Mark Dannells returned to Yacht Rock last night. It's good to have him back. He was complaining that his hands felt stiff after not having touched a guitar in over a week, but I thought he played really well…a couple of rippin' solos on Peg and How Long. He also angled a fan so it would blow his hair back. They teach you stuff like that at Berklee.
The band was half Schooner and half Revue, with Dani on bass. We had Ganesh and K Spence up front and Daniel on drums. Bencuya, Dannells, and myself occupied the other positions.
In spite of the rain passing through town, we had a really good crowd. It felt kind of packed! Not much turnover, so we didn't make REALLY big money, but it was solid, and fairly good looking.
We got a little crazy in there towards the end…one song ended with Dannells going into Black Magic Woman, and then I started playing Hava Nagila in a different key over the top of it. We also had competing keyboard sound effects bouncing back and forth for a few songs (lots of telephones, a car engine, laughter, and a train) between myself and Bencuya. Hans (sound guy) even got into the action with his pitch shifter on Escape (Pina Colada).
Pretty good gig! We had to hang out because it was pouring, but the rain let up enough later on that I could get all my stuff out to my truck.
I played four gigs in twenty-six hours. The first two were really good, and the second two were pretty foggy. I wish I could have worked sleep in a little better.
Gig One: the Yacht Rock Revue played the Taste of Chamblee. When I pulled up to the gig, I had my doubts--it looked like we were going to play a bland gig in direct sunlight. By the time we went on, though, the crowd had grown and the sun had gone down enough to get behind the trees. It turned out to be a picture perfect outdoor gig.
We were fortunate to be able to pull up right behind the stage to load gear (and leave our vehicles there). Sweet! The band before us was the Heaven Davis Blues Implosion. I knew everybody in that band except the keyboard player, and not one of them recognized me. I probably should have networked better--a little "Hey asshole, remember me?" to jog their memories, but I didn't. I guess there's a chance this will bite me in the butt later in life. My lack of enthusiasm for networking will eventually lead to my employment at some place like Office Max.
Heaven Davis (vocals)--played on her CD and the subsequent CD release party at 800 East (incidentally I was introduced to Mark Cobb by Clay Cook at this gig).
George Price (guitar)--used to teach guitar in the studio next to me at Ken Stanton Music. We jammed one time out in front of the store on Blue Bossa and a blues. How could he NOT remember me?
Steve Mays (bass)--subbed on some of my church gigs at St. Ann. I bet he would recognize the back of my head better than the front.
Reese Harris (drums)--played a few latin jazz gigs in a band called Wild Rice. I must not have played anything memorable. He has also seen me with the Schooner.
The band sounded really good--the blues stuff is not my thing, but they were solid. No self-indulgent half hour guitar solos or anything.
They came off the stage and we went on. They "had heard a lot about us" and we "couldn't wait to hear us." We played one song and then they "got in their cars and left."
Our sets were good. It was the regular band minus Mark Dannells, who was on vacation. Shannon Pengelly subbed for him. We had a good time, everything felt good, and the sound was good. Cobb had on a new suit. Nice.
We finished right around 8 PM. I loaded up and drove to the Dixie Tavern.
Gig Two: I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner at the Dixie Tavern. I'd been looking forward to this gig for a couple of weeks because I got to play keyboard on the gig, too. Big deal, you say? Yeah, because it was a chance to play some of the other (Bencuya) keyboard parts, like rhodes on Peg and Hey Nineteen. Fun! We did this a year ago (me and Frampton), and I like the challenge.
I was super pumped. It was really exciting for me, even though there were only a handful of big parts (Hey Nineteen, Peg, Doctor My Eyes, and Lido Shuffle). I even took a solo (yikes!) on the end of Hey Nineteen--nothing chopsy at all, but correct notes played in time. Heck yeah! I had so much adrenaline going by the end of it, I could have picked up a car.
It's probably good that Ganesh didn't let me go any longer.
After we played Lido, some guy told me my playing was fascinating to watch.
Frampton!
T.Y.
The Schooner sounded great. Everything felt great. It was a ton of fun! I really like doing the sax/keyboard thing with them--it's harder to get into it when it's just saxophone. I was sandwiched between Daniel Morrison and Delicious Tom Young--the groove was really solid.
The Dixie Tavern let us stop at 2 AM. I was in bed by 4. Owww.
Gig Three: also known as church gig number one. Not much of a gig for me--I played a little bit of saxophone, but mostly flute doubling the melody. I messed around with using headphones again, but the mix is not good to me. The bassist is the guy who's most interested in what's in it, so it's really bass and piano heavy. I'm better off hearing everything (except the damn V drums) acoustically.
The organist made some Kenny G crack at rehearsal which I ignored. You shouldn't curse on a church gig.
I was home by 11 AM, and asleep shortly thereafter.
I woke up around 5:30 and got dressed.
Gig Four: church gig number two. This one sounded pretty good! No guitar and no drums, so the mix was pretty easy.
Funny thing about this gig--the last note hasn't finished ringing in the cathedral before the vocalists and the pianist/leader are telling each other what they did wrong. This week they were all ganging up on one person--lots of on the spot analysis about why she was dragging. Mildly amusing stuff.
The first gig was an awards night for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. I've played this event for the past four years--I'm getting the hang of it! We played an hour an a half dinner set, and then walk-ups for the awards ceremony, and then one song to send 'em out the door. Easy! Everything was great about this one: we played my tunes with no volume restrictions, we were fed (chicken, green beans, and something…orzo?), they validated our parking, the gig ended early…yes! It's was great.
The band was Tyrone Jackson, Kevin Smith, and Justin Chesarek on drums. This was the first gig Justin and I have ever done together. Success! Everybody played well.
Coolest moment…Tyrone picked up on the end of my solo on Beth Ann at the last chord change. I don't know how to describe it--it was just awesome.
Here's the audio:
After this gig ended, I raced over to the 10 High and played the Yacht Rock gig.
This was the best 10 High gig I've played in a long time. Everybody played well and the energy was good. We were being silly, too, but musically things felt great. I wish they were all like this!
I got a couple of good solos in…I was really loose from the earlier gig. My sax was way up in my monitor--abusively loud. Ha!
We went on break after I'd really torn it up on Takin' it to the Streets, and some girl told me that the band was great and I was a really awesome singer. Must not have been tearing it up like I thought.
I've got another two gigs tomorrow…when it rains, it pours, I guess.
Friday night, it was late…I played the first set with the Yacht Rock Schooner at 37 Main in Buford. That place gives me the impression that there is NOTHING ELSE to do in Buford--it's always packed. The crowd was good, the band was really good.
I couldn't hear anything that I was playing. I guess that's what you get when you don't show up to soundcheck. I tried the old trick of playing a few notes in between songs--not very reassuring! I think I could hear myself in the mains; maybe not. My position was an arm's length away from the speaker and I couldn't tell. I had no monitor of my own, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't in any of the monitors on stage. I think I was more or less inaudible. Ugh.
The band was really solid--they really had a good groove going.
There were several beer bottles on the lip of the stage in front of me, and I noticed when we started Baker Street that I nudged one when I bent my knees, so then every time the hook came around, I tried to knock the other ones down. I think I hit five.
Saturday, the Yacht Rock Revue played a wedding reception in Columbus. Some guy heard about us and hired us sight unseen! He also had something to do with hooking up the gig in Washington DC.
This was a fun gig to me, mostly because Mark Cobb really felt like playing--he gave the whole band energy.
We had Kevin Spencer subbing for Nick (on vacation). He did a great job filling in.
First dance was Just the Way You Are. I'm getting closer on the solo, but I sound a little sharp.
Lately I've been coming up with some new stuff to play on Reminiscing. It's funny how that kind of thing comes and goes. I feel pretty good about that song, but (for instance) on Taking it to the Streets, I have nothing to play. I just play bullshit through the entire end.
We played Break My Stride for the first time in a year and a half (I think). I was sure the chorus started on G. I insisted! and I was wrong. It starts on F.
Another oldie that came back was I'd Really Love to See You Tonight. I was a little shaky in some spots. That's almost the norm for me on that one. I try and play it casually and then I screw up.
Other than those, I played well the entire night, and then we did Taking it to the Streets for the encore. For some reason, I was pedaling on C instead of G. My embarrassment kind of crushed my good feeling about the night. Damnit! How long have I been playing that wrong?
Church gig number one got the day off. The "orchestra" (the church concert band) is playing. I slept in. It was great.
Big week this week…a couple of jazz gigs and a couple of Yacht Rock gigs. Stay tuned.
We (Yacht Rock) played at the 10 High last night. It was pretty obvious that we were shut out by the football game. The crowd never showed up, and the gig was lost to indifference pretty quickly.
I played well. We had Ganesh on drums, K Spence on vocals (in for Nick), and Shannon on guitar, so the set list was all really safe stuff--things we've been playing forever. There were some strange guitar chords in the middle of Sister Golden Hair and the intro of Hey 19, and we did the radio edit version of My Life…speaking of which, that was a game of musical chicken--the vocals went one way and the band went the other, and at some point we (the band) had to jump when it was finally obvious that the vocals were not coming back to us. Thankfully, we'd heard that mistake before--almost predicted it.
Lido needed more bass in the intro.
Everything in the second set was pretty normal and pretty plain. Shannon got a fiery solo off on How Long, and I thought for a second we were going to pick up the energy, but it was just a flicker! I stumbled a little bit in the Africa solo, but nothing catastrophic.
Anyway…it was the 10 High. Too many dudes--always a sign that we're going to make no money.
After a couple of weeks away, I was back at my church gigs this morning.
Church gig number one changed up the morning rehearsal time--instead of meeting at 8 AM, we got together at 8:30. When I walked in, there was a service going on in the main sanctuary, but I found everybody downstairs.
It was a quick and painless rehearsal--a couple of traditional hymns (flute), and a couple of gospel things (tenor). No problems. At 9:15 we went running upstairs to set up.
This is the second week of V Drums--this time with a substitute soundman! Woo! I guess all the microphone cables for the entire band had been patched incorrectly at the stage, so there was no time to troubleshoot the electronic drums that were not making electronic drum sounds. Hmm. We entered into a stand off of sorts--sound man was busy up in the balcony trying to find his inputs; drummer continued to bang on very quiet drum kit. I said, hey, let's stick a vocal mic on his XLR--maybe it's a bad line…maybe it's the DI…maybe it's the quater inch cable going into the DI. I was ignored.
Suddenly it was 9:30 and we started. In the headphones: a ton of bass, a ton of piano, some vocals. No guitar, no drums. I didn't like the sound of that, so I went without headphones--better, but I could hear the drums, and the slap off the back wall was at least a sixteenth note behind the band. I didn't like that either!
Other than the technical difficulties, it was a good show/service. I had good reeds on my tenor and clarinet, and my flute face was good. I think we played pretty well, and our leader was happy. We also played the second service. No problems there, either. Yay!
I went home and fell asleep on the floor, listening to a Michael Brecker masterclass from 1986. Good stuff. Here's hoping it all soaked in.
Church gig number two was pretty good, too. Good soprano reed, and my flute playing was comfortable. I had a pretty good mix in the PA, too.
Right before we started, the previous service's leader told me that the piano microphone was going bad (I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a short in the mic/preamp setup). Sure enough, I soloed it and it sounded like old vinyl.
Band leader said, "When we flip the switch, the crackling goes away." The switch was for the ground. Aren't you disconnecting the ground pin in the XLR and thus eliminating the phantom power that you need to power the microphone? That was my thinking. We flipped the switch and then we got no signal to the board, which makes me wonder if my theory was true, and if so, why was that an option on the preamp box?
Anyway, the hell with that. I unplugged the cable, stuck a vocal mic on it, and stuck it on the soundboard through one of the holes in the piano frame. Worked fine, and I like the sound of it better than that stupid crackly microphone.
The band sounded pretty good; vocals were pretty good. Not a bad gig at all.
I've got another pretty easy week ahead, but I'm looking down the calendar at a week from Saturday--I'm playing second keyboard with the Schooner at Dixie Tavern, and I have a couple of parts to learn. I did this about a year ago (read about it here). I'm feeling much less overwhelmed this time--pretty sure I'm gonna kick ass. It's a good challenge.
P.S. I'm still thinking about the car crash we saw in Dallas a couple of weeks ago. I wish we'd stopped to check on them. The taxi we were in slowed down--I regret not getting out to see if everybody was OK. I would have wanted someone to do that for me.
