We did a House Live gig at Opera in midtown last night. It was an "industry event", so it was a mixer for a bunch of event planners. Steven Walker (drums/percussion), Jeff Burnisky (DJ), and myself were set up in a tent outside. When we began, the thing was like a greenhouse. It was probably 10 degrees hotter in the tent than outside. Once the sun went down, it was chilly everywhere. Playing in the cold weather makes my hands feel terrible.
Not much to report...I messed around with my effects pedal a good bit--a dialed in a nice slapback delay, a la Sanborn's effect on Young American! I still haven't quite let my obsession with that go.
I also made some HORRIBLE sounds! You can set the effect up for a parallel interval, and I tried the following (just to bother Steven): half step (painful!), whole step (very comfortable!), fourth above (weird), and an octave plus a half step (back to painful!). You can investigate these intervals on a gig like this. A fourth and a fifth below actually sound cool. A third below if weird, but in a good way.
We were hoping to get some food out of it, but all they had were homemade pop tarts and some really funky (as in really gross) Chinese food. Those parallel fourths were for you.
There were lots of strange fashion choices by our audience. The boots/skirts thing is either sublime or hideous. Here in Atlanta, it's been cowboy boots and mini skirts (of which I am generally not a fan), but there were also mini skirts and UGGs (of which I am definitely not a fan). Not to be outdone, there was some weird MC guy (in the final two pictures!) wearing a pinstriped fedora, "Oakley/blades" type sunglasses, an Ed Hardy style shirt, and furry black and white (rabbit skin?) boots.
Here are some great moments:
1. Girl asks if she can play my flute. "No." She says she plays flute. "Bring your own." "We could duet." I decline. Girl says, "I think I still have my flute." End of story.
2. Good looking woman who could be Robin Roberts' stunt double asks me if I "go out in the audience." Like work the crowd? Yes, she says. I'm playing into a microphone on a stand, so no. Do I do it at other events? It costs extra, I say. Antoine (or whatever her favorite sax player's name is), does this, and people go crazy. My reply: I'm not saying it's not effective, I'm saying it's really cheesy. She should probably hire Sergio for that.
3. The soap in the restroom smelled like Raid, and my hands thus smelled like Raid until I could get home and wash them.
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