Golf Lundgren

I've got a little backlog of blogging, so I'll be catching up in pieces...

Thursday:  Yacht Rock has played a party connected to the PGA tournament in Jacksonville the previous two years.  We weren't available for this year's party, so we were hired for an event there earlier in the weekend.  Same ride, same tent, same people.

Unfortunately, Jacksonville is kind of far away, and we had to load in pretty early in the afternoon, so we left Atlanta at 7 AM.  Boo.  Somewhere in south Georgia, our van began to vibrate more than usual and we were forced to purchase two new tires.  I woke up in the back seat to this.

Behind these tires I set free my morning coffee.

The tire stop cut into our lunch break, so we ate at Wendy's.  No surprise that I ordered what I always order.

We showed up around a half hour late for load in, but it didn't seem to make any difference.  Since the golf tournament was in progress, we really couldn't do any kind of soundcheck anyway.  It just left us with a lot of down time.

One of the more exciting events of the afternoon was when the stand of bamboo in the corner behind my gear blew over in the breeze and landed on my stuff.  Thankfully nothing was damaged.  Kip forbid the lady from setting it back up.  Only Bencuya's bamboo remained.

We also had an interview with a lady from the PGA.  She was pretty.  It made me goofy.  Here's a picture of me trying not to say anything (else) stupid.

Other than that, it was a pretty average gig.  One ninety minute set with Matt Lipkins (of Shadowboxes fame) subbing for Nick.  Afterwards we all stood around while all of the female audience had their pictures taken with Pete.

Dave and Dave

David Ellington and I hadn't done a gig in a month.  I was a little worried--my saxophone playing as of late has been pretty abysmal, and there would be nowhere to hide on a duo gig.  What if I provided two hours of uncoordinated eighth notes, a dozen tunes of bumbling bullshit?  It seemed like a real possibility.

Fortunately, none of that came true.  I asked Ellington about it after the gig, and he claimed it was his own superb performance that brought my own level up!  Maybe so...but I seriously do wonder why everything flowed so easily on this gig, but not on others, or not at home.  This turned out to be some of my best playing of the year.  I could've played another set and not felt like I was playing in circles.

Afterwards, we had brunch.  Great gig!  We're back Friday night, 7-9 PM.  

Georgia Theatre

Yacht Rock played our first Athens gig in several months last Friday.  It's good to be back!  As best as I can tell, our previous evening here was at the end of August 2014.  We were supposed to play more recently, but we were bumped from the calendar in favor of the Alabama Shakes.  

The Georgia Theatre is a pretty awesome place to play.  Looks good, sounds good.  We had Kip on front of house and Zach on monitors for this one.

Mark Cobb got this slick new drum head.  Way cool.

We ended up skipping Baker Street in the first set and My Life in the second set.  I was kind of bummed about both;  the time when I really enjoy Baker Street is at the big theater shows, and My Life is fun to play any time.  

It appears that Let's Dance is the only keeper from this year's Reagan Rock prom stuff.

Any Way You Want It has been a nice addition, and Nick really nails the vocal every time.  

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Another slow week here on the blog, but I did want to post a recording of Maxwell's Silver Hammer from last weekend's glorious Please Pleaserock Me/Yacht Rock Revue performance of the Beatles' Abbey Road.  This arrangement features Richard Sherrington (trombone), Rob Opitz (trumpet), Greg Lee (alto sax) and me (tenor sax).

Drive By

I had a fantastic time playing with the Drive By Big Band yesterday!  I was mildly terrified when I got the call;  I hadn't played in a big band since the late 90s, and I hadn't played lead alto since high school.  I really didn't know what to expect, and my most recent gig where I had to sightread everything (Jorge Alvarez) was a disaster.  What if I failed miserably song after song in front of fifteen of my peers?

Fortunately, none of that happened.  The charts were cool (and readable), everybody in the band was friendly, and it turned out to be a ton of fun and a great hang.  I can't wait to do it again!

Hitting the Courts

The day after our hugely awesome gig at the Variety Playhouse, Yacht Rock was back at it again, this time on a big private party in Johns Creek.  This, I believe, is our fourth year playing this party, and it's always pretty easy--two sets for an enthusiastic (and very good looking) audience on indoor tennis courts.  

Someone in our band may have damaged the building's plumbing.

We're at the Georgia Theatre in Athens this Friday (May 1!).  More info here:  http://www.georgiatheatre.com/calendar1.html

Abbey Road and More

Wow!  GREAT gig last night at Variety Playhouse--Yacht Rock's alter ego Please Pleaserock Me play all of the Beatles' album Abbey Road, plus a second set of more Beatles stuff.  For me, that was twenty songs with horn arrangements (most of which were already written, but I had to figure out how to incorporate another voice--trombone--into them without disturbing the trumpet or alto sax parts).  We had Rob Opitz on trumpet and Richard Sherrington on trombone.  It was a pretty badass sounding section!

Our Beatles shows are always a music store's worth of gear, and this one proved to be no exception.  I brought:

1.  Keyboard (for strings)
2.  Bari sax
3.  Tenor Sax
4.  Flute
5.  Piccolo
6.  Clarinet
7.  Hand percussion

This was also our first time using iPads for charts on the Please Pleaserock Me show.  More success!

The only non-success for the evening was my tenor reed, which began soundcheck in mid-gig form, and was soft and blah by the time I needed to really lean on it for solos.  Oops.  There will be no altissimo this evening.  Terribly sorry.

Our next scheduled performance will be at Turner Field on August 28, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four's performance at Fulton County Stadium.