January 2026

January! It was a very busy month of shows.

Thursday, January 8, 2026: Huntington, NY. Time for our trip to Long Island to play at The Paramount!

Getting here is never fun--it was an early flight (8:30 AM), and then a van ride to get out to Huntington, but we had no problems and made it in time to immediately go to lunch. Pete and I went to an Indian restaurant a block away.

The best news was that we scored rooms at the hotel around the corner, so after lunch and the setting up of my gear, I had time to go and use their treadmill, which gave me a little energy boost to make it through the day. After soundchecking, I had a pretty thorough flute/saxophone warm up--it was a little tricky, because I hadn't been playing that much at home, so I was a bit worried that my warm up might go too long, and I might wear myself out.

dinner at the venue!

The gig went well. I had some pretty solid flute solos on Lotta Love and Lowdown, and I made it through Africa--it was a little shaky, but ok.

This evening's Wheel of Chorus: Easy, We Will Rock You (Nick had to look up the lyrics on his phone), and Love Will Find a Way.

Friday, January 9, 2026: Huntington, NY. Day two! I slept til noon, so I guess I was really tired from the previous day. Once I got going, it was already time for lunch, so I hit the same Indian place again, and ordered the exact same meal that I had yesterday. 

We did some promo video stuff and a quick photo shoot before soundcheck downstairs in the speakeasy. The video turned out great (most of us singing You Can Do Magic), but I never saw in photos, so maybe those were rejected by management.

We have a gig coming up with Rick Springfield, so today's soundcheck was mostly a rehearsal of his songs. Outside of that, I had another good warmup. My face is starting to find itself again. I guess it's a sign of my age that warming up matters, and also that I can feel the difference when I miss a couple of days of playing--it's more noticeable than it used to be for me.

backstage

I squeaked through Africa again--two for two! I notice that the adrenaline rush that I get ends sooner than it did a few weeks ago, where I'd still be shaking into the next song. Now it's gone by the time we finish the chorus after the solo, which I'm hoping means that all of this BS is beginning to subside. Maybe my nervous system is going to finally leave me along.

Tonight's Wheel of Chorus: Golden Girls, Golden Girls again!--so we substituted Rich Girl, and Lonesome Loser.

I was messing with Monkeyboy during the show and accidentally jammed his hand really hard. That would've been really bad.

Kip had food poisoning. Lucky for us, it subsided by the start of the show, but yeah...he was making a mess.

We played Jessie's Girl tonight--because why not?!--and it went over really well, as you'd think. The crowd was extra loud when the intro kicked in. 

I forgot to turn my mic on for Lotta Love.

I.U. beat Oregon by a lot.

a birthday cake for me from the Anchorheads

Saturday, January 10, 2026: Huntington, NY. The same order at the Indian restaurant three days in a row. Why not? I didn't even need the menu.

Today's things: I ran an extra mile today on the treadmill because of the birthday cake.

We went over the rest of the Rick Springfield stuff. It sounds good. My parts are easy. It's fun. Nackers is killing it on the drums.

We're definitely back in the groove--everybody's playing great. My face has come around. The Africa solo was good enough that maybe I can stop mentioning it!

Wheel of Chorus: Easy, Baby Come Back, and I Keep Forgetting. 

We came off stage and the Packers/Bears game was on, and it looked like the Packers had it, and then they fell apart and the Bears won, and our two Packers fans (Nackers and Nick) were crushed.

Three sold out shows! Another brick from The Paramount for our collection.

Someone also provided us with three bags of weed...I guess one for every sold out show?

The guys had to load the trailers in the rain. 

Sunday, January 11, 2026: Boston, MA. Onward! We stopped for lunch at a travel plaza on  I-95 at the last place we could stop before it'd be too late to stop. 

first, shitty pizza

and then a pretty good sandwich!

Tonight's show was at the House of Blues. There was supposed to be rain, beginning the previous night and continuing through today, but it had moved on, so I went for a run. It was pretty cold, though. I hadn't planned on being able to exercise outside today, so I didn't bring enough layers (so I wore some of my dirty clothes).

House of Blues catering: not great, but better than other HoBs! I guess. It seems like they're trying.

too good to pass up, though I wish they'd put it on a real plate and not a plastic one

I played lots and lots of bullshit solos tonight, specifically on Just the Two of Us. I tried to do something different from where I've been starting, and I didn't like it, and I had to follow that bullshit train of thought all the way to the end.

Wheel of Chorus: Golden Girls, Baby Come Back, and Careless Whisper. Methinks my reeds are dying.

Slow load out tonight and a never-ending conversation about Zac Brown's shows at The Sphere in Vegas. I wished I could've escaped to my bunk on the bus.

Sunday, January 18, 2026: Miami, FL. The band flew to Miami for a gig connected to the College Football Championship. The crew flew down the night before so that they could load the gear in early in the day, and Hans and Bruce drove a box truck down from Atlanta. The truck broke down on Saturday evening in Ocala, but they got it going again and made it. Just as the guys were beginning to get the gear in the door on Saturday, the sky opened up with one of those ten minute Florida downpours. We had just landed. The Miami airport is awful. Nobody wins!

Anyway, the gig was at the Fontainebleu Hotel in South Beach. Cool spot! After a quick peanut butter sandwich, I went to the stage and got my stuff set up, and still had a little time for warming up before soundcheck.

There he is! At 5 PM, Rick Springfield arrived for soundcheck. We started into the first song, Affair of the Heart, and he stopped us before we made it to the first verse--he was like, "We don't need to play the whole song, do we?" I guess he could tell we were prepared.  We did end up going through some stuff to check guitar parts (what he was playing vs what Monkeyboy was playing vs what Nick could play if needed).

He seemed like a pretty lowkey, quiet guy. He had two techs with him--I think one of them may have been the guitar player from his band, and they were, shall we say, protective of him. Rick would try and remember something about an intro, and while trying to explain it, one of his guys would jump in and start talking over him, playing Monkeyboy's guitar while Monkey was wearing it...that was a little chaotic. 

Since Rick's soundcheck was easy, there was time for me to go for a run on the beach path. Great place to run this time of year.

Dinner was a block of generically Asian food crammed into a plastic box, courtesy of P.F. Chang's. Disappointing but edible.

We did ninety minutes tonight. Nick was sick so we subbed a few songs out to accommodate him, but it was no big deal. 

The Rick Springfield stuff was fun to play! I'm pretty sure that there wasn't much of me in his monitors--my parts were for the most part inconsequential--but if you're gonna play Rich Springfield's stuff, this is the way to do it! I could barely hear him singing, to be honest, so who knows if he's still got it, or if he's just standing there.

The full list: Affair of the Heart, Don't Talk to Strangers, I've Done Everything for You, You Better Love Somebody, and Jessie's Girl. 

I guess I got sand in my eyes from my run, because when I leaned back to play Baker Street at the end of the show, I instantly got so much crap in my eyes that I could barely open them.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026. The Florida tour began with an overnight ride from Atlanta to Fort Meyers.

Van's dog is beautiful

bunk alley on our bus

Thursday, January 22, 2026: Fort Meyers, FL. I slept late--there was time for coffee, and then it was time to go to lunch! We were playing a little amphitheater, and the hotel a few doors down the street owned it, so we were given hotel rooms for the day....something like that. Anyway, off to lunch. I had a fake meat hamburger and chips at an empty bar.

I went for a run after soundcheck. It was thankfully warm and flat, and I ended up a faster pace than I probably should've been running.

Dinner was catered at the hotel. Not too shabby! This was potatoes, green beans, and fried tofu (I think it was fried), and some kind of pesto sauce. Also pictured, some kind of lemon cake.

It was a good gig, but I played some really bad solos tonight.

Wheel of Chorus: Purple Rain, bass solo, and Love Will Find a Way.

Friday, January 23, 2026: Jacksonville, FL. Another easy day. We went around the corner and had tacos for lunch. 

Today's run: kind of along the water, where all the port stuff was. Kind of hot and ugly.

We had a huge crowd (1,600+) at the Florida Theater tonight, which was awesome. My solos were better, though the Africa solo was a little shaky. At least I'm not getting the massive adrenaline rush right before it anymore. I quoted the first bit of the Africa solo in my flute solo to Lowdown, but I guess nobody caught that.

I changed my tenor reed out, and the new one felt and sounded so much better that I almost wore myself out noodling before the show.

What else...dinner was really lame. It's catered, and they didn't have a good idea, so I got salad, rolls, boiled vegetables, something slimy covered in a big glob of cheese. So....back downstairs for a peanut butter sandwich and an apple. It's funny that when I was younger and turned my nose up at what we were eating for dinner, my mom used to say, "You know where the peanut butter is," and I'm still doing that today.

Wheel of Chorus: Golden Girls, Careless Whisper, and Love Will Find a Way.

The lighting died about three quarters of the way through the show. We had a couple of minutes of just the spotlights, and then they were able to turn the house lighting on so that we'd have something to get us to the end of the gig. It was a fun night (except for the Africa solo).

Saturday, January 24, 2026: Clearwater, FL. There's a gator in the pond next to the parking lot. Everybody likes to go look at it. I think he wishes everybody would leave him alone so that he could go back to sleeping in the sun.

Today's run. Pretty hot, but at least they've reopened the path that goes down along the bay.

another peanut butter sandwich for lunch

This year I discovered a set of dressing rooms that we never use on the second floor--an excellent place for me to warm up and noodle and not bother anybody. Score!

This place (Ruth Eckerd Hall) has awesome catering. For dinner, I had minestrone soup and vegetarian lasagna. No dessert because I felt a little guilty that I went back for seconds.

Fun show, and I played pretty well. The Wheel of Chorus: Careless Whisper, Love Will Find a Way, and Rich Girl.

On the bus, on to the next one. The band had an eternally long conversation about songs to play for the next tour, which started with some reasonable yacht rock ideas and eventually migrated to random Genesis and David Bowie songs that are so far off the mark that they're just songs that fifty year old white guys like, and I really don't care, I just want to go get in my bed and look at my phone for an hour by myself.

Sunday, January 25, 2026: Ft Lauderdale, FL. Our fourth show in a row. 

peanut butter lunch

Went for a run. It was hot. Saw a couple of big iguanas, including this guy, who was four feet long.

Went by the beach. Very nice.

A tale of backstage surgery: I tore part of my fingernail about a week ago, and it went back into the cuticle. That eventually got infected; I tried to ignore it, but since we've been in Florida it's been hurting more. At first, it was only uncomfortable when my finger was between the black keys on the keyboard, but it progressed to the point where it hurt from playing anything on piano, so before the show, I poked a hole in that sucker and squeezed all the puss out. In a day or two, it'll be feeling normal again.

sold out tonight

The Wheel of Chorus: Carless Whisper, Easy, and Summer Breeze. The third contestant volunteered himself, trying to get on stage before he was picked. Nick let him come up (after messing with him), and instead of spinning the wheel, he asked for us to play Summer Breeze (which is not a song on the wheel), so we did.

I played the best version of the Africa solo that I've done in many weeks. It's getting there!

Monday, January 26, 2026: Ft Lauderdale, FL. A day off! We had hotel rooms next to the inlet, so after dragging all my stuff upstairs, I had this $25 lunch of salad and French fries. It was the only vegetarian thing on the menu. Lame.

The band took a field trip to Mai-Kai, a famous tiki bar, so we dressed up and did a little photo shoot here, too.

Good food (this was some kind of Thai food) and a good show. A much better night than I expected. 

the evening view of the drawbridge from my hotel room

Tuesday, January 27, 2026: Boca Raton, FL. The bus picked us up at noon, so I squeezed in a run before we left. Surprisingly good weather--in the 50s!

nothing but sharks out there

our fancy hotel with very limited vegetarian options

Nick returned from a friend's house, and that guy's friend owns a bakery, so we got three giant bags of bread, one of which was cinnamon toast bread, and I ate a bunch of it without regret.

the frozen finger, because it's fifty degrees

This evening's gig was some kind of corporate party, and the stage was set up in this courtyard that had these awesome trees. 

Dinner! Broccoli, cauliflower, quinoa, nuts, and tofu. Yo!

Something random: before the show, we got word that Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, guitarist with Steely Dan (toured with them and played on their first three albums, including the guitar solo on Rikki Don't Lose That Number) and The Doobie Brothers (touring, and recorded the albums Taking it to the Streets, Living on the Fault Line, and Minute By Minute with them), was in attendance, and we were able to get a picture with him. He was unimpressed, maybe even uncomfortable, with us. He did not stick around for the show. The whole thing was slightly disappointing.

Our photoshop guys had a good time with this picture, though.

A very weird gig. It was around fifty degrees and breezy, and we got cold, sitting there in the dark. Most of the attendees went inside the building to eat, so we played for almost no one, and most everything we played ended in silence. Ambivalent, to say the least.

Wednesday, January 28, 2026: Jacksonville, FL. We had a day off, with the buses parked at hotel where we had two rooms for showering, and a lobby for coffee and and bathrooms for the other stuff.

After staring at my phone for a while, it was time for lunch, so I walked across the street to the shopping center and ate at the Indian buffet. It was below average. 

I walked around the mall for at least an hour afterwards, before finally changing clothes and going for a run. Conditions were ideal. It was flat, it was sixty degrees, it was not windy.

Several of us went to a Mexican place (Chuy's) for dinner. The ceiling was decorated with hubcaps. My food was waaaay better than the Indian place.

A high school friend of Greg and Ganesh's came with us, and we heard lots and lots of stories of fights and drugs and car crashes and general teenage boy stupidity.

I don't usually order enchiladas, but these were great. Hold the cheese!

Everybody was cool with me playing in the back of the bus for a couple of hours.

Thursday, January 29, 2026: Evans, GA. We played the performing arts center in Evans, which is an affluent suburb of Augusta. 

All the usual stuff: went for a run, we made a social media video (in our bunks, singing Ride Like the Wind), and there was plenty of time and space to warm up.

tonight's dinner-some kind of Asian thing with tofu and noodles

laundry room noodling

Solid gig. Wheel of Chorus: Baby Come Back, bass solo (The Chain), and Fooled Around and Fell in Love.

Pete brought out his giant slingshot to shoot t shirts into the balcony.

I got in my bunk at the end of the day, and when I turned on my side, the whole bunk started spinning. Ugh! I don't know if I'd just spent too much time staring at my phone or what, but it was kind of like the same fried/carsick feeling. I rolled over onto the other shoulder, and it happened again, so I put on some music, put my phone away, and went to sleep. What the hell?

Friday, January 30, 2026: Isle of Palms, SC. I woke up in the parking lot of The Windjammer, feeling about the same as every other morning. I have no idea about the spins. Anyway, Greg and I walked down to the coffee shop on the corner--I had some coffee, Greg had some time in their bathroom.

After coffee, I went for a walk on the beach.

I got two sandwiches from the nearby Harris Teeter--one for lunch, one for dinner.

Today's gig was a fundraiser for The University of Charleston baseball team, an event we do every January. It's easy, and playing inside at The Windjammer is much preferred to playing out in the sand. It's a small stage, but it's fun, and it sounds fine.

I went for a run--no dizziness, but a little bit of a headache. 

The gig went well. My solos were good, and I squeaked through Africa again. 

One of the special requests for this evening was Lonesome Loser, and Monkeyboy and I had to relearn the little duet we do at the end. At the gig, however, I totally forgot about it until the last second, and was late grabbing my saxophone. He  freaked out because I didn't play, so he messed it up anyway.

Bencuya took a killer solo on I Wanna Be Your Lover.

There were six screens behind the bar. One was showing America's Funniest Home Videos (with Bob Saget), and four were showing Baywatch Hawaii. It was hard not to watch. I can't imagine how poorly I would've played if I'd been facing forward.

We had one hotel room next door to the venue for showering, so I took advantage of that before going to bed. I think the crews guys went without.

We woke up back in Atlanta at 6:30 AM, and everybody got up and left immediately to try and beat the incoming bad weather.