Monday Trio

David Ellington, Kevin Smith, and I had a really nice trio gig tonight at the Aquarium.  My favorite kind of corporate gig--we were left alone to play with no strange circumstances or stupid requests!  It even ended early!  

I haven't played a trio gig with Kevin in many months, and he's playing better than ever.  Dave used one of his favorite new keyboards and also sounded wonderful.  

Check out the sounds...we get to do it again Wednesday.

Piedmont Pride

awesome picture by Jessica Lewis!

Yacht Rock closed out a tremendous weekend of gigs by headlining the Atlanta Pride Festival in Piedmont Park.  Nice size stage (with a pretty big catwalk) and an excellent crew who loaded out gear from the van (parked on 10th) to the stage and back.

We parked at Nick's and took the van and trailer to the gig.  After set up and soundcheck (and inhaling some of the most horribly noxious fumes coming out of that muddy field), we hit Mellow Mushroom.

The gig was...kind of underwhelming.  Not the crazy mass of thousands we thought there might be.  The weather sure was nice for the show, though.

The "Maneater" solo.  Photo cred Peter Olson.  Jessica's picture was better.

Fifty minutes after we began, it was over.  One of our quickest load outs ever, back to the van, and back to Nick's.  This one's a wrap!

Something we'd never seen before:  this show had a guy (blue shirt directly in front of Greg, just off the front of the stage) signing everything we said or sang.  At first it was kind of weird, but the dude was so in to it and danced and played some fierce air guitar!  Pretty cool.

The rain earlier certainly didn't help.  The field was pretty muddy.  At one point, most of our crowd was standing single file on the cable bridge running from the stage out to the front of house tent.

Here are a few videos from this weekend's Variety Playhouse shows:












Our next gig is this coming Friday in Charleston, SC at Music Farm!  Get your tickets here:  http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/513359?wrKey=CAD33F409BB5803C9FDE5819DD31BC38

Variety, Night #2

No letdown!  Yacht Rock played a second night at the Variety Playhouse last night, this time performing all of Michael Jackson's Thriller, plus a set of 80s yachty music.

The crowd wasn't as large as Friday night, so we were concerned that there'd be two hundred people there and we'd all be really bummed out and the show would be flat.  Instead, the room was decently full, the audience was great, and we had a fantastic show!  Lots of fun!

Variety, Night #1

Success!  Yacht Rock began a two night stand at the Variety Playhouse with a set of 70s music and then an entire set of Journey, featuring former Journey lead singer Steve Augeri.  It was a pretty amazing night!

new disco ball at the Variety

right before the curtain opened

first set

with Steve Augeri

photo cred Peter Olson

Early video:

Ray's

Yacht Rock played Ray's on the River's 30th anniversary party last night in a big tent next to the restaurant.  Nice day and a nice, easy gig.  We were treated very well.

I didn't notice it during the gig, but during load in and soundcheck the nearby septic tank was venting some pretty horrible fumes.

Kip and Zach on sound and lights.

Nice gig for a Thursday!  Sort of a Buckhead-ish crowd, I would say, but they were pretty cool, particularly in the second set.  Plus, the gig ended at 9 PM, so I was home in time to watch the second half of the football game (Colts won).

Don't forget--big shows this weekend!  Friday and Saturday night we're at the Variety Playhouse, and Sunday we headline the Atlanta Pride Festival.

Cink It

Yacht Rock rounded at last weekend with a Sunday night gig--the kick off party for Stewart Cink's Cink It Challenge.  It's a nice, easy night at a golf club in the back of a gated neighborhood in Suwanee.  Nothing much to report;  pre-show food was a bacon double cheeseburger;  post-gig party favors included a jar of Parker's Pickles.

Big shows this weekend!

Thursday:  Yacht Rock plays Ray's on the River's anniversary party.

Friday:  Yacht Rock plays Journey's Greatest Hits with former Journey frontman Steve Augeri at the Variety Playhouse.

Saturday:  Yacht Rock plays Michael Jackson's Thriller at the Variety Playhouse.

Sunday:  Yacht Rock headlines the last night of the Atlanta Pride Festival.

Monday:  zzzzzzzzzzzz.


For your viewing pleasure, here a couple of videos from last week's gig at Sun in my Belly with David Ellington.

Wedding Grinder

Yacht Rock played a wedding gig Saturday night for a room full of really good looking people.

Nothing in particular to report about this one.  Zach ran sound and Dustin Cottrell subbed for Bencuya on keyboards.  We learned Nightshift by the Commodores for this one.  I don't think it's going to be a keeper, though.

A little smudge at the end of the night:  a few probably drunk guests got on stage after we finished and demanded the mic so that they could sing and do...whatever...it's never a good situation when the "We're paying for this!" card is played.  I'm sorry that Zach had to handle that situation by himself.  I don't think they touched any of our gear, so we got lucky.

Check out two new Yacht Rock promo videos:





Also, don't forget next weekend's stand at the Variety Playhouse!

Duo at Sun in my Belly

I made it back from Washington DC with a few hours before I had to leave for my next gig.  David Ellington and I brought the Dave and Dave Duo to Sun in my Belly in Decatur for another restaurant gig.

The staff and the patrons were both very cool.  There was even a smattering of applause, which kind of took us by surprise.  

We love playing this gig!  Check out the sounds below.

DC

Yacht Rock played a private gig in Washington DC Thursday evening.  Easy gig!  Hans drove our gear up on Wednesday (and back on Friday) and we flew up and back for the event.  No riding in the van, and we still used our own gear, plus Kip running sound for us--that's the way to go!

We even had to time to check in to our hotel and walk to lunch before set up and soundcheck.

The event was at the Hard Rock.  Tiny stage, but we squeezed in.

This gig featured Robbie Dupree and Walter Egan as special guests.

Loud stage.

Post show, my alto got knocked over on the tile floor.  It's probably got some damage to the upper half--time to go see Bryan Lopes!  Good thing I have a spare horn at home.

Not the greatest of gigs, but the clients were super cool.   We hung out with them at the hotel bar afterwards.

In each of our rooms was a handwritten note from the client and a small bottle of champagne.  Nice touch!  I like these people.

Back to the airport the next day.  We rode with Robbie.  Walter stayed in DC for an extra day.

We flew out of Reagan National.  I've never been there.  Very cool architecture.

Quartet Gig

Yacht Rock had another rehearsal for next week's big shows at the Variety Playhouse:  Journey and YR one night (with former Journey singer Steve Augeri fronting the band) and Thriller and YR the next evening.

Tuesday evening I had a quartet gig with David Ellington (organ), Henry Conerway III (drums), and Jacob Deaton (guitar).  This was a weird one.  For starters, the address on the contract was incorrect.  I called the venue and got the correct address:  it was at that Washington Square looking thing in the middle of 17th Street.  Load in there is difficult--there's no good spot to park and get your gear out, so you basically just stop on 17th, throw on your hazard lights, and go for it.  We got down there (we were in a tent behind the Washington Square thing), and the tent was super hot, and of course we were requested to set up where the sunlight was blazing through the plastic window of the tent.  No power was available in that area, but a chef from the caterer and I found a spot where we could split off from the lights, and a venue guy found us an extension cord.  It just now dawned on me that I left my power strip which we'd used divide the electricity.

We set up and played the first half hour soaked in sweat.  Dave and Henry were so hot that they were in T shirts.

Someone must have called the tent people and asked for portable air conditioning, because a couple of guys showed up with giant ducts to pump in cold air.  Two vents to one side of us, and two immediately behind the band.  These things were blasting freezing air, so we went from sweaty to freezing quickly--everybody put his suit coat on.  The whole time, our charts were being blown everywhere.  My saxophone began the day pretty damn sharp, and by the end of the evening I'm getting pretty flat.

At some point in the gig we decided that we were cool enough, and I kicked the vents back out of the tent.

So...on to the music.  Not bad.  The band was pretty loose, which kind of frustrated me at times, but overall I think the playing was pretty cool.  I had hoped that Dave and I would play enough duo gigs that as we added other players, we'd still be able to keep the same focus and vibe, but it's not working out that way--both this quartet gig and the one I did a few weeks ago were both a little too...self-indulgent, maybe? for my taste.  Both felt more like jam sessions than gigs.

Anyway...we fulfilled our only requests of the evening:

1.  Turn down
2.  Play When the Saints Go Marching In

The person who made the song request immediately left the tent.  We played it, but I don't know why.  Some sort of test?



Afterwards, I went around the side of the tent to retrieve our cases, only to find that the duct work had completely surrounded them, so I had to wrestle them out of the way so that we could pack up.

Post gig, we did the same game of gear-loading-chicken with the traffic, this time in the dark.  Each of us was nearly rear-ended on 17th Street at least three times.  It makes me wonder how anybody gets in or out of this place, or where they're supposed to park.  Weird night.  I'm not as comfortable handling this kind of stress as I used to be.