10:45 AM flight, but the plane had some sort of mechanical problem that they weren't able to fix (including turning the whole plane off and turning it back on!), so we ended up returning to the gate to deplane. My nap was ruined.

Thinking that was going to be an hour or so delay, road manager Peter Searcy and I had pizza. Pretty good for airport food.

Waiting and waiting, and the delays kept stacking up.

I took naps, a looked at my phone, and I walked back and forth from one end of the airport to the other. Sometimes I went into the shops.

Finally at 9:45 PM, we got back a plane. Time to go home!

But no! As soon as they got everybody on board, the pilot came on the intercom to let us know that the flight had been canceled and we all had to get back off the plane. Kip got us a hotel and Keisha rebooked us on a new flight for Monday afternoon.

Monday, August 7, 2023. We successfully returned to Atlanta. I was home around dinner time.

Tuesday, August 8, 2023: Geneseo, NY. We flew to Rochester, New York around lunch time. The gig was not until Wednesday, but it was too far from airport (and too few flights) to go day of show. Soooo, we flew, drove to Geneseo, ate dinner at the Mexican restaurant next door, and then several of us went grocery shopping.

August 9, 2023: Hammondsport, NY. This was a gig at a winery among the finger lakes region of New York. We had really enjoyable weather, and the gig was pretty decent.

August 10, 2023: Lewiston, NY. Today's show was kind a state fair looking thing just around the corner from Niagara Falls (and thus, across the river from Canada). There was a massive thunderstorm just as we arrived, but it passed quickly and we had to play the gig.

This show was another "opener" slot, this time in support of Richard Marx.

Once the weather moved on, it was a really nice afternoon.

Some guy who looked like Rodney Dangerfield was in the front row.
 

This is some hotel lobby stupidity while the room keys were being made.

Friday, August 11, 2023: Cleveland, OH, once again opening for Richard Marx in a funky little amphitheater in Cleveland Heights.

Remember Austin? This was much more reasonable.

We made good time getting to the venue, and after the Richard Marx band had set up and sound checked (Richard does not attend soundcheck), there was ample time to set up and soundcheck. I even had time for a bit of maintenance, scrubbing the rust off saxophone springs with WD-40 and Q-tips. 

Backstage. This place was made for summer stock theater!

We had pretty steady rain showers beginning around an hour before our set, and I think that unfortunately it scared off the already meager crowd in attendance. On the other hand, it was decided that we should leave as soon as possible after our set, so the merch was packed up early, our fee was collected, and we hit the road while Richard Marx was still on stage.

Currently we're traveling in three vehicles, and they don't all leave the gigs at the same time, so when we got to the hotel, the other guys had all checked in. The overnight attendant got flustered about how many rooms we'd reserved and how many keys were left, and it finally took getting Pete out of his room to come down and help straighten things out.

Saturday, August 12, 2023: Indianapolis, IN. I'm not from here, but playing shows in Indy is always a pleasant homecoming.

Zach had some godawful interference from lots of other crap happening in the vicinity of the amphitheater, and eventually it was decided that we would have to rent another rack of in-ears gear in a different bandwidth. No soundcheck.

Hans recommended this chocolate cake at dinner. I ate it. There was some guilt, but hopefully my run this afternoon counteracted it.

After the in-ears situation was resolved and my blood sugar spike subsided, we played to a massive crowd and had a fun time.

August 17, 2023: St. Charles, MO. This one was a Kenny Loggins opener date in a hockey arena (no ice, though). We played our part of the night, packed up our gear, and split immediately because we had to spend the night in Indianapolis, four hours away.

August 18, 2023: Cincinnati, OH. After a few hours of sleep in Indy, we drove a few more hours to make it to a 9 AM load in at the Great American Ballpark in Cincy. Ouch.

It was necessary that we set up and do a full soundcheck on the field before any of the baseball stuff began.

Even Monkeyboy needed some coffee.

After we set up and they dragged the stage out onto the field, we did a soundcheck (everything went into the stadium PA, so there wasn't much to do other than confirm that it was working). We ate lunch and then headed to the hotel for a big nap.

The Reds provided us with a suite with food and air conditioning. I guess the extra dozen people in the suite were friends and family? There wasn't much room to sit, eat, or change.

The Reds won the game on a walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

August 19, 2023: Chicago, IL. Zach covered the camera and I jumped. Nothing happened. You're welcome.

We drove straight to Chicago and made it at the end of the catered lunch at Ravinia. Good stuff. Toots galore.

The second van showed up shortly after ours did, and they got a flat while parking. Bummer. At least they had a chance to eat lunch before dealing with it.

Another Kenny Loggins date. The audience that we could see (there's a much bigger crowd outside on the lawn that we never have direct contact with) was, as usual, very reserved, but they warmed up by the end of our set and gave us a standing ovation.

I don't watch the Loggins show anymore, so after packing up my gear, I went for a run and then hung out backstage until it was time to leave.

August 25, 2023: Atlanta, GA. Night one at Chastain.

Catering had red beans and rice, and broccoli for me. 

Also, apple pie!

It was hot! I want to say it was 95 for the high, so still plenty warm after the sun went down. Not as hot as Austin, though.

Pretty good gig, though. Pablo Cruise opened for us, so we didn't start until around 9 PM. 

I've been trying to come up with some different stuff to play on the sax solo for She's Gone, and tonight's solo got offtrack right out of the gate, so if it mattered to you, my apologies. Not my best playing.

August 26, 2023: Atlanta, GA. Chastain, night two.

Tonight's dinner was excellent.

Pie again. The world could end tomorrow! Eat the dessert! (also, I ran enough before the gig to hopefully offset it)

Another solid gig. No opener tonight, and I think we played a longer show--it definitely felt longer. My attention and enthusiasm wandered away several times. I don't know if I've been conditioned by all the shorter 45-60 minute opener gigs we've done year or what.

For those of you keeping score, I messed up the Africa solo again. Usually it's the middle phrase that trips me up, but on this night I played it so perfectly (my hands were together AND I played it right in time) that I was kind of shocked, and it was like I needed an extra second to process that. Huh! So I didn't have my hands in the right position to play the last phrase. That was dumb.

I also messed up the solo in Do It Again, by the way. When I practiced it after soundcheck, and started playing a wrong note in the middle, and sure enough, I did that again on the gig. Special thanks to my brain for finding something else to second guess in the heat of the moment.

I missed a few high notes in the solo for Smooth Operator. It might be time to change out my tenor saxophone reeds, or maybe it was just the heat, though. I used to write on the reed the date that I put a reed into service, but this one has nothing on it, so who knows. At least if I had the date, I'd be able to judge whether it was me or the reed.

The She's Gone solo wasn't as bad as Friday, but it was still pretty weird/sloppy/questionable note choice-y. I'm going to blame my equipment for that one, too.