Peg in Charlotte

Here's an audience video of us playing Steely Dan's Peg in Charlotte last Thursday.



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Park Tavern

Yacht Rock played at the Park Tavern in midtown last night--part of the Summer Concert Series there.  This particular gig was our Reagan Rock show--all music of the early eighties.  We like to think of it as a continuation of the smooth seventies hits into the next decade.

This gig was insane.  It sold out--they were turning people away!  Very cool and very surreal.  Lots of people saw us for the first time.  More and more, I don't recognize hardly anyone in the audience.  The thing just continues to grow--business is improving!

Other than that, it was fairly uneventful.  There were a few rough spots, which was understandable considering we hadn't really played most of these songs since the Variety Playhouse gig.  I felt a little more mentally aware than I did in Charlotte--in other words, I didn't feel as crappy about my performance as the previous night!

We had a different sound guy than we usually see at the Park Tavern--last night was Kip Conner, who usually runs sound for Shawn Mullins.  I think the board was frustrating him (and us).  Things that he would turn down would get turned back up, and other things would disappear.  We made it through ok, but  he seemed pretty pissed about it afterwards, and I can understand why--he's a total pro sound guy, and the thing made him look bad.

It's becoming apparent to me as we play larger venues that my little powered speaker is not powerful enough to keep up with the stage volume--it's fine when I'm right on top of it, but even six feet away is getting too far.  Right now I'm using a Mackie SRM350, and I usually use it wide open.  I think I need to jump up to the SRM450 so I can have it loud enough without the sounds distorting.  I thought about buying a big keyboard amp (since that's mainly what's going through it), but a 450 is around the same price, and I could also use it as a main speaker on gigs where I have to supply a PA.

After the gig, I was explaining the EWI to a woman, and I explained that it was a synth, but instead of having piano keys to tell it what note to play, it has saxophone fingerings.  She said, "You play saxophone?"  Ouch.
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Alive After Five

The Yacht Rock Revue played Alive After Five in Charlotte last night.  It went pretty well.

We all met at the office around 10:30 AM, loaded up, and headed up I 85.  Along the way we had the usual stops for food and gas, and rolled in around 4 PM, I'd guess.  From there, we loaded in, set up (on a really nice outdoor stage), soundchecked and ate.

The gig was not too good for me.  I'm still trying to get used to the new keyboard;  the EWI had another moment of playing itself;  mostly I was mentally unavailable for the beginning of the gig!  I just couldn't get my mindset into what we were doing.  It was like I was spaced out, and I was trying to force myself to pay attention (with limited success).  While that was happening, I was thinking about things like "the split on this keyboard needs to be tweaked" and trying to play around that (and tripping all over myself).  The EWI started playing itself again--it was still registering breath pressure even though I wasn't playing it, which caused it to do some strange stuff for a second.  I'm not sure what that was--it was not terribly hot or humid--maybe barometric pressure?  Altitude?  I don't know.  It worked, and then somehow I sent MIDI information that muted everything...I don't know.  I turned the sensitivity down and everything was fine for the rest of the gig.

Anyway, if you were there (either on stage or out front), my apologies for not being on it.  I just didn't have it yesterday.  

We drove home after the gig (I slept a good bit of the way).  I got home around 4:30 AM, wide awake from having taken a three hour nap!  I was up for a while longer before I crashed again.

We're at the Park Tavern tonight.

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Let's Get Stoned

Tonight was the Rolling Stones tribute band, known as "Let's Get Stoned," at the 10 High.  For a first gig, it went very well.  We had some small errors, but we made it through the gig without any deaths, and we had lots of good moments.

For me, the gig was cool for two things.  First, (the awesome) Mark Cobb.  Tonight he was awesome because he was pushing and pulling on the beat in a couple of tunes, and I thought it was cool because he was doing it on purpose!, massaging the time ever so slightly back and forth but never losing control.  So impressive.  Mark Cobb is awesome.

I also really dug standing next to Fred McNeal, who really played the hell out of his guitars tonight.  He was so cool and so authentically rock and roll.  No crap from him--he knows the music so well, and his performance was right on target.  I started paying attention to him more last night at the rehearsal, and he really impressed me tonight.

Yacht Rock is in Charlotte, NC tomorrow night for a gig.  Hope to see you there.
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Trio gig

I was fortunate to play a trio gig last night with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  It was supposed to be a four hour gig, but when we started at 6 PM, someone came rushing in from the other room and said that they were rehearsing for a big presentation and we would not be able to play until 7 PM.  No problem;  we can wait.  We played an hour, took a fifteen minute break, played an hour, and took a fifteen minute break. When we returned to play the last half hour (9:30-10 PM), the client said, "Great job.  You guys are finished."  Evidently, no one told us the event was ending at 9:30!  So...our gig ended up being only two and a half hours.

I tried to record again last night, but once again my recorder failed me.  It did not record the first set, and the second set was only half the stereo mix.  I think I've gotten my money's worth out of my old recorder.  Methinks it might be about time to upgrade.

Anyway, here's what I did get:


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Friday Night in Nashville

Friday night Yacht Rock played in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge, opening for Space Capone.  The show was sold out--we've come a long way from our first gig in that room, which had maybe a hundred people, most of whom seemed to confused by us.

The gig was good.  No disasters to report.  It was really hot with all those people in there, and super loud--my amp could not keep up with the volume.

We spent the night (as always) at the Best Western on Music Row.  Pick's (the dive bar next to the lobby) was quite a scene at 3 AM.

I have a busy week coming up.  See you on the other side.
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Thursday

Last night Yacht Rock played our usual gig at the 10 High.  Not much to report from a band perspective--it was business as usual, and business was good.  Ganesh played drums, but Mark Cobb sat in on most of the first set.

For me, last night was the debut of my new (used) keyboard, a Roland Fantom X6.  I had no problems, other than one of my sounds did not have much attack, so I changed it.  Ooo...I was showing Dannells all the splits I'd set up, and somehow I changed the tuning of the entire keyboard!  Yikes!  Right before we started, I turned if off and turned it on again and things were fine.

Even better than the new keyboard was the Marshall cabinet behind my gear.  Last night I put my amp up there, and it changed the gig!  All of the sudden, I could hear my saxophone on stage.  For previous gigs it was down on the floor in the corner, and when I went out to play a solo it was very quiet.  If I tried to turn it up, it would feed back when I got back to the keyboards.  Last night, I could hear my horns GREAT!  So awesome, and no feedback.  I'm looking forward to our next 10 High gig just so I can do that again.  I may have to invest in an amp stand.

We're off to Nashville.  Mercy Lounge, here we come!
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