One Too Many

Soooooooo...five gigs in a row may have been one too many for us. We made it, but...

Thursday: This trip started with a flight to Newark, New Jersey.

Atlanta traffic has infected the airport

I know it's practice, but it's still a bit unsettling to see this as you're taking off

Gig number one: Sayreville, NJ at the Starland Ballroom. It didn't look like much on the outside, but this place turned out to be pretty OK. Denny Laine and the Bouchard Brothers (of Blue Oyster Cult) joined us. We had right around three hundred people in the audience, which actually felt like a decent crowd--they had good vibes.

Albert Bouchard sitting in

Friday: Before heading back to the airport to pick up Keisha and Kourtney Jackson, we stopped at Harold's New York Deli, a strange and magical place that felt very...New Jersey. Heart stopping amounts of meat and the world's largest pickle bar. I ordered a veggie burger and fries.

From the airport, we made our way through Friday afternoon traffic and steady rain out to Long Island. Somewhere along this trip, a NYPD car pulled up next to us on the shoulder of the road and flipped on his lights. Zach (who was driving) tried to give him some room, but he stayed with us, so Zach pulled over. The officer then tried to yell at us through the PA bullhorn on his car, but no one could understand him over the traffic and the downpour. Zach tried to exit the roadway and the cop came flying around in front of us and cut him off, and then jumped out of his car screaming so much profanity that it was impossible to understand what he wanted. After he'd finished flipping out (and scaring us all to death), he let us go. From what we could gather, commercial vehicles with trailers were not allowed on the roadway/parkway we were on. We were in a van with eleven people--a passenger vehicle--which seemed to stump the NYPD when he was screaming "ARE YOU A FUCKING PASSENGER VEHICLE?? ARE YOU YOU A FUCKING PASSENGER VEHICLE???" and Zach said "Yes sir." What's the right answer here?

Anyway, we somehow avoided what felt like an inevitable physical confrontation, made it to the Paramount in Huntington, and set up for the show.

We love this place. 1100 people in attendance. If the weather hadn't been so bad (mid 40s and raining), we'd definitely have come close to selling it out.

with Denny Laine (far left)

Saturday: After sleeping late, we opted to head into Manhattan early for lunch.

We played a sold out show at Irving Plaza. This one was particularly great--New York has always been excellent to us, but the energy was good and we played really well. Guests for this show were the same as the night before: Robbie Dupree, Denny Laine, and Albert Bouchard.

A few videos:

Sunday: Gig number four, and sell out number two. We drove to Washington DC and set up for our show at The Hamilton, another one of our favorite rooms. My mix sounded so good that I almost forgot we were on stage.

We broadcast this show on Facebook. Here's set one:




No big letdown in Saturday's energy--this was another really good gig!

Monday: The final show of this run was Night Two at The Hamilton--sell out number three. Everybody slept late and then headed into DC to hang out until soundcheck. I ended up walking from our hotel, which took me right past Reagan National Airport, across the Fourteenth Street bridge, past the Jefferson Memorial, and into town. It was a cold, grey day.

Indian food for late lunch/early dinner

We were collectively pretty flat on this one. Nothing was bad, but the band was a bit fried. The crowd didn't seem to notice, though. Everybody had a great time.

Once again, the Hamilton announced our next two shows here (April 11-12), and they sold most of the tickets before the end of the night.

Tuesday: Seconds before I fell asleep.

More of the Same

I'm having all kinds of trouble getting into the mood to write this blog, so keep your expectations low.

Wednesday: Halloween. I played at Blind Willie's with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo. In addition to Scott on bass, the band was comprised of Steve Cunningham on guitar, Dan Lawrence on keyboard, and Zack Albetta on drums. For the first time, there was no second horn player--one fewer person to outplay me! I've worked with Dan on this gig before (among several other gigs in the last twenty something years), but I'd never met Zack until this gig. Excellent playing, and a really cool guy to boot. Steve and I decided that the last gig we played together was fifteen years ago. He's just as funny and quirky as ever. 

As you might expect, there wasn't much of a crowd--maybe a dozen people--for the entire evening. We amused ourselves, though, mostly by ridiculing Scott's well worn jokes and preambles to various songs. Playing-wise, I was just ok.

Thursday: The Yacht Rock Revue birthday party. As legend has it, this is our eleventh year as a band, and we celebrated with a gig at Venkman's.

This one wore me down with the long drive to get there, the tight stage set up, and then the three hours of down time before we played. By the time we finally got on stage, I was over it. Tough gig--I was not interested in playing.

Friday: Some kind of corporate gig in Atlanta, alternating sets with a bar mitzvah DJ. I was strangely more energized about playing than the night before. 

Ganesh Giri Jaya subbing on drums tonight

I love this picture

Saturday: Outdoor gig in Dalton, GA, in November. Greeeeeeeeaaaaaat. 8-10 PM.

Fortunately, there were two propane heaters on the stage, and the one closest to me helped keep me relatively comfortable (I also wore tights and a long sleeve thermal shirt under my stage clothes). I spent a lot of time standing under this thing.

Once again, no idea for whom we were playing. It wasn't even clear whether or not this was even a private gig, as they closed off the streets in front of the park and let people walk up.

I don't know...anyway, this was a really cool spot, and we had a lot of fun with the trains going by behind us every so often. If they had a summer concert series, this would be a fun one to come up and play in warmer conditions!

New England

Yacht Rock played three gigs in New England this past weekend; Thursday night in Providence, Rhode Island, and then two nights at The Royale in Boston. 

Thursday: There aren't a lot of flights between Atlanta and Providence, so we had to go early, landing around noon. After lunch, there was still plenty of time to kill, so I went for a run. Chilly, but not freezing.

The gig was at a club called Fete Music Hall, and it seemed to be in a warehouse district, but that whole part of Providence looked a little rough. The gig was mostly a war of attrition--we were all pretty tired and fried from a long day. Even though the turnout was good for our first time here (286 in a room that could hold 730) and it sounded good, we were all ready to go to bed.

Video evidence of our gig:

Friday: Night one in Boston. A pretty slammin' gig! We had Keisha and Kourtney Jackson joining us as background vocalists, and Robbie Dupree came up to sing a few with us as well. Just over 800 in attendance, even though the gig was sold out--we're guessing that those 200 people stayed home to watch the Red Sox. That excuse is lame. We were finished by 9:30, and I was in bed in my hotel room by 11 PM, watching the game (didn't stay up for all eighteen innings, though).

You can hear just how loud the crowd is in this one:

Saturday: A Nor'easter hit New England, so today was a day of hiding in our hotel, waiting for the gig.

Night two was also sold out, and only hundred or so people failed to show. Another boisterous crowd and another entertaining gig. What else can I say? Boston was tremendous.

Vids:

And this...

Sunday: Not a Yacht Rock gig, but I do want to mention that I killed it on my church gig this week--it was half classical/chamber music style stuff and half improvising, and I was all over it. I'm still enjoying the challenge of it, too.

Monday Night Football

Monday night (now a week ago), Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo played at Elliot Street Pub, just blocks from where the Falcons were playing the Giants on Monday Night Football. The entire area was choked with cars, either parked or searching for parking. What a mess. I tried a lot near the pub, but turned away when the guy wanted $60. I ended up in a street spot about ten minutes away.

The band was Scott, John Sandfort on tenor, Nick Johnson on guitar, Nick Rosen on keyboard, Jon Chalden on drums, and me (also on tenor). Pay no attention to this photograph.

It was a little bit like Mardi Gras--the band set up on the sidewalk, people standing around in the street with drinks, obnoxiously loud tailgaters across from us, and a constant stream of jerseys into and out of Elliot Street. The playing was fun as always--Nick Johnson pretty much destroyed the other three of us who were also charged with soloing--and the hang was great. We finished just after 8 PM.

I walked back to my truck to find a $25 parking ticket, which is probably what I would've paid to park legally, so...there's that. It's annoying for a gig that only paid $75, though.

Mostly Buckhead

Buckhead is weird, man. Weird vibes. I don't get it.

Thursday night, I played a trio gig in Buckhead--strictly background music for some kind of corporate mixer. Maybe 200 people in the room, and several of them seemed to be going out of their way to stand as close to band as possible while holding conversations, all the while seemingly oblivious to us. Later in the evening, a man, armed with a small PA and a wireless microphone, shouted over us (and the indifferent crowd) instead of asking us to stop for his announcements. Very strange. Sometimes it feels like people don't know what live music looks like up close, so they treat us like furniture, or catering.

Anyway, enough about that. The gig was with Nick Rosen (keyboard) and Robby Handley (bass), and once again it's been way too long since I've done a jazz trio gig (maybe a year at this point), and I was anxious about whether or not I could remember any tunes and/or play over changes. Much to my surprise, things went very well, and I was actually really happy with what was coming out of my horn. It definitely helped to have such musically eloquent friends with me--Nick and Robby were great. Pretty easy gig, and the check was in my mailbox when I returned home. Boom!

Friday night, Yacht Rock played the Buckhead Theatre, just down the street from my Thursday gig. The ownership has done a lot to improve the sound of this room, but it's still not quite there--things are very boomy and noisy on stage. I heard that it was good out front, though, so that's good, though I think that's mostly because our front of house guy, Kip, is extremely good at his job.

We had a pretty good crowd--around a thousand people, I think--and they were pretty into what we were doing, but maybe not? It was tough to get a read on these people. We would get a pretty big reaction for a song, but it would completely die away before we could start the next, so...I don't know what that means. They were weird. It's Buckhead.

The setlist was a mix of regular songs, some Thriller album cuts, some that we brought back (Frankenstein, Tiny Dancer, and Sister Christian), and a new one (More Than a Feeling, featuring a killer vocal by Nick). Greg really nailed the vocals on Sister Christian. For me, it was a pretty even show, playing-wise.

Saturday afternoon, we all drove up to the mountains to play a wedding reception at a winery. The weather was really beautiful in the afternoon. 

super cool VW bus/photo booth

Unfortunately, once the sun went down, the winds started whipping through the tent (at one point, it nearly carried away the catering tent just outside of the reception). The first set got colder and colder, and by halfway through, most of my fingers were numb, which made playing saxophone and EWI interesting, to say the least. On the break, my hands thawed out and the catering people shut one of the tent flaps, and we survived a second set that ended just before midnight. Immediately following was one of our fastest load outs, and the seven of us raced back down 400 with the heat on.

Sunday afternoon, I was back in Buckhead, this time a little south of the Theatre to play my church gig. Mostly flute, but I gave 'em some piccolo for the last song. Cold again, though my fingers didn't go numb this time.

Church musicians are a different breed altogether, with their own humor and eccentricities--it's like playing in the pit for a religious theatre show...I'll just leave it at that.

ALJO, YRR, and CTK

I had two gigs this past weekend; Thursday night, I played with Rob Opitz's Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Saturday night was a Yacht Rock gig, though different because we had several subs. I guess that I should mention my third gig of the weekend as well--I've been back in the church gig scene.

Thursday's gig with the ALJO was their monthly show at Venkman's, and we all squeezed onto the stage and hammered out complicated big band charts. Fortunately for me, I got the set list a week and a half before, so I'd played this show ten times before the day of the show, and was therefore very comfortable with all the syncopations and awkward licks. I held down the bari sax/bass clarinet chair for the night, a nice change of pace from my other gigs. The band is stacked with some of the heaviest guys in town, so there is understandably A LOT of solo time, but the charts are really hip, and the band crushes it. Check out how well the ensemble plays together.

Though the camera has trouble focusing, here we are!



Saturday's gig is was a repeat customer from the previous year--a benefit for mental health facility. I wasn't sure what to expect, though, because we would be missing Mark Bencuya, as well a Nick on the front line. Scott Sheriff came down from Nashville to sub for Bencuya, and Keisha and Kourtney Jackson subbed for Nick, and the set list was duly shuffled to accommodate the different voices. I wondered if the crowd would be disappointed, but everybody was cool. The first set was a pretty tame, almost corporate vibe, but everybody came forward to dance at the beginning of the second set, and it got pretty wild (as wild as you can get in the Atlanta suburbs). Done by 10 PM, home way before midnight. Perfect weather.

As I mentioned, I'm back on the church gig thing after a year and a half out of it, and I'm liking it so far. It's an afternoon gig, it's all on flute, it's mostly just reading charts, and nobody cares what I did the night before. I'm using it to keep my flute playing together.

Three In a Row

Three gigs last weekend.

Thursday: We played a fundraiser for a recycling center in Atlanta. The usual corporate gig level of energy and enthusiasm. Pretty painless, and we finished at 10, so I was home by 11:30 (which was amazing).

I'm a big proponent of recycling, and this fundraiser was aimed at helping a center which handles hard-to-recycle stuff (paint, tires, styrofoam, weapons grade plutonium, etc). While this is all super awesome, it was extremely disappointing that there was no recycling bin in the band's dressing room, which means that all of this more common and easy-to-recycle plastic is probably going to the dump.

Plastics are now in the food chain, people. It's a serious problem.

Friday: Country club party. Another low energy easy one. This one ended at 10 PM as well, and we had some grumpy dancers. Evidently they messed up their scheduling, and they should've done 8:30-11 instead of 7:30-10. We'll try again next year.

Saturday: Off to Athens for a sold out show at the Georgia Theatre!

Finally, a gig with an audience! The Georgia Theatre is a great room--they've finally got the sound issues fixed. This was a particularly excellent crowd, and Kip really nailed it on the sound.

Here's the show. Looks and sounds as great as it felt on stage.

Two More

Two more gigs to finish out this week.

Friday: We played The Fred (the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater) in Peachtree City for the third time, and for the third year in a row, we had rain. The crowd persevered, though, and it stopped just in time for us to begin.

This was not our usual show--for one thing, we had Ganesh Giri Jaya on drums, plus a horn section of Rob Opitz, Sam Skelton, and Wes Funderburk. Additionally, we played an entire first set of Beatles songs, something we haven't done in a few months. Everything turned out great. Good gig.

Saturday: Our Saturday gig was a private party in Louisville, so another airplane ride, another tent, another pair of backline keyboards. This was a good one, though--the backline was excellent, the tent sounded pretty good, the weather was just about perfect, and the crowd was into it. All in all, it made for a pretty easy night.

pretty dog halfway through my run

country club gig=brushing and mouthwash

The roughest thing about this gig (other than some dipshit Lyft drivers) was the tiny tent where we hung out--comfortable for four, very tight for nine. Plus, lots of mosquitos. Cell reception was fine, though.