Rock Show in Orlando

What an amazing experience!  Yacht Rock backed up several bonafide rock gods for a corporate event in Orlando Thursday night.  Eddie Money.  Jeff Carlisi (.38 Special).  Gary Wright (Dreamweaver).  Bill Champlin (Chicago).  Steve Augeri (Journey).  Epic.  Incredible.  Unforgettable.

Here's how it all went down.

Wednesday:  We were back at the Buckhead Theatre for another event--this time some sort of liquor distributor convention.  One set in the afternoon.  To say that the crowd was not interested in what we were doing would be an understatement.  Usually that would open the door for us to be silly, but this gig remained pretty tame.

I'm not sure what happened before we came on stage, but there were feathers on my keyboard

Whatever was going on last week where my hands wouldn't work is gone.  I'm back to normal.

Afterwards, Hans and Pete loaded the trailer.

The rest of us were no help.

Hans took us to the airport and we headed to Orlando.

Out of the van and straight into a late night rehearsal in one of the largest convention halls I've ever seen.

The first thing Eddie Money said to me:  "How come all you bald guys are getting all the pussy?"  I answered "Why don't you shave your head and find out?"

Thursday:  In the afternoon we had a quick rehearsal and then dinner, and then it was time to play!

Jeff Carlisi, Eddie Money, and Gary Wright

Eddie Money served as MC, and got the show started with Two Tickets to Paradise and Baby Hold On to Me.  Right as we were beginning the latter, I realized that I'd forgotten to pitch my keyboard down, so I missed the downbeat.  Ugh!  All these old guys have lowered the keys on their hits.  It wouldn't be the first time this bit me in the butt.

Next up was Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, who ripped through So Caught Up in You and Hold on Loosely.  Before he could get going, though, his amp died.

Once he got set on another amp, they rocked it.

We played a couple by ourselves.  The horn riff going into the first chorus of Rosanna?  Wrong key--I failed to bring my keyboard back to C.  Nice going.  We followed that with What a Fool Believes.  At least I got that one right.

Up next was Gary Wright.  We opened with Love is Alive.  He then played Dreamweaver.  There was a track (Nick, Cobb, Greg, and Bencuya playing along).

Pete didn't play on Dreamweaver either

Yacht Rock followed that with Africa.

Next up was Bill Champlin, probably best known as for his tenure with Chicago.  He was also a pretty major session musician and writer, penning After the Love is Gone and the first tune we played with him on this night, Turn Your Love Around.  He followed that up with the Chicago tune Look Away.  I didn't get any pictures of Bill on stage;  I find him so casually intimidating that I never thought to relax and pick up my camera.

Yacht Rock was back for Rich Girl.  Once again, my keyboard was in the wrong key.  Champlin had been down a whole step on both of his songs.

Eddie came back and sang Shakin' and Take Me Home Tonight.  A cool moment for me--all seven measures of saxophone solo!

The final star of the evening was Steve Augeri, formerly of Journey.  He came out and did Separate Ways, Any Way You Want It, and Don't Stop Believin'.

The gig was supposed to be over, but the crowd requested an encore, so we gave them Footloose.  Monkey started on his tuned down guitar.  Glad to know somebody else can screw that up too.

What a night, both as a band member and a fan of all of these guys!

Wayne Wins the Award

Wayne Viar and I performed last night at a corporate awards ceremony last night.  Easy stuff--the guy had charts for the dozen songs we did;  I think the most challenging thing was keeping everybody straight on the form of Pick Up the Pieces (the corporation's business involved data recovery--a clever musical choice!), though this dotted eighth/triplet rhythm was pretty much unfathomable:

Mostly it was a fun hang with Wayne, whom I don't see as much these days.

There was food (inhaled on the break) and free parking.  Not bad for a Tuesday night!

Eats/Beats

Yacht Rock played the Eats and Beats benefit at Buckhead Theatre last night.  It's a children's charity event which features a multitude of local restaurants, bands of chefs, and us.  Sort of a hipster Taste of Dunwoody, with (by my picky eater standards) some rather exotic food.

The stage is a good size at the Theatre, the green room is nice, and the load in is pretty easy.  It doesn't have any vibe, unfortunately, and I don't have any feeling for what it sounds like out front.  The crew is also pretty dysfunctional.  We made the best of it.

The chef bands were decent/fun.  We sang Fat Bottom Girls with them (uhhh...I don't know that song) and Bencuya, Nick, and I blew through a wildy chaotic version of Let's Go Crazy.  Ford Fry plays really loud guitar.  Don't go near it.

Our part of the show was one ninety minute set.  The crowd was with us right from the beginning.  Fun gig.

Monkey ran the Kemper through Ford's 65 Amp tonight and liked it better than his Port City cabinet.  Paging Mr. Stroud...

Next in Line

Just to round out the weekend...I played my PM church gig last night.  Things went pretty well except for a bad mic cable that I had to switch out on the fly.

I bought a box of clarinet reeds this week, and swapping them out for my old reeds made a big difference in sound (and thus performance).  Funny how that works.  One thing that didn't work so well was my upper lip for flute playing--what was up with that?  My flute sounded fine, but my upper lip felt weird--like I couldn't grip the air.  I felt like I had Mr. Bill's mouth.

Big week of gigs ahead, so stay tuned.

Purple Rain, Delta, Highlands

Friday:  Yacht Rock played Purple Rain in Piedmont Park up by the Legacy Fountain.  I'd bet that most people have no idea where that is, but if you know where the parking deck is, it's right near that, up in the northeast corner of the park (closest to Piedmont and Monroe).

This is our third or fourth year playing Purple Rain.  Across the band, I think we're all pretty comfortable with it and know our parts;  like Dark Side of the Moon, it now only takes us a rehearsal or two to bring it back.  It sounded good (we listened to the board tape last night on the way home).  I had a few random mistakes, but overall, I was satisfied with my performance.

The second set was a regular yacht rock set.  Interestingly, whatever was making my hands not work Thursday went away, and I felt much better about my sax playing on this night.  I wonder if this had been a jazz gig if I'd still be saying that.

Something I don't remember seeing at one of our gigs before:  people holding up signs.  One had to do with a birthday (TURING (sic) 40 NEXT WEEK!), and one was for Pete's birthday.

Mark Cobb played ass off on this gig.  All night.  Super good stuff.

After the gig, we loaded everything into the trailer in preparation for Saturday evening's gig.

Saturday:  After a few hours of sleep, we met up at Nick's at 7:45 AM for the beginning of a long day of gigs.  

Our first gig was a big company party for Delta down at their headquarters.  We used backlined gear since ours left for North Carolina.  Fantom X7-yes!  Nord Electro 2-no!  After playing an Electro 3 for a couple of years, it's hard to go back to the 2.  At least my horns sounded good.

Good on stage sound, though Monkey did not like his choice of guitar amplifier, and the kick drum sounded like craaaaaaaaaap.

This was one of those gigs with an on stage camera man.  They also had two cameras out front.  It only took me a set and a half to realize that the video screen was above us.

After the break (and some rain), the crowd loosened up.  One guy really led the charge.

About fifteen minutes after this show ended, we were North Carolina bound to play a wedding reception in Highlands.  Fortunately, we had a crew (Zach, Hans, and Nackers) who took our gear and the PA up early and preset everything so we could walk in.  We couldn't have done this without their help.

We had a little bit of down time before the reception began.

I wonder how many other bands playing a wedding get a cheer just by walking in the room?  Pretty cool.  Obviously we had quite a few fans in the audience.

The reception was nice, though I was totally brain dead by the time we began the second set.  For example, I set my microphone and got out my piccolo to play the solo on Call Me Al, and then completely missed the beginning of it.  Nice move.

At the end of this reception (just like at the end of the Purple Rain show Friday night), we sent people to the exits with Kenny G's Going Home.  Have you heard about this Chinese phenomenon?  Read about it here:  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/china-embraces-kenny-gs-going-home-as-its-anthem-to-go-home-20140512

We packed everything up and headed for Atlanta around 12:30 AM.  I made it to the bottom of the mountain before I passed out, waking up back in Nick's neighborhood around 3 AM.  Ugh.

Duo with Dave

David Ellington and I played a sax/organ duo gig last night.  It's always fun doing a hit with Dave, and we've got a fun batch of tunes going.  The gig is easy, the pay is good, the hang is terrific, and the food is great!  What more could you want?

That said, I am playing like SHIT these days.  My hands don't work anymore...maybe it's the connection between my head and my hands, but I'm forcing every note that comes out of my horn right now.  There's no flow at all--I feel really stiff, and my musical phrasing feels tongue-tied. The stuff I played tonight sounded ok, but I was working way too hard at it.

Anyway, here's what we did.  My hamburger was delicious.  Fries were ok.  Sometimes I think about ordering something different, but...that's not me.

Trio #4

Tyrone Jackson, Kevin Smith, and I played a pretty nice trio gig at, of all places, Stats in downtown Atlanta.  We were playing a small private party in a room there.  It was a hip looking space, though unfortunately for any music fans, it got pretty loud over the course of the night, between the conversations, the activity at the bar, and the occasional slamming door.

Maybe predictably, the three of us were more interested in playing than at our previous gig at the mall.  Kevin, in particular, had a great night, I thought.  Check it out!