Both sides of 5 AM

Man, what a crazy weekend!

Friday:  huge show in Athens at the Georgia Theatre.  Going into it, I wondered how were going to make out at the Theatre.  Our previous best gig in Athens was at the 40 Watt, where I think there were something like 400 people in attendance.  The Georgia Theatre is roughly equivalent to the Variety Playhouse here in Athens, and I thought if we had 400 people at the Variety, it would look really thin.

No problem:  we sold out the Georgia Theatre.  What an awesome venue!  Check it out:

green room 

The only problem was that I didn't play very well.  I guess the sound was kind of bugging me--I couldn't get comfortable.  It certainly didn't help that the guitar was over my right shoulder, but the bigger issue to me was that the stage sound was loud and washy, but I couldn't pinpoint what the particular sounds were--just a big wave is something that I had to play against.  Sometimes my amp was too loud;  sometimes it was too quiet.  I couldn't find a balance against everything else on stage.  On top of all that, I just had a bunch of brain farts--like I'd play the same part on every chorus of a song, but the third time through the chorus, I couldn't remember thing I'd played on the previous to choruses.  Why?

The entire gig was recorded to a 24 track Pro Tools rig (greeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaat), so I'll hear myself screw up with great frequency at some point down the road.

Mark Bencuya took an AWESOME solo on I Want to be Your Lover, and Mark Dannells ripped a really great solo on Easy Lover.

The crowd was awesome.  We played two encores.

We drove back after the show.  By the time I'd gotten home and emptied my equipment from my truck, packed for Saturday, and gotten into bed it was 5 AM.

Saturday afternoon:  I played a gig with a group in Stockbridge.  Going into it, I was pretty excited because it was a jazz gig with a different group of guys playing cool tunes--stuff like Snakes (Marcus Miller) and Hang Up Your Hang Ups (Herbie Hancock).  Monday night we slogged through a three hour rehearsal--only the drummer and myself were really prepared to play.  The guitarist was two and a half hours late to the rehearsal, and then didn't know the stuff at all.  Not impressive!

The gig was for a festival in Stockbridge--one of those portable stages in a park.  We were playing from 12:40-1:20 PM.  Most of the band got there around noon.

A word about the sound man:  INCOMPETENT.

When we were setting up, I showed the sound man my wired clip on mic (a Shure Beta 98 H/C, if you're wondering).  It plugs into an XLR cable.  It needs phantom power.  I told the sound man "I brought my mic.  It needs phantom power."  He said, "OK."

From his front of house mixing position, he had me play so he could set the level.  The gain kept coming up ("I'm not getting it" he said).  So then he opened up the monitor in front of me all the way ("Are you getting it?" he said).  Then he said, "Oh yeah!  The phantom power!" and he hit the phantom power button.  It sounded like a nuclear explosion and two trains colliding all at once.  Like, 180 decibels of ice picks into my ears, and it lasted a solid four or five seconds.  Wow.  That was really dumb.

The sound on stage was really bad (even after that, amazingly enough).  Everything coming out of the monitors sounded like a cell phone video of a rock concert.  Loud, brittle, distorted--you get the idea.

Aside from that…um.  Remember how I was saying that our set was from 12:40-1:20?  The guitarist finally showed up at 1:10 PM, walking to the stage like he was going into a convenience store.  So guess what we did from 12:40-1:10?  We stood on stage and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Thankfully there was no crowd, which limited the embarrassment.

waiting for the guitarist

Once the guitarist plugged in, we were off.  First tune (Hang Up Your Hang Ups) starts with the guitar riff.  Did he know it?  Did he know that he did not know it?  Did he care?  I would say NO to all three questions.  That was pretty lame.  We went on with it;  the rest of the band was fine.  The leader had laid out a plan of who was soloing on which tune;  that went out the window pretty quickly.

The rest of the gig followed in much the same fashion.  I probably wouldn't have been annoyed if we hadn't spent all that time at rehearsal working out the forms of the tunes.  It was kind of a free-for-all jam situation.

The following bands were stacked up next to stage because we went so late (the guitarist for the next band arrived before the guitarist for our band--ouch!).  Some guy jumped up and began playing an acoustic set before I'd even gotten my horns off the stage.

I had enough time to drive back to home, grab my gear, eat lunch, and head out the door to my next gig.

Saturday night:  I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner (along with Mark Bencuya and Greg Lee).  We played the Vinings Jubilee--basically in the center of a shopping center/restaurant complex, there's a spot where the set up bands to play for weekend entertainment.

It was cold.  The wind was bad all day, but once the sun went down, it was even worse.  My hands hurt and my horns were ice cold.  Thankfully, I was wearing a suit.  One of the guys just had a short sleeve shirt on.

The sound man complained to me that my electronics were noisy.  Kind of confusing, since the same signal was going through my amp, and I wasn't hearing any of that.  He seemed pretty insistent that it wasn't HIS equipment with the problem.

The gig went well, though.  We were loved.  The 10:30 curfew was welcomed!

Sunday morning:  one day later, I got UP at 5 AM, this time to play the Brookhaven half-marathon with the Yacht Rock Revue.  Same cold, same wind.  It was tough.

We sang the National Anthem.  I think I messed up my part a little.

The announcer called us "the Yacht Club Revue."  Twice.  Even though it was on his script as "the Yacht Rock Revue."  Here's to stupidity!

The gig went well.  The sound on stage was really good.  My hands hurt and my horns were ice cold.  The synth buildup in Lido?  Couldn't do it.  My hands couldn't play that fast.

I went home and went straight to bed (around noon).  I got up at 2 PM, ate, and left for my next gig.

Sunday night:  Yacht Rock played a wedding reception at The Garden at Great Oaks in Roswell.  Pretty nice place, though not really set up well for loading in equipment and food  (and guests).  How about paving the driveway?

Right off the bat we confronted by the manager of the facility, an evil old woman named Joi.  She was not interested in helping us in any way--it seemed like we were in for a long night of hell with her.

Here's a review somebody found on Yelp (posted two weeks ago!):

Having worked in the Hospitality Industry for 15 years I tend to look the other way and keep my mouth shut. However, in this instance I cannot do so. Party Planners, Brides, Grooms, Guests BEWARE! While on the surface the Gardens At Great Oaks appears to be a beautiful place to host your event there is an evil and dark presence at this facility that will undoubtedly bring a dark cloud to your day. The presence goes by the name of Joi and she is the "manager" of the event facility. In my 15 years in the industry I have never encountered an individual with so much hate and ill will towards people in general. It was if just the thought of individuals having a good time was enough to throw this woman off the deep end. Aside from the fact that she looks like she has been sewn together with missing parts and her wardrobe is akin to an afghan throw she really is just a miserable human being. I witnessed this woman yell at guests, slap a young woman, and throw a case of wine at someone who worked for her. Her ability to "manage" an event does not exist. Every request that we had from when and where things were to be served, to when the bar would open was not met. On top of that, at the end of the evening the "facility" was to provide a limo for our guests back to the hotel and when the limo had not arrived for some 45 minutes Joi explained that we could "just take a cab". Really just take a cab? You are going to say that to a bride and groom? Top that with the fact that Joi would not allow us to keep the food in the fridge overnight, in fact her response to that was you can pick it up on Wednesday afternoon. Mind you this was a Saturday? Do not take any recommendations from this woman with respect to her caterer or any other recommendations for that matter. At the end of the evening we were to have a bunch of left over food which had all been pilfered by Joi, the caterer and the helpers. When we arrived in the kitchen to retrieve our food (since we did not want to leave it there till Wednesday) we were told that it was for the "crew". The nightmare that this woman brings to this place is enough for anyone to stay clear. I have received a warmer welcome at the DMV then this woman could provide. Shame on you Joi! Shame on you for what you did and what you do to people. You make celebrations "Joi-less"!

Wow!

Something changed between us and Joi, though.  She went from the wicked witch to our best buddy.  We'll know what triggered it, but all of the sudden she was there to hook us up with anything we needed.

The wedding reception was outdoors for us.  Very cold, though not as windy.  Usual stuff for me:  hands hurt, horns cold.  I played ok.

I got home just before midnight.  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Georgia Theatre

It's been several months since Yacht Rock made the trip to Athens to play the Georgia Theatre.  It's good to be back!  What was already a good sounding room has improved for us over the years with the addition of our own sound crew (yay Kip and Zach) and in ear monitors.

It's homecoming weekend in Athens, and we just barely beat the street closure and the UGA marching band.  It would've been a long uphill push of the gear if we'd missed it.

This was a pretty decent gig.  Nick tried to shake up the set list a little bit, so there were a few second set tunes in the first set, which felt kind of weird.   The set list also had a few previews of songs for Saturday night's Thriller show at the Variety Playhouse.

Joining us for the evening were two background singers, Keisha Jackson and Slick Barnes.  We met them earlier in the year on a big corporate gig in Las Vegas, and then they sang on our Purple Rain show.  Since they'll also be on the Variety Playhouse gig, we brought them along.

No clunkers on this gig.  With the exception of Arthur's Theme, I think I got everything right.  Monkey was screwing that one up, and I'm still not sure whether I was also making mistakes (independent of his mistakes), hearing his mistakes and thinking they were mine, or making mistakes because of his mistakes.  Any way you hear it, there was some bad shit in there.

Great crowd at the Georgia Theatre (50 people short of a sellout)--probably the best, least douchiest we've had, with the exception of the two people directly in front of me at the corner of the stage who were on their phones the entire time.  I wanted to kick them in the faces.  I actually spent a few songs in the second set mentally kicking them in the faces.  It was fun.  I hope their hangovers require hospitalization, and I hope they get charged for data roaming for the entire night.

Georgia Theatre + 1

The Yacht Rock Revue made a long awaited trip to Athens to play at the Georgia Theatre Friday night. 

Good news! After my rough night at the Variety Playhouse last weekend, I was back to my more normal self. Things felt great, and I had a good night playing. In particular, I had a fun solo at the end of Africa. We had a full house (850-875 people) of attentive adults. The whole night restored my faith in what I'm doing.

Saturday night was a private event in Atlanta. They were very particular about us possibly saying anything negative (going so far as to threaten withholding payment), so I'll just say that the Georgia Theatre show was a lot more fun.

Georgia Theatre!

Yacht Rock was at the Georgia Theatre in Athens Thursday night.  The seven regular guys haven't played together since July 27 in Hilton Head.  Reunited!  I could definitely feel the vibe of the seven of us back together again.  Coupled with the Theatre and a good crowd, we were in for a good night!

Wednesday afternoon, I developed (out of the blue) severe vertigo, so bad that I could barely get home.  I still had it Thursday morning, which made loading my gear down a flight of stairs and into my truck pretty treacherous, but Advil helped me get through it.  I made it to Athens and got loaded in and set up without issue.

Our soundcheck was more of a rehearsal for our Beatles show at Smith's, so I didn't do much more than nearly freeze to death under the Theatre's air conditioner.  When we finished, I took a walk around Athens to try and possibly locate a drug store with a clinic, but no luck.  I did almost fall down, though, in the middle of the sidewalk on College Ave.  Time for more Advil!

The show went really well.  I was careful about doing anything that might upset my inner ear--no major backbends during solos, no sudden movements.  I felt fine!  We had a great time playing together, and I actually played really well, with some different solo ideas than normal.  I think my preoccupation with not falling down kept me from overblowing and having saxophone diarrhea.

We got loaded out and made it home without any issues.  I wish whatever is wrong with me would leave me alone.

Hey Monday!

Hey…it's Monday again!  Another weekend has blown past.

Thursday:  Yacht Rock played at the Georgia Theatre for Halloween, performing all of Michael Jackson's Thriller and then a set of 70s/80s stuff.

We wore the Ghostbusters outfits for Thriller.

Oops!  As we walked on stage, I noticed that my stack of charts had been blown onto the floor by the air conditioner.  Aaaaagh!  I think I could probably make it through the album without them, but I like the short term memory bump.  Thankfully, there were enough 10 second spaces in the first few songs that I gradually got them back in order.

I actually played a really good sax solo on Lady in My Life for the first time in years.

The Yacht Rock set was our usual stuff.  We've been playing Kiss You All Over and Love Will Keep Us Together, both of which I enjoy playing (though I bombed the solo for the latter).

Nice crowd!   440 people through the door.  I heard that UGA was on fall break, so maybe not everybody was in town.  Athens seemed really dead.

The Georgia Theatre is a fantastic room--looks cool, sounds good, and the crew helps load the gear.

One bad thing:  by the end of the gig, my elbows, forearms, and hands were hurting--the sore, tender, tendonitis/ulnar nerve kind of problem.  Not good.  I couldn't fall asleep until I took some Advil.

Friday:  We spent the night in Athens and then headed to Charleston to play the Music Farm.  Half the trip was through middle-nowhere-Georgia until we finally jumped on the interstate.

The Music Farm is a really cool venue!  We played a great show (including TWO encores!) for over 300 people.  Not bad for our first time in Charleston.  The crew also helped load gear in and out.

I ate at Basil Thai Restaurant, just down the street.  Totally awesome, but then again I'm genetically predisposed to like anything served with white rice.

I sat at the bar (which obviously faces the kitchen).  What a cool set up!  The two woks stay on the fire the whole time.  A water spigot is right above each one, so after each dish, they wash the wok and their tools right there, dump it in the moat around the fire, and move on to the next thing.  Very cool to watch.

We added the Blue Swede version of Hooked on a Feeling (ooga chuckas and all), which we had learned last weekend for the wedding.  It went over well.



More forearm and elbow problems (though the back of my hands didn't hurt like the previous evening).    Advil in the morning, Advil in the evening.  Once again, my arms were so uncomfortable that I had to take medicine to dull them enough that I could sleep.

Saturday:  the final gig on this trip was a birthday party in Anderson, South Carolina.  We had Kip and Zach running sound for us on this one.

The stage was really small and I had no monitor, so Kip ran me a line into the open channel on my mixer--voila!  My amp is also my monitor!  Kip is super awesome.

As quickly as possible, we loaded out and headed back to Atlanta.  I slept most of the way.

Sunday:  my AM church gig was pretty good.  I was able to get a spot in with the rest of the band, which makes a big difference for me--I'm not playing into the back of the preacher's head (or the bandleader's), and I can hear everybody so much better.  A win!

My PM church gig had a problem with the main speakers.  The far side/left side isn't working.  I would suspect somebody's been tinkering with the main set up and has accidentally panned everything to the right side, and now can't get it back to the center position.  You'd think that the biggest Catholic church in the diocese would have a dedicated audio pro to make sure that everything always sounded perfect, but instead...we have volunteers.

My flute face is either really bad, or my flute is really out of whack.

A guy and his girlfriend were really amused by my performance (both of them gesturing towards me and talking and laughing, and mimicking playing flute).  Do you get paid to go to church?  I do.

I also had the chance to drop the line "Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!"  You've got to use it when you get the chance.



Monday:  I woke up today (Monday) without pain in my arms.  Maybe I'm allergic to the keyboard.

We're at Smith's Olde Bar this Friday, performing a set of Beatles stuff (with some new ones--it's time to write some more horn charts!).