Turkey Eve 2017

Turkey Eve 2017 was two sets at Venkman's: an unplugged set at 7 PM and then a regular performance at 10 PM.

7 PM: A pretty easy set. Two factors were in play here: 1. Nick was sick with a cold, so we avoided a few songs that were too difficult or would have shredded his voice for the later set; 2. the "unplugged" nature of the show allows us to take a few more liberties, so things like the EWI solo in Hey Nineteen could be fudged to make it fit on a saxophone. No gear problems for me in this one.

Check it out:



10: PM: Again, nothing scary or unusual about this one, and no gear problems either. We had a drinking crowd this evening, which bumped up the energy in the room quite a bit. The regular set ended with a really exemplary drum solo by Mark Cobb on Lido Shuffle.


We've got two gigs in Louisiana this week:

Thursday night, we're at the House of Blues in New Orleans
Friday night, we're at The Varsity in Baton Rouge

Two in South Carolina

Here's a bit of an oddity from last week's calendar: Yacht Rock had a gig in South Carolina on Thursday, drove home on Friday, drove back to South Carolina for a gig on Saturday, and came home again on Sunday. Lots of time snoozing and looking at my phone in the van over those four days.

Thursday: Gig #1 was some sort of multi day food festival in Palmetto Bluff--I never did quite catch on to exactly what was going on, probably because I was asleep in the back seat of the van for most of the ride.

typical backstage sign

this cool truck became a doughnut display in the evening, with treats on every peg on the sign in the back

singers!

At the center of this small festival was a three level treehouse. Super cool.

our tiny stage

This gig was pretty great, except...that it was 50 degrees outside! That's really not a great temperature for playing wind instruments (especially when they sit for half a gig before I pick one up). My hands got pretty cold, too. It was rough. We finished at 10 PM, so thankfully it wasn't a very late night.

I thought I'd fixed my laptop, but the same creeping mouse pointer things occurred. Just like last time, the sounds were unaffected, but it appears that my computer has a ghost in the machine.

I spent most of the break at the fire pit, trying to keep warm

the overhead trees at load out

 Saturday: Gig #2--point the van towards Newberry, South Carolina!

drive fast, Zach!

This show was our triumphant return to the Newberry Opera House, which I believe is their fully restored community arts center. The room sounds great (it's really dead and really dark in the audience, so much so that it feels like a television studio), and the hospitality is handled by a couple of old ladies who prepare a Thanksgiving feast for the band (they even made me a special vegetarian meal of black beans and rice).

I read online that the cause of my crazy laptop problems might be because of a bad power supply. I think that's completely plausible; plugging my phone into the charger brick that came with my iPad causes the touch screen to behave erratically, and I had some popping sounds earlier in the year from my EWI rig that would go away when I unplugged it from the power supply. To test this theory, I used my power supply from my fly-date gear. Surprise! The laptop was stable for the entire gig.

Unfortunately, this happened to be the night that the batteries in the EWI itself died, and it was just my luck that it happened right at the solo in Africa, hanging a MIDI note and then going completely dead. Damnit! I played EWI on three songs the entire night--why did it have to happen right there?

After we finished the song, the band allowed me another crack at the solo, and OF COURSE the damn thing worked that time. I went ahead and swapped out the batteries after that.

A word to the wise: even though the EWI has a little light that signals when battery power is low, it will start acting weird before the light comes on. When it behaves erratically, try changing the batteries.

Later in the evening, I hopefully redeemed myself with one of my better solos on Taking It to the Streets. Maybe the audience will remember that more than the failure of my equipment.

Lastly, Greg's magic fan died, probably of heartache after he cut his long locks off several weeks ago.

Turkey Eve shows are Wednesday, November 22, 7 PM (unplugged) and 10 PM (regular) at Venkman's!

Double Sundae

Two gigs on Sunday (and one's a church gig!)--I haven't done that in a while. The church gig was as part of a horn section for a contemporary service in Buckhead. It was pretty simple stuff, which was good because it was really early to be thinking about key signatures and stuff. The band and the music lived up to pretty much every cliche about that genre.

My major gig of the day was playing lead tenor (yikes!) with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra as part of a benefit for Puerto Rico. The band's repertoire is really fun to play, and I had a solid week of working on the stuff in preparation. I played well except for my one solo (trading with the other guys in the sax section), which was total musical vomit. The hang with everybody was really great, though, and as always, I met a couple of more really great local players with whom I hadn't yet shared a stage.

Orquestra Macuba followed us up with the best salsa music in Atlanta. Fantastic stuff.

Arby's, Athens

Two more Yacht Rock gigs this week.

Wednesday night, we played a corporate gig in Atlanta--an easy enough gig. The hardest/worst part of it was the load in and out of the Intercontinental Hotel--a really long walk from the loading dock to the freight elevator (don't forget to go to the security office first and turn in your driver's license before you do anything). Anyway, finished at 10, home at midnight.

Friday: Our show at the Georgia Theatre in Athens sold out mid week, which was a little bit startling, since we hadn't played a gig there since early January.

A couple of things from this one...we started the show with Sailing, and even though I thought I was over it, every step from the green room down to the stage bumped up my anxiety, and by the time I sat down at my keyboards, I had so much adrenaline going, I thought I was going to throw up. I made it through with no mistakes, but the rush leading up to it knocked me out for four or five songs.

I wiped the dust off my laptop keyboard before I left Atlanta, and I must have trapped something in the trackpad. The mouse pointer went crazy for a while, then settled down, then went all over the screen by itself. Late in the first set, the MainStage window shot up to the upper edge of the screen! Woah! The sounds were still working fine, but because the mouse part was behaving erratically, I didn't want to touch it. On the break, I was able get the screen back to normal, and I set it up for the one sound I'd need in the second set. Thankfully, it didn't freak out again.

When I got home, I cleaned it again, ran the disc utility, and then banged on the trackpad, and it seems like it's back to normal. The Genius Bar at the Mac store should hire me as a consultant.

Here's the show, in case you couldn't make the drive...

More Cruising

After a quick two days off, Yacht Rock was back on the high seas, this time sailing on the Norwegian Pearl as part of the Impractical Jokers Cruise. This was not a music-themed cruise, so we had pretty low expectations about the attendance at our shows. We were correct.

Wednesday: The boat sailed from New Orleans, our first time leaving this port. Definitely not as well organized as things have been in the past. The company that hosts these cruises, Sixthman, seems to have had enough turnover with their staff that we are no longer given any sort of favoritism--we're just another band on the boat. Where have all the hipsters gone?

Our first show of the cruise was at the sail away, so we got on the boat, ate lunch, and headed to the stage to set up.

Looking at this photo, you'd think we were off to a good start with this crowd, but all of these people were on the deck because the stars of the show were making their way through the audience, pausing for selfies.

It had never occurred to me just how far New Orleans is from the Gulf of Mexico. We left at 4:30, and probably didn't reach the mouth of the river until 10 PM. I went to bed at 9:30 PM and slept twelve hours.

Thursday: Show #2. This photo more accurately represents our pool deck crowd. My big highlight of this particular performance: I think I played my dragon of self-doubt about the intro to Sailing. That song began this set, and I had no trouble.

Our traditional teppanyaki meal. We had a new guy as our cook, so mercifully there was a little less show. At this point, we know all of their jokes anyway.

Friday: We have reached our destination! Costa Maya, Mexico is a cruise ship port scraped out of the jungle south of Cozumel. Unfortunately, that means that you can get off the boat, eat at a tourist-y Mexican restaurant, buy cheap jewelry and clothes, cigarettes, and booze at the duty-free shops, pet the caged dolphins, and go down the Mayan ruins-themed water slide. I've seen it. Pass.

we're getting a little stir crazy

the view from my balcony

The Great Bencuya in action

other boats in port today

Our show for this night was indoors, with a similar draw. It's too bad, though, because we played really well on this boat, and things were fun and loose, but there was no one there to see it.

Saturday: More of the same. Slept as long as I could, got up, ate as much fruit as I could, ran as far as I could, ate lunch, read my book, ate dinner, played the show, went to bed.

I ran so far away on this boat

the daily drying of my running clothes

Our final show of the cruise was moved to earlier in the day, and indoors (this time in the atrium of the ship). Because of this location, we had slightly more foot traffic, and some people stuck around for the show. Mostly, though, people were here for a few songs and then off to the next thing.

the Gulf did provide for some nice sunsets

Sunday: We got off the boat at 8 AM, but didn't fly until almost noon. Lots of time to kill in a pretty terrible airport (speaking mainly of the lack of food options, the lack of wifi, and whoever turned the thermostat down to 40 degrees at gate D5).

Sooooo...that was a bust! On to the next thing:

Monday: Just when I couldn't get more brain dead, I (along with Marks Bencuya and Cobb) had a last minute recording session, improvising music for a Dremel commercial. It took five hours. We were paid in Thai food.

This week:

Friday: We're at the Georgia Theatre in Athens!

Sunday: I'll be playing with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra (lead tenor-yikes!) at Venkman's as part of a benefit for Puerto Rico.

Greece

Sooooo...we had a gig in Greece last week, playing a single two hour show on a luxury cruise ship for corporate clients. In trade, we had a few days off in Athens before sightseeing off the boat in Rhodes, Crete, and Santorini. To top it off, our flight home had an extensive layover in Amsterdam. This will be some sort of personal record for blog photos, but remember--I'm working!

Monday: Atlanta to JFK to Athens.

leaving NY

dinner

Somebody a few rows behind me brought a dog, which whimpered and barked a little bit, and drove a few of the passengers nuts. Before we'd even left JFK, an Edith Bunker-sound-alike wanted to change seats because the dog "smells and he's already tried to bite me." The guy directly behind me proposed that the stewardess lock the dog in the bathroom. Nice people here in the back of the plane.

unusual airplane sleeping position

 Tuesday!

touchdown in Athens

 From the airport, we took a sprinter van to our hotel in the middle of Athens.

the view from our hotel room

more hotel rooftop views

walking the streets of Athens

Library of Hadrian: 132 AD (1,885 years ago)

lunch stop

The Gate of Athena Archegetis: 11 BC (2,028 years ago)

up the road to the Acropolis

sidewalk to the Acropolis

view of the Acropolis from the Areopagus (the rock next door)

the ol' Odeon of Herodes Atticus: 161 AD (1,856 years ago)

the Propylaea--the front gate of the Acropolis

the Erechtheion--a temple dedicated to Athena and Poseidon

the old Temple of Athena, plus two dudes

the Parthenon

puzzle pieces

Parthenon

more puzzle pieces

renovations continue

the Propylaea again

gata

walking down from the Acropolis

After a long nap, I went for a run in Athens. Isn't Greece a hotbed of distance running? I only almost got run over three times. No love for the runners.

On the way back to our hotel, I encountered a protest that was lining up.

Further down the road, I encountered 20 riot police, ready to go. No pictures of the police, as I was in a hurry to get out of the way.

an alley on our way to dinner

Wednesday: checkout time wasn't until noon, so I went for another run, heading out in the opposite direction from the night before.

just park that anywhere

Much of Athens smells like human pee.

We tried to eat lunch, but after sitting at a cafe table for an hour, the waitress finally admitted that the oven kept shutting off, and that was why it was taking forever to cook our food. Defeated, we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and head out.

headed to the airport

the plane to Rhodes

The Great Bencuya, baggage claim

boarded a bus to the boat

Rhodes airport

my room on the ship!

First things first: lifeboat/muster station procedures.

We finished that up at 7:45, but the boat didn't leave port until 9:30, so Kip and I went on a quick sightseeing walk inside the walls of the Old Town of Rhodes.

Gate of the Virgin

Medieval Church of the Virgin

I think it's ruined

Street of the Knights

Han Solo of the Crusades

entrance to the Rhodes Archeology Museum

Marine Gate

soup for dinner

pasta for dinner

cream puffs

Thursday: Lunch in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 

some kind of beets, garbanzo beans, and walnuts thing; I ate some of it

I don't remember what this was; some kind of legumes and tomato. I ate it, though.

Greg's hanging pork chop thing

After lunch, Kip and I headed to the fort...

...but first, we came across this church with St. Titus' skull inside!

You could only see the very top. It looked like a fossilized ostrich egg.

To the Koules Fortress!

After that, we went to a museum, and saw room after room of clay pots and figurines.

Seen on my run this night:

guards at the port!

Dinner in my room:

Friday: Breakfast in my room!

Santorini was the final stop on this trip. After a short tender ride to the base of the cliff, you could walk up, ride a donkey up, or ride the gondola up.

just park that anywhere

In this spot, the donkeys completely blocked the path. I was too scared I'd get kicked to try and weave between them, but some old lady grabbed the saddle of one and pushed it out of the way. The opening closed behind her, leaving me no choice but to squeeze between a few by myself.

I walked up. The sad donkey faces really bummed me out, enough that I excused all of the donkey poop between me and the top (of which there was plenty).

that's our boat on the far left

Santorini is breathtakingly beautiful.

that's the volcano out there in the bay

the volcano still hasn't erupted

You could climb down there and then crawl up the back side of this thing. I did it. No big deal.

in search of: food, lost puppies, and a tail

I came back to this in my room. Ate the strawberries, left the prosecco.

traffic

the view from my balcony on board the ship

room service again! pesto pasta with green beans and chunks of potato

 You may have forgotten that we were here to play a gig. Tonight's the night! Here's the room:

surprisingly decent backline gear!

The gig was a success, as far as I could tell. I think we only played for fifty or sixty people, but they danced and demanded an encore at the end. Not a big sax night (which was fine because I'm sucking real bad right now), but my keyboards/EWI stuff sounded great in my ears--really, everything sounded great in my ears--which made the night enjoyable.

Saturday: We woke up in Athens (specifically the port city of Piraeus). I got up late and went for a walk around town.

another port dog

Imagine the worst porta potty smells ever. This smelled like that.

just...whatever...some ancient ruins in the middle of the neighborhood. 

Piraeus pooch

lining up for a parade

Saturday night, I headed out for a run to the Acropolis and back.

here's where I ate the salad and risotto the other night

here's where the oven didn't work and we missed lunch

Dude with the guitar is singing "Creep" by Radiohead, while the sax player is holding down a backbeat on the tambourine, probably driving whoever is on the other end of the phone batshit crazy.

Back on board the ship, I ate one more excellent dinner.

I had two of these

 No pictures of the main course. I forgot and ate it before I photographed it.

dessert

Our lobby call was, unfortunately, 3:15 AM. I tried to go to bed--really, I did!--but I was pretty much wide awake until after 2 AM. My alarm went off at 2:45 AM. Greece does daylight savings a week before the US, so I knew that it was only 1:45, so I set the timer for 60 minutes and lay there in the dark, waiting for my wake up call. That sucked.

bus to the airport

We flew from Athens to Amsterdam. I slept almost the entire way--three hours.

future tulips

banana pancakes for Dave

I peed in this church

Moulin Rouge--right there! I had money to spend on a show, too, but they didn't begin until 1:45, which also happened to be our meet up time to head back to the airport. No boobs for you!

train station

our KLM crew in their snazzy outfits

flying west, I watched a sunset that lasted several hours

I also watched a couple of movies

this little plane couldn't fly fast enough!

We landed at 9:20 PM in Atlanta. Consider that we left Athens at 3:15 AM (that would be 9:15 PM in Atlanta with the daylight savings change and the time zone change). That's literally an entire day of travel. Ouch.

Two days off, and then we're out again--the Impractical Jokers Cruise leaves Wednesday from New Orleans, bound for Mexico.