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Indianapolis No. 2

Back to Indianapolis on Saturday for a festival appearance downtown.  The high was projected to be 79 degrees, and we were all pretty excited about a break from the summer heat. Before we even left Atlanta, we had a major emergency:  Monkeyboy's Delta app on his phone crashed right before we were called to board, and the person working the gate was unwilling to help him--he'd obviously had a boarding pass and photo ID to make it through security to the gate, and THEY COULD EVEN FIND HIM IN THE COMPUTER FOR OUR FLIGHT, but for some reason they couldn't print a new boarding pass, so they were going to leave him standing there as they shut the door to the airplane and pushed back.  We were on the plane asking the flight attendants to do SOMETHING to intervene, and eventually the asshole red coat Delta dude let Monkey come through.  Things were TENSE.  Delta screwed up BAD. Anyway, we made it.  Airport lunch in Indy.  On to the gig! There was ...

Indianapolis No. 1

Yacht Rock played a private gig Tuesday night in Indianapolis.  Following our usual arrangement, the gear (and the van and trailer and the Kip and Zach) headed north Monday, and we flew up Tuesday morning. The event happened to be in the Fountain Square area of Indianapolis, so after lunch, several guys killed some time with Duck Pin Bowling (the ball is grapefruit sized, and the pins are half as tall).  Check the technique. Somebody inadvertently used two balls, and they got stuck on the ball return.  We dispatched Kip to retrieve them. So...the gig was pretty happening for a Tuesday night!  Nice crowd.  The room was dark and very hot, though. No food was provided at the event, so we hit a gas station before heading to the hotel. Lotta mustard. Wednesday morning,  Kip and Peter took the trailer to Pete's mom's house for safe keeping.  We'll need it again for our next gig at Indy Laborfest this coming Saturday...

Shade Fest

I had no gig Saturday night, but I played in Greg Lee's band Sunday afternoon at the Grant Park Shade Festival.  With the exception of Eddie and the Cruiser's On the Dark Side and Dave Edmunds' Three Time Loser , we played all originals.  Good stuff!  I don't even know how long our set was, but it really flew by.  I guess we had a pretty good crowd, tucked into the shade because it's still super hot in Atlanta.  Will it ever end? Speaking of On the Dark Side , I was annoyed with myself for not quite nailing the end, and then I remembered that we weren't playing Yacht Rock and so it didn't really matter.  Trying to cop all of this stuff note for note has become something of a disease. Anyway...check out Greg Lee's stuff on his website (http://www.gregleesongs.com) and buy his new EP (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/greglee3?SourceCode=widgetbaby). Immediately following Greg Lee were the familiar faces of Indianapolis Jones.  Their...

Birmingham

Yacht Rock made another pilgrimage to Birmingham, Alabama Friday night, our second attempt to break into another regional live music market. But first...more tire troubles!  Remember, if you will, that we had a bad back tire on the van a couple of weeks ago on our trip to Nashville ?  The other back tire went bad on this trip, so we had to pull over in Hoover, AL and pick up a new tire.  We were extremely fortunate that someone could take care of it immediately. Our previous adventure in Birmingham was at Saturn, a pretty cool venue with a place to spend the night upstairs ( you can read about it here ).  This time, we were across the street at Avondale Brewing Company on their outdoor stage.  Pretty cool.  It's like a festival stage in the backyard of the brewery. The staff is excellent and friendly.  A very hip place to play! Pretty cool gig.  It'd been a while since we'd played a regular ol' Yacht Rock gig, so there was a little rus...

2016 Atlanta Revival

The 2016 Yacht Rock Revival in Atlanta is now history.  Another fine evening with the original artists and 4,000 people in attendance! Highlights: Ambrosia is extremely consistent from night to night.  This was my first time hearing them out front, and I was extremely impressed with how good they were. I had a nice chat with David Shaver from Starbuck before the show about what he's been up to since the last time I saw him. Their posse far outnumbered everyone else's at the show.  I'm pretty sure I could pick out the band members, but they also had crew, spouses, and the crew's spouses. Robbie Dupree:  We've played with Robbie so many times over the past few years that we are extremely comfortable with each other.  His songs are fun to play--not so complex that you don't know what parts are important, but there's enough musical meat on the bone to keep you interested in playing them more than a handful of times. Robbie through us a curveba...

Nashville

Yacht Rock played a show in Nashville last night as part of our revival summer tour, featuring the same crew of originals we'd brought along to the northeast:  Robbie Dupree, Matthew Wilder, Player (Ronn Moss and Peter Beckett), and Ambrosia.  We've almost always previously played at the Cannery Ballroom or the Mercy Lounge, so this show was a serious upgrade--the Schermerhorn Symphony Center where the Nashville Symphony performs.  What a room! But first!  We only made it as far as West Paces Ferry in Atlanta before we had to pull over with some kind of tire problem. The caravan limped to Smyrna, GA for a repair.  It turned out that the steel belt was separating from the rubber.  We wouldn't have made it very far!  The tire guys were able to replace it immediately, though, so it didn't slow us down very much. On to Nashville.  Beautiful room! Easy gig!  Dudes to load our gear in and out and a plethora of dressing rooms made i...