June 2024 (mostly)

Friday, June 7, 2024: Atlanta to Denver. This trip began with some airport trouble in the form of no park-and-ride shuttles working the lot! When I arrived, there were groups of people who had walked out of the lot and were calling Uber/Lyfts to drive them to the terminal. Hmmm. I decided to go in anyway, and ended up in a spot waaaaaaaaay away from where I line of people had already formed down the center of the park-and-ride. After quite a walk, I ended up standing this line for a least a half hour--occasionally, a shuttle would come and pick off the first twenty people, but the line was growing at least as quickly. It was not good, and I was glad that I didn't have to pee. Also, our flight picked up a pretty sizable delay, so really the only risk for me was sunburn. Other citizen were pissed.

Made it to the hotel in Denver, went for a run, saw a groundhog. On the way back from my out-and-back run, I got caught in a hellacious wind storm--it was like a thunderstorm that never arrived, and so it just got dark and very windy, and I ran headfirst into it, absorbing all sorts of grit into my contacts. It got so bad that hid behind buildings a couple of times, hoping it would subside, and at one point I ducked into the KFC to wash my contacts off in the bathroom because they were so uncomfortable that I couldn't open my eyes.

Saturday, June 8, 2024: Boulder, CO. We played a private gig/fundraiser gig at little Fox Theatre in Boulder. It was a much smaller place than we've been in lately--these doors literally opened onto the drum riser (six feet below, though).

Aloe Blacc opened for us (he's making a record with the drummer who organized this event). Matt Sorum (of Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver/The Cult) was also involved--he sat in on a couple of songs with Aloe's band.

Our set was pretty down the middle, mostly because The Great Bencuya was on vacation, so we had Rhett Huffman filling in on keyboards. The only tough thing was that I think we didn't start until something like 9:30 PM local time, so by the time we finished, we were pretty dead.

Aloe Blacc sat in with us on 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and he nailed it. We hadn't played that one in quite a while, and we were under the impression that he would sing Use Me with us. 50 Ways hasn't been on a setlist in many moons, so nobody had reviewed it until we got to soundcheck. Hmm. Nervous.

The food was insufficient, but Zach and I snared some excellent burritos from Illegal Pete's across the street. Highly recommended.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024: Atlanta, GA. Yacht Rock played a private gig for Coca Cola at the Zoo. Easy gig. Nothing to report. Kourtney's back!

Friday, June 21, 2024: Atlanta, GA. Still no gigs to speak of, but I did go see my friends Chris, Craig, and Tyrone plays a trio gig at a local distillery. Holy moly they're good.

July 1, 2024: Atlanta, GA. That should've been it for June, but at 11 PM on Sunday night, I got a call to play an evening jazz gig at a private residence. Sure, I said. Then I was asked to play earlier in the day (also a jazz gig) at the same residence. Sure! 

This one was very, very unusual (to say the least). The midday event was a celebratory lunch, with bassist Tommy Sauter and I performing. In a small home theater, the husband and wife (it was her birthday) sat directly in front of us (like ten feet away), and they were scrolling, FaceTiming, sometimes breastfeeding, and also eating for two hours.

The evening event was similar, but in the foyer of the house. Pianist Louis Heriveaux and I played. He was happy to not have to carry his keyboard in, but once we began to play, it was obvious that the piano in the house was not played regularly! The middle was a half step flat, and by the time you got to the top, it was a whole step! Ouch!

Wednesday, July 3, 2024: Coralville, IA. Yes, Iowa. Feel free to pause and say all of your Fields of Dreams lines out loud. Get 'em out of your system.

For us, Iowa brought back memories of a crazy gig in Council Bluffs where Monkeyboy claims that he got so cold that he blacked out. You can read about it here: https://davidfreemanmusic.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-jet-set.html

Anyway, we flew to Des Moines reeeeeeeaaaaaalllly early, got in this limo shuttle thing, and headed to Coralville, approximately and hour and forty minutes away. 

A pit stop for gas where I bought four perfectly ripened bananas for $.60. Hell yeah.

We ate lunch (pizza), set up and sound checked, and then had around five hours of downtime. Lots of naps were attempted. At 5 PM, I finally got out my clothes and went for a run. This town has some excellent multipurpose trails, and the temps were around 80 degrees. Not too bad!

This gig was ok. The backline gear was kind of rough, so I don't think any of us were particularly pleased with the sounds we were getting, but it was survivable. I had keyboard stands that were either a little too tall or a little too short, so I ended up going too short and sitting low, but I couldn't quite get my knees under the piano...it was not quite right. 

More importantly, the Fantom had a knob that kept moving while I would play, so it would change the sound randomly (for you who are familiar, it was the "cutoff" knob, and it would sometimes make sizzley radio static noises, sometimes make the ends of notes cut like the power had been cut off, and sometimes there would be no sound at all). Everything was cool for the Africa solo, though. Thanks for asking.

No tenor sax songs on this one. I didn't even bring it.

The mayor introduced us, and he was extremely excited that we would be spending the summer opening for REO Speedwagon. He didn't even mention that REO (and we) are opening for Train. So...whatever.

Greg was out for this one, so we had Seth Waters of the Yacht Rock Schooner joining us on bass. He did an exceptional job, and he was also an exceptional hang.

Following the show, we drove in the same limo van thing to Cedar Rapids for the night. There is only one flight from Cedar Rapids to Atlanta, and it takes off at 6 AM, so we had a 4:30 AM lobby call. Ugh. I was a mess for the rest of the day.

In other news...here's a song I wrote and recorded at home. I came up with the chord progression at the beginning of March, and I've been procrastinating ever since! 

Having the summer tour as an absolute deadline finally got me to finish it.

May 2024

Saturday, May 4, 2024: Columbia, SC. This gig was at a crawfish festival at the South Carolina state fair, closing out the day. My mom doesn't believe that there are enough crawfish in South Carolina to warrant a festival, but whatever.

The weather started out really nice, but an hour or so into it, a spot of rain found us, and it quickly got too wet to continue. Too bad, because it wasn't a bad gig!

The Great Bencuya finished up playing under a tarp that the ladies held up for him.

Friday, May 10, 2024: Atlanta, GA. Long time friend of the band Carrie Parker retired, and we played her party. The coolest thing about this was seeing lots of old friends from the earliest days of the band--people who actually saw us at the 10 High!

There were a few curveball requests from Carrie on the setlist, all of which we handled pretty well. Other than that, business as usual.

Monday-Wednesday, May 13-15, 2024: Atlanta, GA. The last of three blocks of summer rehearsals. I think we sorted some stuff out and learned some new songs, but we're basically taking a month off before we fully implement this stuff, so...hopefully it sticks!

In other exciting rehearsal news, the big ol' cyst on my index finger finally burst while we were playing, so hopefully it will begin healing and get out of my life.

Friday, May 17, 2024: Alpharetta, GA. This gig was a fundraiser for Hop on a Cure (John Hopkins' ALS charity), on an outdoor stage in someone's big backyard about an hour north of town.

Not my favorite gig! It had rained, so there was mud and thick humidity, and everybody entered the stage by walking through my gear, and we were the last of maybe four bands, and we were on some backline gear, and Monkeyboy's rental guitar amp died during the first song (so they swapped it out while we were playing), and probably some other stuff that I can't remember at this point. 

So the top keyboard was bigger than I usually get, and the bottom keyboard was smaller than I usually get. I would normally line up middle C on both keyboards as a visual reference, but I ended up pitching the piano on the bottom keyboard up an octave so I could do what I usually do with my left hand, but I kept the organ on the bottom keyboard where it would normally be...yeah, I was all over the place.

Saturday, May 18, 2024: Natick, MA. Hello early flight. I slept the whole way to Boston.

This gig was a birthday party in Natick, about a half hour west of Boston, in a brewery/taproom/vineyard place called Lookout Farm. Pretty cool! Our party was in an old greenhouse. 

I went for a run to kill some time, but no sidewalks. Kind of annoying.

This gig was pretty fun! We were supposed to play for an hour and a half, but they ended up cutting our part down to sixty minutes and a DJ did the rest. The rented gear was good, the sound was good, and our sub bass player (Tim Smith!) was good. Winner winner!

On our flight home the next day, there was a dog in the row in front of us. She was very well behaved.

Finger update: looks like it's healing.

Wednesday, May 22, 204: Isle of Palms, SC. Night one of three at The Windjammer. Has The Windjammer actually gotten better, or have we accepted our fate? Not sure. It was a nice gig, though, and the weather was pretty perfect. 

Thursday. Night two was sold out, and we had another good show. 

Friday. YRR is putting out another album of originals, and we had a special party for the Anchorheads to listen. I think they were more enthralled with hanging out with us than listening.

Here's the new jam.

Some passing storms forced us to start late, but nothing got wet. Another sold out crowd.

Saturday. Beth and I stopped for lunch in Charleston.

April 2024

Saturday, April 6, 2024: Savannah, GA. The helicopter gig (as we know it) again, on the driving range again, but with a better (covered) stage. I love the helicopters. The gig is whatever.

I was a little worried because the forecast said it was going to be a bit chilly/breezy, so I brought my heater and some hand warmers, and I was tucked into an enclosed corner of the stage.

Not much else to report. The vegetarian option for food was a grilled cheese sandwich.

I ran on the treadmill when we got to the hotel, as there was no time to squeeze it in before the gig.

Thursday, April 18, 2024: Atlanta, GA. Following three days of summer rehearsals, we played a private gig at the Buckhead Theatre. It's still a very stale room. 

We did immediately try several of our new cover songs out, and they went well--no train wrecks!

Thursday, April 25, 2024: Destin, FL. The first time we played here, I never thought we'd have to come back (it's a stage in a sandy field between some neighborhoods), but here we are for the first year in a row. I guess it's fine. The six hour van ride to get here really sucked the energy out of wanting to play the gig, though (even though a slept for most of the trip). Always a good crowd, though.

This show was shorter than usual (and started at 7 instead of 8 PM), so I ran before and after the gig.

Friday, April 26, 2024: Birmingham, AL. Another big van ride--this one was five hours, but our van left pretty early so that the production guys could get some setup stuff done before the instruments showed up.

This was our biggest crowd at Avondale Brewing--at least, it had the biggest ticket sales. No Charles Barkley on this night, though.

What else...my alto reed was very soft--probably time to swap it out for a new one.

I still haven't found a good running route here--it's one of those places where the sidewalks abruptly stop in random places, only to begin again in two blocks.

Following the show, we drove about halfway back to Atlanta (Pell City, AL), because we had a morning flight out of the Atlanta airport.

Saturday, April 27, 2024, Las Vegas, NV. Up early (7 AM) to drive back to Atlanta to jump on a plane to Vegas for a corporate gig. I slept pretty well on the flight, though I was awake over Oklahoma City long enough to eat the burrito I'd brought on board. Very tired.

The gig was the ol' corporate party in a big ballroom for a bunch of rich people. There was a duo set up on the opposite side of the room that did rat pack/Vegas show stuff, and when they finished, everybody turned around and partied on our side.

The backline company for this one was pretty good. The only had the cheap Guitar Center keyboard stands, so I had to stack two single stands (in the style of The Great Bencuya!), but this was a better move than having a foot wide gap between the two. 

The Fantom (top keyboard) that they brought had a loose memory card, so Eric, the backline guy, had to take the panel off the back, clean and reseat it to get it to work. Scary moment for a second there.

The Nord Five--the piano sounds were really bright and loud compared to the organ. Are these factory settings? I wonder. I guess I could've tried to reset it, but I didn't notice until the gig had started, so I just rode the volume knob all night.

The local audio crew was not ideal. There were three or four guys, but only one spoke English, so all requests had to be made through a translator. They also dispatched some stuff (which drove Zach crazy), and the process of sorting it out took a little extra time when we were all short on patience.

Anyway...we stayed in the same hotel. Check out this room!

We finished soundcheck around 4 PM and we didn't play until 9:30 PM (body clock says ouch!), so here are some pics from my run.

Monkeyboy was unavailable for this gig, so we had Cody Matlock filling in on guitar.

These were cool--they were video screens hung around the room to make it look like windows on a ship.

We finished at 11:30 PM, so by the time I had made it back to my room, packed everything, taken a shower, and fallen into bed it was around 1 AM. I was awake at 4:30 AM and sitting in the airport shuttle at 5 AM. 

The Sphere looked like the moon this morning. Kip had the great quote: "That's no moon."

Same gate as yesterday. Let's go home.