The Pleaserock Olympics

Yesterday, we played two shows back to back.  The first show was a Beatles show (Please Pleaserock Me) headlining the Decatur Greenfest.  When it was finished, we played at 500 Songs for Kids.

The first part of the Olypmics was to get dressed in a black suit (with tie), grab equipment out of your car and navigate down a sidewalk full of people who don't care that you're wearing a suit and moving heavy equipment.  Total distance was a little over a hundred yards, but each of us made multiple trips, and then we each had to scramble to find parking somewhere in the vicinity.  We gathered back at the stage, threw our equipment up and played two sets of Beatles--a lot of three minutes songs in each one hour set!  The crowd was good--estimates were in the six hundred people range, and it was well received.  Tree Sound provided the PA, using their solar powered generator.  Very cool.  We were off the grid!

Things went pretty smoothly.  We were near the end of the gig (third to last song) and Mark Dannells started Revolution in Bb instead of B.  No big deal.  The whole band shifted with him (kudos to Mark Bencuya for transposing the Wurly solo on the fly!).  After the song ended, we informed him of the mistake (and if you know the way in which we would "discuss" something like that, you'd know how small he felt).  He thought he'd played the entire song in Bb and the rest of the band had played in B;  he was so upset that he threw his guitar down on the stage and left and missed an entire song having a mental shit fit somewhere.  It wasn't until after the gig that we were able to explain that we'd changed keys pretty much instantaneously to accommodate his error.  Dannells was suicidal with the thought that he'd gone tone deaf.

Dannells told us at the start of the gig "I do what I want."  I guess that includes keys.

Paul Poovey played a great version of the Penny Lane piccolo trumpet solo (definitely worth checking out the mp3s on his brass quintet's website) and Greg Lee sang the hell out of Maybe I'm Amazed.  Nick was awesome on everything else.  I was just along for the ride on this gig.

When the gig ended, we packed up everything, found our vehicles, parked illegally, and hoofed our gear back across the hundred yards (still in suits).  A couple of us ran by the office and dumped our gear before heading to Smith's Olde Bar for 500 Songs for Kids, a really cool benefit.  We've done it a couple of years in a row now.

The throwing of the Milanos:

Bencuya and I dragged a couple keyboards up the back stairs and into Smith's.  I think the first sign that I will never be a rock star:  my feet don't like Chuck Taylors.  I'm more of an Adidas guy.  Maybe I should have signed on with a Run DMC tribute?  I don't know.  Anyway, my feet hurt, which made the standing around and waiting for our turn seem like forever.  Maybe it was forever.  I was fading fast at that point.

We got the call and threw our gear up on stage to play Dancing on the Ceiling.  My arpeggiator was awesome, by the way.  About four bars into the first verse, Nick waved it off.  We went into With a Little Help from my Friends.  I don't if that's a legal move at 500 Songs, but I get the feeling we have enough clout to do whatever we want.  We did "our" song and the crowd went wild (it helps that Nick sings the absolute HOLY HELL out of it--if you need proof, listen to this version from the Variety Playhouse in January).  Whoa baby now.

My man Mark Dannells:  Back from the Brink

So…final events of the Olympics:  keyboards go back in the cases, I grab the keyboards, feet are hurting, down the two flights of rickety stairs, across Monroe, past the people having sex in a car (YES!--I was like--"this is awesome!  it's really happening!  I've got to stop looking!  I can't stop looking!"), gear in the truck, back to the office to get my other stuff, home, unpack the truck again, pack the truck again.

I went to bed and got up a few hours later for ye olde church gig.  Keep on keepin' on.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Braves Night at Park Tavern

Like addicts needing a bigger fix to get high, I think we just needed a bigger stage.  We followed Thursday night's drudgery with a terrific show Friday night at the Park Tavern.  The theme was "Braves Night," so Homer (the Braves mascot) and the Braves girls who throw t shirts at people were there.  T shirts were thrown.  It was a huge success.

I think the first set last night was the same as Thursday night's first set.  Overall, I played better, but I still had some rough spots.  I'm still not totally comfortable with Baby Come Back, and Moonlight Feels Right is still kind of tough because I'm moving all over the keyboard for different sounds, but I'm really happy to have those in the rotation--we've gotten in some really bad ruts with the setlist.

Mark Cobb was on fire last night, especially in the first set.  He was having a creative night without being stupid.  It can be a fine line for him, but he played well.

I think I have my stuff dialed in on my rack so I don't have to make many adjustments, other than turning the volume up and down.  Good thing, because having my rack on the ground makes it difficult to play and tweak at the same time.

I got off a pretty good solo on Biggest Part of Me.  It's so hard to hear if my microphone is even on at the Park Tavern.  There's nothing to bounce the sound off.  I just check it before the song starts and hope for the best (and remind myself once I'm in the solo not to overblow--let the mic do the work).  Cobb picks a nice tempo for that one that keeps it groovin' a little harder than the original.

I've had some sort of strange sinus problem all week, and by the end of the first set (Biggest Part of Me), I was hurting.  Forming the proper shape with my mouth and tongue was super uncomfortable.  I don't know what's going on in there--there's pain from one ear, up through the roof of my mouth into my sinuses, and out the other ear.  Playing saxophone with that going on is not fun.  I hope it cures itself soon.

The second set was pretty good.  We skipped around a bunch and avoided some songs we haven't played in a while (Takin' it to the Streets, Kiss You All Over), but everything was really solid, and we finished right on time with Rich Girl.  We had a good time;  the crowd had a good time.  We took a bunch of pictures.  I think we're off to a really good start for this series of shows.

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Thursday Night

Yacht Rock was back at the 10 High last night…we hadn't been there in a few weeks, and it felt a little strange.  The people who manage the room changed some things up--added the lighted dance floor, stacked the subwoofers at the corners of the stage, and moved some of the monitors around a little.  Nothing major, but it felt a bit foreign.

The first set was really loud.  I'm not sure exactly why, but everything just felt like it was blasting, and even when I turned my volume up to balance it, things still felt out of whack.  I think that the mains were turned inward a little more and were up louder, and then the stacked subs kind of made a wall around me.  It just felt weird.  Dannells was louder than than usual and Cobb was loud, and…it just made it rough.

I had some really stupid moments in the first set--a few songs we haven't touched in a while felt really foreign, even though I'd practiced them at home.  I don't think I was unprepared, but I couldn't really get parts to fit into the band.  It was kind of like I was playing against the band.

We went on break and the Schooner guys showed up to hang out and play a few songs.  Eric Frampton played my keyboards.  I was hoping he'd impart some keyboard mojo on my stuff!  Maybe he did…I played much better in the second set.

Unfortunately, the band played a really bad second set.  I don't think we ever came back from the break, but we still had to keep playing.  We were really bad.

Last night was the debut of my new rack--I have been looking for a way to keep more of my stuff set up so that I don't take so long setting up and tearing down.  This new system has my laptop/EWI set up already hooked together, along with the mixer I run everything into, and my wireless receiver for my saxophones.  All the cables stay plugged into the mixer, so at the end of the night, I stuff them in the box, put the lid on it, and I'm done!  Way faster, especially on a night when I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Speaking of wireless, some guy wanted to know what I was taking pictures of with my saxophone.  He thought that transmitter on the bell was a camera.  Huh?

davidfreemanmusic.net

The VH1 Best Cruise I've Been on This Year

The Yacht Rock Revue played our first cruise ship gig of the year this past weekend:  The VH1 Best Cruise Ever.  The name implies that this was something special, and yet our personal experiences proved that it was pretty much like every other one of the boat rides we have taken around the Caribbean.  I assure you, had it been the "best cruise ever," I probably would have seen Colbie Caillat naked, up close and for several minutes in good light.  Instead, I played my stuff and drank a lot.  I got lost in rural Mexico again.  It was the VH1 Same Cruise Ever.  I expect the Future Mark Dannells to call the Present Mark Dannells and report that next year's cruise was about like this one.

Monday:  took my saxophones, top keyboard (the Roland Fantom with my hours of programming), and my magic suitcase full of stuff like saxophone stands to the equipment truck.  Reggie came with me.  Reggie pissed on a planter in the office.  A premonition?

Thursday:  I picked up Nick and his sister Gina (our videographer for the trip).  We made our way to the airport, me dressed in a new pale green polyester suit, lugging my laptop and EWI.  Should I have put the EWI on the truck?  I don't know.  I keep it in a Protec soprano case that seems sturdy;  if thing got crushed, though, that would really wreck the setlist.  The trip was no big deal.  Everybody in the airport laughed at our outfits.  It doesn't really faze us anymore.  I have perfected the art of staring right back, albeit from behind sunglasses.

I found out that I don't like bloody marys

Nick and me

We got on the boat, ate, and started drinking.  Since we were slotted to play Thursday night, I didn't do my usual 'drink like an idiot and wind up passed out somewhere' routine.  I wanted to be fairly sharp, even though at this point I'm really comfortable with all the material.

Bencuya

cafeteria

Dannells

We had plenty of time to set up--an hour after the band in front of us finished, and a crew to do most of the heavy lifting.  One problem I noticed in the set up was that the crew tends to drop a keyboard stand in the right place and immediately stack the keyboards on.  A better course of action would be to set the keyboard bench/stool to the right height and then bring the stand and the instruments out.  This first set had me too high up.  It's almost as bad as being too low.

The name of the game for this set was pedal problems…the sustain pedal they gave me for my Fantom was doing the reversed polarity thing where it sustained everything until you stomped on it again.  Not good, though it was kind of fun to try and negotiate for a song until I could stop and fix it.  Unfortunately, flipping the switch on the bottom of the pedal did not solve the problem.  It might as well have not been plugged in.  I tried flipping the switch a couple of times, tried unplugging it and plugging it back in--nothing.  I asked for a new one, and almost instantly had a crew guy up there mid-song hooking me up.  Like I was famous…Famous Second Keyboardist Freeman, He of the Generic String Pad…seriously, there was a guy up there like it was an action movie, crawling around through all the cables while my monitor screamed away.  He got me hooked up with a functional pedal, and then crouched behind my laptop until I could confirm that it worked.

Later on in the set, Bencuya had to deal with a crappy volume pedal, but I think he just stopped using it. No swarm of techs.

The set went well other than the pedal problems and a bobbled audible (part of the band began Hey Nineteen and part of the band began Peg, which was immediately followed by forty-five seconds of yelling by Cobb).  Nick was pretty miserable by the end--the combo of motion sickness and a mediocre night (he claimed) of singing sent him to bed pretty quickly.  I was fine--had a good night.  The room seemed about half full.

I was given a Nord Stage to use for my bottom keyboard.  Quite an upgrade from the 61 key Nord Electro 2 I use at home!  Weighted keys, more keys (76 I think, but it could have been 88).  The layout was a little different, and I felt good about myself for adapting to it as well as I did.

Friday:  We played on the Lido Deck in the mid afternoon.  Again, same sort of stuff--a crew there at your beck and call.  A guy with a ton of gear (like me) could get used to this!  Again--a good show.  Again, the bench to keyboard height was not quite right, but I could deal.  We had a good crowd out there, and they dug us.  Lots of drunk dancing to watch.

I forgot to mention that we did not use keyboard amps on this trip--each of us (my man Mark Bencuya and myself) had a monitor mix, and so that was an added twist of trying to match the levels on my four inputs (sax, EWI, keyboard, keyboard).

For this stage, I got a 76 key Nord Electro 2.  A little closer to normal for me--it didn't have all the crazy stuff that the Stage had the night before.

I played well again.  Gina was up on stage filming us, and I kind of bit it on the solo to Africa right as she stuck the camera in my face.  Nothing horrible--I just flinched and left a couple of notes out.  The sax stuff seemed to go over well, and since I went barefooted when we were setting up, audience members called me "Shoeless Joe Saxman" for the remainder of the trip (which along the way would sometimes get shortened to "Joe" in conversations and make me think that the person was talking to someone else).

Coming off stage, I was asked to sit in with the next bandy.  I played on Dancing in the Dark (in F!  normally in B!).  Super easy.  For tenor, it was this:

The band acted like I'd played something incredible.  The guitarist nearest me kissed me when it was over.  Not on the lips.

Mat Kearney was the guy--he has a song on the radio that I've heard.  I thought it was Counting Crows.  It's him--a song called Nothing Left to Lose.  They played it right before Dancing in the Dark, and I thought it was a really accurate cover.

To tell the truth, I played with them, put my horn away, and asked Bencuya who those guys were.  I didn't find out the guy's name until it was over.  Oops.

Saturday:  the day in Cozumel.  I can't lie--this is a good job that I have.  Famous Second Keyboardist Freeman, He of the Generic String Pad…doin' all right!  We (Pete, Greg, Dannells, Bencuya, and myself) went to the same restaurant where we had eaten seventeen months prior--La Choza.  Good stuff.  I had my first Mexican Coke (made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup)--I couldn't tell the difference.  I had shrimp kebabs.  Very good.  I probably should have had a gallon of water if I'd known what was coming up.

So…Dannells and I rented scooters and went zooming off across the island, only to eventually end up on a dirt road, which eventually became a dirt alley in the middle of nowhere.  Miraculously, we made it back to paved Earth;  we even paid a visit to the Mayan ruins.  At the entrance to the ruins, I hit a telephone pole.  It was quite painful.  My big toe is swollen, and I have some scrapes on my legs.  Mentally, the damage was much worse.  It genuinely scared me.  The scooter sustained what appeared to be considerable damage.  Somehow I got the parking lot attendant at the Mayan ruins to work on it--he buffed it out or something--used some Mayan magic.  Or iguana urine.  Who cares!  The scooter looked good as new when we came out.

I assure, I looked at least as stupid

iguana (middle of the picture)

Dannells then proceeded to run off the road precisely at the same spot where I'd crashed.  The two of us dragged his scooter out of the brush and kept going.  It was fine.

We rode for HOURS--all the way around the island.  My sunburn was impeccable.

Saturday at midnight we played the U2 stuff.  An entire set.  I won't take any credit for that performance.  I played fine, but there's so little to do--it's all on Nick, Dannells (and Greg on second guitar), and Cobb for providing the energy.  My man Bencuya and I just coasted through that one.  The crowd (especially the other bands on the boat) were especially giddy about this set.  I felt kind of awkward accepting any praise.  Mostly shaker and tambourine!  Give me a break!  Go tell Nick!

Sunday:  I woke up super hung over.  It hurt really bad.  We participated in some sort of trivia game.  It didn't go well.  I didn't care.  I went back to my room and more or less slept the rest of the afternoon.  We gathered that night and wandered around the boat, waiting for the blowout final night party that never happened.  I went to bed around 2 AM, fairly early by boat standards.

Monday:  flew home, taught a couple of lessons, hung out with my family.  Back to real life!

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Prom, Part 2

We (Yacht Rock Revue) took the prom show to Nashville Saturday night.  We loaded up the van and took off.

The crowd at the Mercy Lounge was ok…maybe a couple of hundred?  I won't bother to guess why it wasn't more.  Easter?  Who knows.  The people who were there were pretty enthusiastic, so it was cool.  The sound was pretty good, though as before, it got super loud on stage.

I reviewed all of my stuff Friday night and felt good about it;  still riding the calm confidence of the previous weekend.  My only big flub was coming in two measures early on I Can Dream About You.  The whole intro sounds like little two measure things.  I guess I miscounted.

Maybe it's the style of the music, but I just can't find Mark Cobb these days.  More precisely, I cannot get my stuff to fit into his groove.  I don't know why, but what I was playing just didn't feel like it laid right.  I tried leaning forward on the time, and that didn't do it.  I tried laying back and letting him pull me along…I don't know.  He never said anything, so maybe I'm just analyzing it too much.

Speaking of which…Bencuya and I were laughing at Cobb, who told us how every song had a checklist of things he had to do:  start the loop on the iPod, change the setting on the drum pad, do this, do that.  Welcome to our world!

The second set, we played the Top Gun Theme into Danger Zone, and once again, I turned off my sax mic in anticipation of putting it down, and then realized I needed it again, and almost forgot to turn it back on.  Geez.  Come on, Freeman!  I still can't believe I did that at the Variety show.

Other than that, I was pretty even.  The things I was most worried about keyboard-wise (Sweet Freedom, All Night Long) were both fine.  Our keyboard buddy in Nashville even made reference to my playing on the latter, so I felt like that was a positive.  I did almost forget to play the EWI solo on Sweet Freedom.  That would have been a monumental disaster.

We got back to Atlanta in the early afternoon.  I took a nap, showered, and headed off to my church gig.  Not much to say about it, other than the guitarist and drummer being all over the place on their levels.  I was riding the gain of both of them all night.  The pianist playing some wrong notes that were accidentally very hip.  I was surprised (after not really playing for a week) that my flute felt as good as it did.  I hope to get off the keyboards and back on the horns this week.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Double Thursday

Thursday was a Yacht Rock gig away from our usual 10 High thing…we opened a series at the Havana Club.  I think the idea is they're trying to draw people on Thursday nights, so they booked a series of cover bands (beginning with us), and offered free booze to see how it works.

The gig was pretty bad.  We should have never set up, based on the first hour that we were there.  The sound guy appeared to be on his first night in the room--I mean, we were set up and waiting, and he was just barely getting started putting out mics, and THE DOORS WERE OPEN!  I mean, too late!  Our soundcheck never happened--we did a really bad line check (where he attempted to get the monitors going, but ended up putting everybody in everybody else's wedges).  I, for one, had at some point had a line for my electronics (keyboards, EWI), a line for the sax, and a vocal mic for the flute.  I had a wedge in front of me.  Eventually, all that got cut down to just a line for all my gear (with the sax running with the keyboards and the EWI).  No flute mic.  That didn't stop the guy from insisting on running me a monitor (and swapping out two bad speaker cabinets before settling on A PA SPEAKER!).  What the hell?  Then he ran my keyboards through it and nothing else--except that I have my own amplifier for that.  When he wasn't looking, I reached down and unplugged it.  No thank you.

This week I went back and relearned All Night Long.  I'd played the song previously in other cover bands, so when it was added to our list, I didn't bother going back over it.  I've always hated it, probably because of its association with the other bands.  Since I have a little more ability now on keyboard, I decided to try and grab more stuff--there's strings going on under the brass on the second half of the chorus, for example, and the brass play chords a lot of the time.  Now, it's kind of fun.  At the very least, I enjoy the challenge!  I tried it on Thursday night, and it was pretty good.  In a few weeks, I'll have it down.

The Havana Club gig ended around 11:30.  I boogied out of there and got to the 10 High around 12:15, and went straight to the stage, playing sax with the Schooner.  It was a pretty slow night there--not much of a crowd there, and the band was pretty blah.  Even Hans (the sound guy) was not paying attention.  He was talking to some girl in the back and forgot to turn my mic on for Diamond Girl.  The next song, Too Hot, still had no mic, so I started playing into Ganesh's vocal mic.  When I mentioned it to Hans after the gig, he said, "I turned it on when I heard it through the vocal mic!"  I don't think it even occurred to him that he'd missed me for an entire song.  Oops!

Mark Cobb came by and sat in on drums.

They have a new lighted dance floor at the 10 High, approximately the size of a queen sized mattress.  Can't fix the leaky pipe overhead, but the dance floor looks great!  Typical 10 High.

We're off to Nashville to play the Reagan Rock prom for them.  I feel strangely calm about it.

davidfreemanmusic.net