I am writing you from my laptop, which for the past two minutes has been having a seizure, but now looks fine again. That's pretty much how it goes for me and technology tonight. As soon as the thought "I'm buying a new laptop tomorrow" flashed in my brain, this laptop went back to normal. Now it's doing it again. Me and technology, we're not friends right now.
It just did it again, and I had to shut the computer all the way down (the screen wouldn't come back on at all). Now it seems fine.
This afternoon Yacht Rock played a gig at the Tin Room Cantina over by North Druid Hills. From the get-go I should have known that it was not meant to be.
We got set up and soundchecked (in direct sunlight, which is always fun for not being able to read any displays--never mind the way my reeds dried out and looked like potato chips). Everything worked fine, but about four songs into the gig, my wireless microphone on my sax started picking up RF interference (which made it sound like I was playing saxophone with gale force winds around me). At the time, I had no idea it was interference--I assumed my microphone had developed a short, so I switched to my other microphone, but it was no better. I tried changing the channel on my wireless, and that made it better, but I still was picking up some radio noise. In the midst of dealing with this (and the gig continued while I was trying to dissect the problem), the generator that was providing power for the stage began to run out of gas. Due to this fuel problem, the power began to fluctuate, and the keyboard I was playing (while thinking about how to solve my sax mic problem) went dead and then came back on. As I was playing, it did it again, and then my entire setup lost power (as did the guitar). We limped through the song and then took a break so the sound guys could solve that problem.
So...we came back from the break. I checked my microphones, I checked my keyboards, I checked my EWI. Everything worked fine with no strange noises. We played for what seemed like two hours, and somewhere in the middle my EWI decided to go berserk. I was playing it and all of the sudden it would hang a note (the note would not stop). Then it wouldn't make any noise until I reset it (at one point, I restarted the computer, tried it, and restart it again, all while trying to play my EWI part on a keyboard). What's that? I spent the next couple of songs trying to diagnose that problem while playing something else. Before I could solve it, the dang thing hung up again! I missed some really critical stuff, like the solo in Africa.
What's the issue with this thing? It's radio interference again! My EWI is hooked up to a wireless MIDI system, and when the notes would hang, it was because my MIDI receiver had lost contact with the transmitter (thus hanging the last note). Once I'd figured that out, I grabbed a MIDI cable out of my bag and bypassed the wireless. From there on out, everything was fine, but by then my brain was pretty much wrecked. All I wanted to do was leave!
I have to write this down before it gets away: Mark Cobb is awesome. Had it not been for the f**king RF interference that ruined my day, this blog would've instead been a catalog of great stuff he did at the gig today. The most awesome thing tonight occurred in Escape (Pina Colada Song). During the musical interlude, Cobb started playing the dotted quarter note (I think) as the pulse, and then started swinging that (I think I'm remembering this correctly). It was soooooo great! He also flipped the time around in something else (Somebody's Baby?) and put the backbeat on one and three, and then flipped it over again, and then again, and the other six of us just about blacked out. So awesome. Mark Cobb it is.
Anyway, I'm home now (watching Norah Jones on Austin City Limits). When I got back here, I tried out my wireless MIDI and it worked fine. My laptop looks perfectly good right now--the screen has settled down and it's working as well as it ever has. Why does technology have to embarrass me to the point of contemplating a career change? Why? All my stuff used to work fine, but now I'm totally gun shy--it's Russian roulette waiting for my next equipment disaster to come around. I don't know what the solution is.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
Friday Quartet gig
Tonight (Friday night) I had a quartet gig downtown for some kind of pharmaceutical dinner. The band was Louis Heriveaux (keyboard), Kevin Smith (bass), and Kinah Boto (drums). They made it so easy! The client was also very cool and they left us alone to play the music and enjoy ourselves. They even thanked us after the gig. Here are the mp3s for your listening pleasure:
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
Thursday Threefer
Thursday was a tough day. Three gigs! I'd never done that before.
1. I played a duo gig with Tyrone Jackson at 7:30 in the morning at an elementary school in Austell. This was fun because Tyrone is so much better than me. It takes everything I've got just to keep up.
I went home and crashed for a few hours. I got up early in the afternoon, loaded my truck, bathed, and headed out the door. I loaded into the 10 High that afternoon.
2. I played a quartet gig/house band for an awards ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in Buckhead. This one was a killer--they are (let's say) very particular, and even though I've done the gig twice before, they did not express much confidence in me. The event seems to be pretty immaculately planned, but they dropped lots of last minute stuff on me which really frayed my nerves. Louis Heriveaux, Kevin Smith, and Marlon Patton did a terrific job dealing with everything and we made it out alive! I got out at 9:07 PM and drove like hell.
3. At 9:30 PM, I was in the 10 High, dressed and ready to go. We played our usual stuff. No problems to report. Nick helped me load out.
I noticed on my alto that I've maybe been putting less mouthpiece in my mouth, and it has led to problems with the altissimo feeling very pinched. Last night I made a conscious effort to use more mouthpiece, and I was much more comfortable up there. I was screaming!
Sanborn's mic is distorting...kind of like they said, "We can't do slapback in the studio, but we have this other effect we can use!"
I've been listening to David Bowie's Young Americans almost constantly over the past few days. I'd forgotten just how awesome David Sanborn's playing is all over that record. He did the tour to support that album, too. I wonder if he got bored with the freedom to play anything anywhere night after night. I don't hear any set parts anywhere--sounds like he had free reign. The stuff on the record is magnificent. There's also a video of him playing on The Dick Cavett Show:
Sanborn's mic is distorting badly...kind of like they said, "We can't do slapback in the studio, but we have this other effect we can use!"
He's still the man. I've give both nuts to trade places with him in this video.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
1. I played a duo gig with Tyrone Jackson at 7:30 in the morning at an elementary school in Austell. This was fun because Tyrone is so much better than me. It takes everything I've got just to keep up.
I went home and crashed for a few hours. I got up early in the afternoon, loaded my truck, bathed, and headed out the door. I loaded into the 10 High that afternoon.
2. I played a quartet gig/house band for an awards ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in Buckhead. This one was a killer--they are (let's say) very particular, and even though I've done the gig twice before, they did not express much confidence in me. The event seems to be pretty immaculately planned, but they dropped lots of last minute stuff on me which really frayed my nerves. Louis Heriveaux, Kevin Smith, and Marlon Patton did a terrific job dealing with everything and we made it out alive! I got out at 9:07 PM and drove like hell.
3. At 9:30 PM, I was in the 10 High, dressed and ready to go. We played our usual stuff. No problems to report. Nick helped me load out.
I noticed on my alto that I've maybe been putting less mouthpiece in my mouth, and it has led to problems with the altissimo feeling very pinched. Last night I made a conscious effort to use more mouthpiece, and I was much more comfortable up there. I was screaming!
Sanborn's mic is distorting...kind of like they said, "We can't do slapback in the studio, but we have this other effect we can use!"
I've been listening to David Bowie's Young Americans almost constantly over the past few days. I'd forgotten just how awesome David Sanborn's playing is all over that record. He did the tour to support that album, too. I wonder if he got bored with the freedom to play anything anywhere night after night. I don't hear any set parts anywhere--sounds like he had free reign. The stuff on the record is magnificent. There's also a video of him playing on The Dick Cavett Show:
Sanborn's mic is distorting badly...kind of like they said, "We can't do slapback in the studio, but we have this other effect we can use!"
He's still the man. I've give both nuts to trade places with him in this video.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
St. Patrick's Day!
Yacht Rock was supposed to play two gigs for St. Patrick's Day. The first was a set outdoors in the parking lot behind Limerick Junction. For some reason, they decided to try and construct a cover for the stage while we were waiting to begin (even though it'd been raining all day). Needless to say, it was not built in time for us to take the stage. We bailed on the gig. Sun Domingo had to play out there, and they said it was freezing! (of course, the next day was sunny and almost 70!). Here's the photo evidence of the "event." Dig Dannells' green pants.
After that, we headed to the W Hotel in Buckhead to play a very dimly lit (both in lighting and a certain waitress!) event.
After that, we headed to the W Hotel in Buckhead to play a very dimly lit (both in lighting and a certain waitress!) event.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
After that, we headed to the W Hotel in Buckhead to play a very dimly lit (both in lighting and a certain waitress!) event.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
Monday House Live
House Live played a gig last night at Ventanas downtown. It was another easy gig. I'm not sure if I was tired or what, but I could never really get in a groove--too much noodling. So it goes!
A busy week is here. Stay tuned.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
Meehan's Public House
Please Pleaserock Me and the Yacht Rock Revue played the Shamrock and Roll Festival in Sandy Springs yesterday.
My thoughts: cold!...thought it would be warmer-should've brought a jacket...Francisco Vidal is the ultimate one man bar guy (is that a putdown or a compliment? both)...laptop screen is just about dead (scaring me again!)...played with REMakes, and I hung out in the cold with no jacket to do two songs, but they only called one of them...changed into a suit in the open parking lot of a Kroger...nailed my vocal part on Paperback Writer all three times!...Greg tried to play bari sax in the horn section (somewhat successful--now he knows what it's like)...Dannells counted the strings--between all the guitars, we had sixty-six strings on stage, and none of them were in tune because of the temperature (including this ferocious electric twelve string in the picture)...reset all my gear for Yacht Rock--a twisted tornado of cables...played two sets REALLY LOUDLY...Cobb was on another planet last night--all over the place...drank from a pitcher of beer...new denim suit is big in the waist, but otherwise looked good...stage crew started packing up before we did...Nick helped me load out...home by 11:30 PM.
davidfreemanmusic.net
davidfreemanmusic.net
Thursday and Friday
Thursday night was a very low key Yacht Rock night. Mark Dannells' guitar rig went on strike during the second song (said it was one of very expensive pedals), but he had it "fixed" (it decided to work again) by the end of the song, and it was fine for the rest of the gig.
Equipment issues in live performance are the ultimate Chinese fire drills. Not only are you embarrassed because your gear has gone haywire (usually catastrophically, and often very audibly), but you are then under the gun to diagnose and fix the problem before the next song begins. To make matters worse, not only is everybody in the band watching you solve the problem; everybody in the ROOM is watching you solve the problem. When you don't have the answer, you will sweat blood. For something like the configuration of guitar pedals (or say, an EWI MIDI'ed into a laptop?!), there are so many little cables and switches that you end up frantically pushing and pulling the connections and hoping that it's not an issue with the actual electronics.
Friday night was a duo gig with Dan Baraszu in Acworth. We played at a The Old Mill, pretending to be the house band. In the middle of our set (this is all pre-planned), a guy in the audience would get up to join us for a song. He would then break into his girlfriend's favorite song, and stop in the middle and propose to her. Even though he was a terrible singer (and bailed on the piano playing), it still worked: she said yes. The gig was otherwise very easy. I played flute, soprano sax, and tenor sax.
Some weird weather was blowing through on the way there.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
Equipment issues in live performance are the ultimate Chinese fire drills. Not only are you embarrassed because your gear has gone haywire (usually catastrophically, and often very audibly), but you are then under the gun to diagnose and fix the problem before the next song begins. To make matters worse, not only is everybody in the band watching you solve the problem; everybody in the ROOM is watching you solve the problem. When you don't have the answer, you will sweat blood. For something like the configuration of guitar pedals (or say, an EWI MIDI'ed into a laptop?!), there are so many little cables and switches that you end up frantically pushing and pulling the connections and hoping that it's not an issue with the actual electronics.
Friday night was a duo gig with Dan Baraszu in Acworth. We played at a The Old Mill, pretending to be the house band. In the middle of our set (this is all pre-planned), a guy in the audience would get up to join us for a song. He would then break into his girlfriend's favorite song, and stop in the middle and propose to her. Even though he was a terrible singer (and bailed on the piano playing), it still worked: she said yes. The gig was otherwise very easy. I played flute, soprano sax, and tenor sax.
Some weird weather was blowing through on the way there.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net
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