So...just in case you were wondering, I'm still alive.
Not much to report since last week. Due to Thanksgiving, I was laying low (also I was gigless). Yacht Rock was back on last night. It was a pretty decent show. We've had some where the first set is solid, but the second set is sloppy. I thought yesterday's excursion was pretty even by comparison.
We started working on our Christmas songs last night. If you've heard our commercial, you know what I'm talking about. We tried both tunes (Mele Kalikimaka and Christmas Vacation), and it turns out the harmonies in Mele are gonna be tough to sing live! The other was rough in soundcheck, but pretty solid on the gig.
We also played Human Nature, and I covered Bielenberg's parts. I was pretty pleased with myself for figuring that tune out. Not that it's super difficult, but I don't have a very good ear, and I don't have much confidence in what I'm hearing. To top it off, I was playing keyboards on it (actually on both tunes), and it always takes me longer to get comfortable.
Saxophone-wise, things felt good. I didn't feel like my horns were hotter than usual, but I could definitely hear them better than before. The tenor reed I used last night was one of those once-every-ten-boxes kinds of reeds--free blowing, but it still has enough backbone to allow me to go all over the horn easily.
We're playing tonight in Dunwoody and tomorrow night in North Druid Hills. A three day cruise...
It's safe now, so I will officially mention that we are playing on the Rock Boat for the first week of January. Yacht Rock...playing on a boat.
