It's been slow going since the Yacht Rock Holiday Special last Friday. I taught lessons Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Tonight I did two church gigs. One at my old gig, the Catholic Church of St. Ann (music department headed by Kevin Wyglad), and the other at the Cathedral of Christ the King. Both were fun.
The gig with Wyglad is always fun because I know many people in the congregation (Jack is in preschool at St. Ann's), and Kevin does a good job of putting his own spin on the usual Christmas stuff. He's got this killer arrangement of The First Noel. Yeah, good stuff.
The gig at Christ the King is a little strange because year in and year out we get stuck with the overflow mass (the people that would not fit in the cathedral). It's a drag because the room is very dead (and the cathedral is very reverb-y), so it always feels really dry and yucky. To top it off, it seems like we always end up absorbing people from other musical groups, and this year was no exception. We ended up with two extra singers (who were actually very good), a bassist (the best bassist we've had since Brian Gillette--probably nine years ago!), and a percussionist (who had a nice feel, but was afraid of the microphone). The twist this year was that we were piped into the speakers in the ceiling (in the past they've had powered speakers). Nice idea, but the room could you use some effects. Also, I, the soundman, was kind of trapped in the corner without headphones (I forgot them), and no time to really experiment with the room (I came running from St. Ann's). I think it sounded pretty good, but I could have used a soundcheck. The main issue was that the back of the room was no turned up as loud as the front zone of the room, so we felt really loud near ourselves but pretty weak in the back. My apologies. There's always next year!
I'm back at St. Ann's tomorrow for two more.
