March was a very busy month, dominated by a two and a half week bus tour with the Yacht Rock Revue that began in San Antonio and ended in Southern California. I had hoped that this run of shows would settle into a routine in the same way that the Train tour last summer did--waking up with the bus parked in its spot by the venue, with only a short walk to a pot of coffee and a bathroom. Not so, in this case. Every day was different. Sometimes it felt like we would never finish.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025: San Antonio, TX. We flew (at a reasonable hour) to Texas to meet up with our gear and bus at the first stop, the Aztec Theatre.
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| lunchtime flight = airport burrito |
This was our third time playing here, and it was definitely our biggest/best crowd (and on a Wednesday!). I had time to go for a run and do a long warm up, and I think the show overall went pretty well. We worked on a new batch of songs, and this was our first attempt at remembering everything.
On the other hand, our new lighting guy's controller/desk thing either died or just didn't feel like it today, so the light show was really sad. First show jitters, I guess.
After the show, everybody got situated on the bus. For this trip, we had one bus with twelve bunks--much tighter accommodations! Nick and Pete traveled during the day by van. You definitely couldn't sit up in bed! The bottom of the bunk above me was a foot from my face.
Thursday, March 6, 2025: Austin, TX. We woke up in the middle of the street in the middle of Austin with no access to the venue for a few hours. Also, because the bus was parked on the street, we also had no access to the bays under the bus, unless you could do it when the stop light had traffic stopped for a second.
Way too many people hanging around on the bus, so I went for a run. Thankfully, there were also decent public restrooms on the trail.
We finally got access around lunchtime. Austin City Limits! What a room!
The music festival South by Southwest was to begin the following day, so Austin had all of their traffic lights and telephone poles shrink wrapped to deal with the onslaught of stickers. Pretty smart idea.
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| another day, another burrito |
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| catering is a cool spot |
Show number two! The lighting was much better tonight--our guy got his stuff working again. I, on the other hand, did not have a particularly stellar time.
Still the One (Orleans) was on the setlist, and I just couldn't remember my part. I knew what the phrase was, but my brain kept insisting it was in E instead of C#. Every time I played a wrong note, it would throw me off so much that I would have to stop playing.
I nearly crashed and burned on Smooth Operator, as well.
The Great Bencuya is utilizing a keytar on a few songs for this summer, including the synth jam in the middle of Lido Shuffle, and we swapped all the parts around to make it worth his time to pick the thing up. I knew what my parts were supposed to be, but my hands would not cooperate.
Anyway, this gig draggggggged.
In other news, I thought yesterday in San Antonio that I was getting a cold, and today it was definitely a cold, so I got to deal with a runny nose the whole time I was on stage.
Friday, March 7, 2025: Austin, TX. We had a day off in Austin, so the bus parked at a hotel and we all got rooms. For me, it was a good chance to sleep all day, practice very quietly, and go for a run. Good weather today.
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| and another burrito |
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| definitely used to be a Pizza Hut |
Saturday, March 8, 2025: Ft. Worth, TX. We arrived at the cold and rainy Ft. Worth stockyards around lunchtime. The bus dropped all our gear and went in for service, and most of us scattered for lunch. Surprisingly, I was able to find a veggie burger and a salad, and they were both pretty excellent.
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| this poor guy wasn't in the mood |
This place was ok. It was in the middle of the stockyards (I was amazed that people still dress like cowboys!), so the load in was not ideal (across the sidewalk full of people and down an alley, then into the room and up a long ramp), it had started to rain, and the room itself was a big concrete box, which didn't look like it would sound good.
With that being said, the gig went pretty well. The keytar failed. Still working on that part. Solid crowd attendance.
Sooooo...Ft. Worth is out to get us!
The bus went to get serviced at the local depot, and in the process of fixing it, they broke something else that they were then unable to fix, and the bus would not run without it (some kind of exhaust issue). Damn! The bus company dispatched a replacement bus from Atlanta, but in the mean time, they found us a different bus that would be able to drive us to the next couple of gigs. Yay! Buuuuutttttt...the driver of bus number two mistakenly drove to Houston to pick us up, so...we're stuck. Everybody's going to a hotel for the night. The gear stayed in the back of the venue.
And then the hotel took an hour to check us in because their computer system went down.
Sunday, March 9, 2025: Oklahoma City, OK. Step one--hotel back to the venue. The bus driver (coming back from his solo mission to Houston) was an hour late picking us up, which blew up the timing of getting our gear out of the venue. Anyway, we finally got there, and the crew wheeled everything across the street so we could pack the trailer of bus #2.
Step two--we rode bus #2 to the bus depot to get all our personal stuff off bus #1, including Kip's whole room in the back, all our suitcases underneath, and the food in the kitchen area. Everything.
Step three--ride the bus (#2) to Oklahoma City. I slept the whole way.
We've played this place before. Not bad for a small theater. I like it, even though it's a pretty small stage.
I squeezed in a run after soundcheck.
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| Vietnam memorial |
When I got back, all the Thai food we'd ordered for dinner was gone, so I had rice with soy sauce, and whatever fruit was available.
Not a massive crowd, but they were into it (
Lonely Boy got a good reaction). I did a better job on the
Lido synth thing tonight, but it's still not there yet.
After the gig, the rest of the band went in the van to a hotel, from which they would fly to the next gig, two days away in Beaver Creek, Colorado. I had opted to just ride the bus with the crew for the entire tour. All of this travel is complicated. We all travel by bus, except for Nick and Pete, who travel in a van driven by Hans. There are six band members on the bus, but on a travel day like tomorrow, we have the option to fly to the next gig and get a hotel room (I opted out of this). It seems weird to me that we would rent the bus--here is your bed and your transportation--but we will also buy you a plane ticket and a hotel room so that you don't have to hang around in a parking lot on your day off.
Anyway...
The plan was to stop whenever bus #3 (coming from Atlanta) caught up to us, move everything from inside #2 to #3, and move the trailer over. All of this would happen in the middle of the night, supposedly.
Monday, March 10, 2025: Goodland, KS. Bus #3 did not catch up to us overnight (thank god), so we landed in Kansas where our driver could sleep.
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| hooray for lobby coffee |
After coffee, I went ahead and got started with the day, so I did some playing in the parking lot. It was very windy and cool in the shade, but maybe too sunny for scalp.
In the late morning, bus #3 showed up (with driver #1 and this ridiculous eagle on the side), the crew guys got the trailer attached, and we moved all of our personal stuff over.
Once that was done (and a burrito from the Qdoba across the street), I moved on to playing clarinet, utilizing bus #2 as my practice room.
After clarinet practice, I was changing clothes on bus #3. It's the cops! We were parked in a parking lot owned by the city (not the hotel), and they asked us to move.
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| Moved. I'm sure the drivers were thrilled to have to get up and deal with it. |
After my run, I got back on bus #2 and played saxophone for an hour, had another Qdoba burrito, bought a fridge magnet for home, and took a shower in our day room. Most everybody was tired and went to bed early. A couple of our crew were so wiped out that they went ahead and paid for their own hotel rooms, so the band flew, some of the guys were sleeping in the bus in the parking lot, and some people were in hotel rooms. Complicated.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025: Beaver Creek, CO. The bus (we are now aboard #3--#2 headed back to Texas) rolled west early in the morning. I woke up around 9 AM to diesel fumes in bunk alley, but it wasn't bad enough to kill any of us, so I had my coffee in Kip's room (which was the only place to sit once everybody was awake, but also because I don't like talking to people). At some point, we swung through Denver and picked up most of the band guys before heading up the mountain.
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| jeez! The altitude! |
This place was a performing arts center kind of thing in a ski village, and the venue was sort of built into the mountain--everything was an elevator ride down from street level. Nice looking place. I bet it was expensive.
The venue was really nice--good size stage and a good local crew. Did I mention the altitude? Ooof. It took a lot of air.
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| here's my very sad dinner |
Tonight's show had some variation in the setlist, including our first attempts at This Is It and the What You Won't Do For Love/Just the Two of Us medley, both of which were pretty decent. I wove Santa Claus is Coming to Town into my solo on Tropical Illusion, but nobody noticed.
No run today. It was too high, too steep, too cold, and we started at 7 PM, so there wasn't really any time. After we'd loaded everything out, I went for a walk though, a couple of miles down the mountain and then back up.
The bus stayed parked at the resort all night. According to my watch, I slept just fine.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025: Ft. Collins, CO. We drove in the morning to Ft. Collins, and the roads were bumpy as hell. While I was still in my bunk, the cover came off the overhead light, narrowly missing a direct hit to the forehead. The whole morning was a barrage of rattling and doors swinging open and then shut.
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| dirty snow |
We stopped for coffee and lunch at a big shopping center a half hour from our next gig.
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| I had coffee here. Cute barista. |
Lunch at Qdoba? Check.
Then it was time to get back on the bus, and leave this glorious Lowe's parking lot behind.
Kip decided to buy some supplies in an attempt to fix the latches on the door to his room in the back of the bus. Everything about it was just slightly misaligned.
This place was a bit of a time warp--a rock club from twenty-five years ago, with all the carpet and dust and smells. Waaaay different from last night! It was weird, but also familiar, and once we got up and running, it sounded good.
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| under-the-stage dressing room |
Evidently we broke the door last night, or at least somebody managed to pull the handle off, so Sam (our bus driver) put it back together. Another reason we stopped at Lowe's for lunch. You wouldn't think there'd be a lot of DIY repairs happening with a tour bus, but I guess everything gets loose after a cross country trip.
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| lower elevation and warmer weather today |
There was no place inside the venue for me to practice without annoying everybody, so I kept this dumpster entertained for an hour.
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| the turnaround point in my run |
Good gig! I played a lot in the parking lot, went for a run, had Indian food for dinner, and then we played well. All the newer stuff is getting more comfortable. I also had one of my most perfect versions of the Heart to Heart sax solo here. Hopefully it crushed the egos of multiple Colorado State sax players.
After this gig and load out, the bus spent the night in the alley behind the venue, so I went for a walk around this quiet college town. In my bunk around midnight.
Thursday, March 13, 2025: Boulder, CO.
Boulder was one of those stops on this trip where we got to town around 10 AM, but had no venue access until noon. It's not a dire situation because we were right in town, but the need for coffee and a bathroom...I had coffee on the bus, went for a walk, and almost broke down the door to the theater at noon.
It was a beautiful day, and around the same elevation as yesterday.
One of my high school girlfriends came to the show. I hadn't spoken to Jenn in thirty-five years, but she happens to live near Boulder, so we were able to catch up for a few minutes before the gig.
Pre gig Indian food tonight was a big win, but holy moly was it spicy. I'm usually fine with spicy stuff, but medium = near death here in Boulder. Also, not sure what to do with the big slice of onion.
My tenor has been feeling dull and stuffy for this entire tour, but I've become fixated on it (and constantly comparing it to the way my alto feels) since we got into the higher elevations of Colorado. Is it the cold? Is it the elevation? Is it both? Is my horn messed up? Is my mouthpiece worn out? Do I have a magical string of bad reeds? I tried a brand new reed on this gig. At first I thought that was it, but by the end of the gig, I knew it was not.
The Boulder crowd was really big and really good (on a Thursday night, no less!) and we had a pretty great gig, and I tried to impress Jenn (also a saxophonist when we were in high school). Alas, she was gone before the show ended, and I joked backstage that maybe her husband felt threatened by my cool job and took her away before she got too excited, but Monkeyboy thought that maybe she watched half the show and thought, "Is this what became of you? Huh, I kind of dodged a bullet" and left.
Speaking of our adoring fans, there were three girls with a big "WE LOVE PETE" poster right in front of us, and they were pretty vocal about it, too. I thought they were going to hit me with their sign during Baker Street.
They stayed all the way to the end of the show. Yes, I'm keeping score, Jenn.
I'm just teasing. Jenn is a doctor and teaches in Denver, so she has a long, early commute.
Friday, March 14, 2025: Salt Lake City, UT. A day off. Most of the driving was overnight from Boulder, but we still rode a little bit in the morning. It was a pretty ride.
We finally came to a stop in a hotel parking lot, greeted by this ferocious duck.
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| parking lot enforcement |
The band and crew had lunch and checked into our rooms, where I did basically nothing for several hours. I wandered the internet. Late in the afternoon, I went back to the bus and practiced for a couple of hours, but most of our people came back out to watch some TV show that they're all into, so I had to bail and go back to my room to play very quietly until around midnight.
I also ran on the treadmill and did a load of laundry.
Saturday, March 15, 2025: Salt Lake City, UT. We got on the bus around lunchtime and rode over to the venue, which gave Kip another opportunity to work on the sliding doors and faulty latches.
The stage was not at street level, so the only way to get from the bus to the stage was via the freight elevator, and you had to have a local crew member operate it. That was kind of annoying.
To get to the dressing room, you had to walk across the venue to an elevator by the entrance, and ride it down a couple of flights. Also annoying.
When we went from the dressing room to the stage, we had to catch the freight elevator from the dressing room level up to the stage level.
The local crew people all felt like musical theater people (as opposed to music venue people). A different vibe. More like high schoolers at drama camp, and less like bikers and pirates.
What else...this place looked like it had been modeled on a House of Blues with a low main floor and the wrap around balconies. The stage was much more shallow (front to back) than we're used to.
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| backstage |
I played pretty sloppy on this gig for some reason. Maybe I'd tried to hard to impress Jenn and I had nothing left tonight. Maybe it was just that we'd been here all damn day and my mind was wandering by the time we finally started to play.
Late in the gig, there were some weird noises in our in-ears, and nobody on the crew could pinpoint the source. It was really loud to me (and rest of the band wasn't really freaking out about it), which makes me pretty sure it was something in my gear. Who knows? A random gremlin.
I went for a walk after the gig and talked on the phone with Beth, who was up in the middle of the night in Atlanta for some reason.
The bus stayed parked in the loading dock for several more hours before we headed on to Arizona.
Sunday, March 16, 2025: Flagstaff, AZ.
We got to the hotel parking lot after 10 AM, just missing the hotel's breakfast. Luckily, they hadn't thrown away their coffee yet, so I was able to score two free cups to drink while I sat in the lobby and looked at my phone. It was really just one free cup, but I saw where it was located and helped myself to a second. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Another day at altitude. It also looked like it had snowed in the last day or two. The roads were clear, but I would estimate that they'd gotten a foot.
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| lunch |
The bus cleared out in the early afternoon (everybody else was either at lunch, in the hotel lobby, or sleeping in our day room at the hotel), so I had a couple of hours alone on the bus to practice flute.
Ok, here's a story, and it probably sounds insane, but my gut said it was fine, and it all worked out.
Remember how I thought my tenor had a leak or something, and it wasn't playing as well as it could? I searched the internet and found a woodwind repair guy in Flagstaff who could check my horn out and see what was up with it (this was a Sunday, so it was a little more complicated). There were three guys in the area, and one guy didn't get back to me, one guy got back to me but he'd moved to Pennsylvania (but he recommended some old guy who'd been his mentor), and a third guy who was bassoon playing goober who'd also had the old guy as a mentor. Third guy texted me back that he could do it, and I offered to meet him at his shop, but it just happened that he was down the street and could pick my horn up, take it and work on it, and bring it back in a couple of hours, which of course, could be an insanely bad move with still another week of touring to go, but for some reason, I was like "Ok!" so I did it. I put an AirTag (my backpack AirTag) in my gig bag, handed him my tenor, and he drove away with it. He looked like a bassoon player, so I trusted him, I guess. Bassoon goober took my horn to Sedona, and I went back to playing flute in the back of the bus, and watching the AirTag to see where my saxophone went.
After about an hour and a half, he texted me to let me know he was on his way back to the bus. Nothing was wrong with my horn. He went through it, couldn't find anything, oiled the mechanism, play tested it, and brought it back, all for the low low price of $35. Soooooo...it's just altitude messing with me, I guess. I was 100% sure I was having a mechanical issue. There's some peace of mind knowing that my horn's ok, though.
Next thing: went for a run on Route 66. Thought a lot about the movie Cars and Radiator Springs.
Post run, I went solo to Chili's (across the street from my burrito lunch spot) for a black bean burger and a salad.
Everybody else was done for the day, so I went to our day room, took a shower, and practiced clarinet and saxophone very very very quietly, and got back on the bus around midnight.
Monday, March 17, 2025: Phoenix, AZ. The Van Buren is one of the best places we play. And I met Steve Gadd here, in this very room.
We drove some in the morning and arrived just before noon, so I dropped my bags inside and went a few blocks away for Thai food.
After all the gear was loaded in and set up, I made it through my entire flute routine in the alley behind the venue. It was a nice, warm day. After all the cold weather we'd been through recently, Phoenix felt glorious.
The rest of the band had flown from Salt Lake City to Phoenix, so we didn't soundcheck until they arrived after checking out of their hotel. In addition to my flute stuff, I also did a load of laundry, cleaning up dirty running clothes from the previous day.
After soundcheck, I went for a run--the venue security guy was very specific about which direction was safe (towards ASU), and which direction was not a good idea.
This place is great. It sounds good, the backstage is really nice and the green room is one-of-a-kind cool, and the crowds are terrific. And one time, Steve Gadd was in the audience...and he didn't leave early like Jenn did.
After a long post-gig hang, we spent most of the night sleeping with the bus parked in the alley.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025: Las Vegas, NV. In Vegas, we've been playing the House of Blues the last few times we came through. We didn't have access to the venue until noon, so the drive was timed out to arrive then (we probably left Phoenix at 7 AM--I wouldn't know because I was sleepin').
I got off the bus, dropped my clothes off in the green room, and wandered into Mandalay Bay to grab some food (more Thai), and still had time to go for a run down Las Vegas Blvd (terribly windy!) before the gear was pushed into the venue at 2 PM.
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| a really nice day in the desert! |
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| In Dave we trust! |
I had plenty of time to warm up before the show started, though it was almost too cold to be out on the loading dock playing for too long. I should also mention that ever since the bassoon goober checked out my tenor, it's felt great.
This gig was pretty good. I played well in spots, but I haven't yet had a night where I was consistent from beginning to end. I'd be playing perfectly, and then I'd play a random chord or something at the beginning of a verse, and then I couldn't get any of the rest of the verse right, and then the next section would go back to being correct.
Anyway, who are these people in the audience? It doesn't seem like a place where locals would go see a show.
After the gig, I went for a walk while the gear was getting loaded, so I walked up Las Vegas Blvd. Eventually, I turned around and headed back down to Mandalay Bay and Luxor. Not many people were out on this night.
Around the time that I got to Excalibur, the only people on the sidewalk were me and some guy who was maybe fifty yards behind me. By the time we got to the Luxor, it felt like he'd closed it down to thirty yards and he was staying directly behind me. It just felt weird--maybe I was imagining it, but it felt like he was going to catch up to me before I got back to the bus, and my Spidey-sense was going nuts, so I made a turn and walked just about to the entrance of the Luxor and let that guy go by.
After a minute or two of hanging out at the door, I walked back out to the Strip and turned right. Maybe sixty seconds later, I heard the howling engine of a motorcycle behind me and then the awful crunch of a car crash, and I turned around to see this wreck, with the rider easily twenty-five yards past his bike, his backpack even further than that, and his helmet still rolling. It was gruesome. He was dead.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025: Anaheim, CA. Another day off. We parked the bus in a parking lot shared by three hotels, so I went to the Hampton Inn for some free lobby coffee and free lobby bathroom, and I sat on their patio because the weather was pretty perfect.
More of the same here. I played some flute in the shade behind the bus, had a peanut butter sandwich and an apple on the bus, then played some more in the back of the bus. By that point it was late enough in the day that we could check into hotel rooms, so I went and did that, and then went back out and played clarinet on the bus. After I'd exhausted my embouchure, I packed up the clarinet and went for a run.
There was an Indian place around the corner from our hotel, and when I went in, they were set up for a buffet (from a party they'd just had), so I got my money's worth.
When I could eat no more, I went back to my hotel room and noodled on my saxophone until around midnight, and then passed out.
Thursday, March 20, 2025: Anaheim, CA. Since we were only a mile from the venue, the bus stayed in the hotel parking lot until checkout time. I got up and went for another run (got that out of the way), and drank plenty of lobby coffee before we left.
The loading dock and the House of Blues are separated by a long walk, two hallways, and an elevator, so once we got to the gig, I wandered off to find lunch (today, it was Subway). We set everything up and sound checked (sounded fine), and I played/warmed up/noodled in the hallway behind the venue.
Dinner was catered by House of Blues. I guess it was better than what we usually end up with for HoB food, but it wasn't great. This was sort of a taco buffet. Olé.
I've been screwing up the transition between the first two songs, I'm Not in Love and Alright, mainly because it involves me holding a chord, then changing sounds, and playing the downbeat of the next song with both hands. In rehearsals I'd gotten it down, but I've been fumbling it on the road, and tonight I figured out that I need to push the button to change with my right hand instead of my left. Made all the difference. Way to go, Dave.
I've been getting better on the Lido synth stacking, getting my right hand to keep the right shape. Tonight was finally a good one.
I ran out of gas about three quarters of the way through this one. All of the sudden I was just watching the clock.
Weird crowd. It seemed pretty full, but they would get really quiet in between songs. Are they attentive or bored? I could never decide.
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| how am I supposed to perform with this coming at me? |
Due to the extra long load out, I had plenty of time to walk around the block after the gig. Nice weather. It seemed a little dark and deserted once I got away from the crowds leaving Disneyland, and I'm not sure if it was safe.
When I got back, the crew had retired to their bunks and the band had returned to their hotel. The bus stayed at the loading dock until the next morning.
Friday, March 21, 2025: Ventura, CA. The bus woke up parked on the street next to this evening's venue.
Ventura is a cool looking town. It's what I imagine most of Southern California to be like.
I had coffee here. Cute barista.
There was a little guitar shop up the street from the bus, and I walked in to see most of our crew guys hanging out in there.
Kind of wish I'd had access to our egg shakers with the YRR logo. It would've been fun to plant one or two in here.
Our monitor guy, Van, couldn't resist this cool guitar.
Load in wasn't for a while, so here are pics from my run.
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| no longer in the Rockies (or winter) |
After we'd set everything up, there was some downtime before the rest of the band made the drive from Anaheim, so I got in a good warmup in the upstairs lobby.
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| Taylor and Van had a little jam with Van's new guitar |
Hooray for Indian food right around the corner from the theatre. I wish I'd had a plate or a bowl on which to mix it, but I didn't want to stink up the dressing rooms by taking it up there, so I made do by spooning the rice in a little bit at a time.
My riser (and the drum riser and Kourtney's riser) was very tall, maybe two and a half feet.
Small crowd tonight, but we've also never been here before.
Towards the end of our show (during the guitar solo in Hold the Line), Nick tried to walk from my riser to the drum riser to Kourtney's riser. The last two were a little two far apart, so he stepped on the bass amp, but the bass amp was on wheels and rolled out from under him, and he landed on his butt on stage. He popped up and sang the last verse and choruses. I bet he was sore the next day.
I went for a walk after the show again...just killing time until I was sleepy enough to get in my bunk. A few blocks around the theatre lost power (and lights) while I was out, so the last of the load out was in the dark. I missed all that, fortunately. Here are some pictures from when the electricity was still flowing.
Saturday, March 22, 2025: Temecula, CA. The bus stayed parked in the dark in Ventura overnight, and when we arrived at our last gig, we found out that the trailer had been tagged.
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| not sure where these came from, but I am not one to turn down a free cupcake |
Today's gig was at a casino, so I walked through all the slots and crap and found coffee and a bathroom, and got started on the day. There was a pretty good path along the main road in front of the casino, so I got my run for the day done.
Shout out to this sad little bar of soap that I snagged at the first gig in San Antonio. We made it to the end. You've served me well.
After lunch we were able to get our hotel rooms, so I moved everything from the bus to inside, since we wouldn't be in Atlanta when it returned home (the gear would be in the trailer until we could unpack it, though).
This place had a nice stage and plenty of dressing rooms and I had abundant time to warm up (everybody else had gone to their hotel rooms). Pete and Nick and the van arrived very late--Southern California traffic made a three hour trip around five and a half hours. They were pretty fried at soundcheck because of it.
Weird last gig. It was short (we played for ninety minutes instead of the usual two hours), a few of us got locked in a hallway backstage, Nick forgot the words to Pina Colada (second time on this run), Monkeyboy had us all vamp for a minute while he made of the video wishing a friend happy birthday, and the keytar got hung up on one note until Pete rebooted it.
The show had giant video screens (one of which I could see), and that was distracting. Maybe I was a little bored, too.
Good crowd, though. We had a few Anchorheads come out.
I ended up trying to eat afterwards, but most of the places were either packed or closed. The food was almost fast-food quality anyway. I went with the Thai place. It was a long day.
Sunday, March 23, 2025. Yay. This shuttle took us down to the San Diego airport. Glad to be going home. It felt like this tour would never end!
Thursday, March 27, 2025: Bethlehem, PA. Oh my god, this trip was rough! I got up "officially" at 4:15 AM, but I definitely woke up a few times in the three or four hours that I was asleep, and I laid there and tried not to get mad about the travel arrangements. 7:30 AM flight to Philadelphia. It was so early that the airport park-and-ride wasn't open, so I had to park in the economy lot.
I slept like a dead guy on the flight, and was kind of punk drunk walking through the Philadelphia airport. We got picked up by a sprinter van, driven by Angelo, who just happened to be an amateur comedian. He talked/performed for the entire hour and a half trip to Bethlehem, and those of us who couldn't sleep were texting things like, "Nobody acknowledge him--nobody laugh, and maybe he'll get the idea and shut up." It didn't' work. I put in a pair of earplugs, and since I was all the way in the back, was able to sleep most of the way. We hate Angelo.
We made it to the casino where we were playing and they passed out room keys. I went up to my room, got on the bed, and fell asleep, shoes on, coat on, everything for three hours. I awoke to twenty-one text messages! Ooops. Time to go set up my gear and grab a quick peanut butter sandwich from the green room.
Soundcheck was rough. Between the rented gear (ours was just arriving back in Atlanta with the bus) and the rented monitor stuff and everybody being extremely tired, that soundcheck probably took an hour and a half, and I don't think it ever got sorted out--we just ran out of time.
After that, I had enough energy to go for a short run, and there was a decent gravel trail on the opposite side of the river. It was pretty cool, except for the swarms of gnats.
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| Bethlehem Steel Mill |
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| dinner of champions, mall food edition! |
This gig...hmm. The levels were all over the place--Kourtney got super loud sometimes, and Nick disappeared completely, and some things (the track on Tropical Illusion and the woodblock sound on the drum pad) were waaaay too much. My effects pedal for the saxophone was not in the mood for a gig, and frantically stomping on the buttons multiple times was the only way to make it change settings.
We survived, but I don't know what to say beyond that.
Mark Dannells is from Emmaus, the town next to Bethlehem, so he had about twenty people for the post-gig meet and greet, and had at least double that many in the audience.
As you might guess, I went back to my room and passed out.
Friday, March 28, 2025: Atlantic City, NJ. We had a noon check out from this place, so I made myself get up, drink my coffee (using the machine in the room), and went back to the Trail of Gnats for another run. I went in the opposite direction, though, and only encountered homeless camps.
The shuttle to Atlantic City was thankfully not driven by Angelo, but this one was a party bus. Very uncomfortable seating for a two hour ride.
We were able to check in to our rooms upon arrival. The rental gear was already there(same gear as the night before), so we started building before the crew van arrived, and I even had time to run backstage and make myself a peanut butter sandwich.
Another long soundcheck followed, and we were able to mostly sort out the previous night's issues.
9 PM start time for this show, so I went for a little run. Man, Atlantic City is ugly.
I couldn't decide whether I should try and find a place to eat (difficult without a reservation), or just spend the time warming up, so I decided to risk it and eat after the show.
This gig was really good! We had three thousand people in the audience. I played some Michael Brecker licks on Just the Two of Us (his birthday is tomorrow).
After the show, I packed up my stuff, changed clothes, and hit the food court for a veggie burger and fries. The gelato was tempting, but I successfully resisted.
Saturday, March 29, 2025. We flew home. The Philadelphia airport had a good supply of bananas. I had three from the middle. It cost me six bucks. What a ripoff! I know the price of bananas, bro.
Monday, March 30, Marietta, GA. A little gear maintenance. I took my effects pedal apart and cleaned it, and it's back to normal. I'd previously used it on the Train cruise in February, so maybe the ocean air is to blame. At least this means I can put off upgrading for a little while longer.
Thanks for reading! I guess I've got about a week before it's time to tell you about April.
