Friday: Big Beatles show at Eddie's Attic, home of the acoustic guitar strumming folk hero. I guess Nick has enough pull to get us in there. Anyway, I knew it would sound really great because the sound guy (Shalom) is top notch and is also a freak for the Beatles, and sure enough it sounded great and we listened to weird bootlegs the entire time we were setting up.
The Beatles stuff is still pretty hit and miss with me, and the fact that I'd been feeling the depression revving up in me for the day or two before didn't help--I was pretty non-commital about the show. I played as hard as I could; gave it my all. Maybe it's the fact that I'm always playing and then sitting a couple out, and then coming back and doing hand claps, and then going and sitting, but I never feel like I'm part of the band. I'm the favorite hired gun. The feeling was compounded by the fact that the stage was small and we (the horn section) stood off to the side in the dark the entire night. Not a ton of fun.
Bencuya and I played Norwegian Wood (the Herbie Hancock version) to open the show. I was pretty uptight for both sets. The sound on stage was so clear and loud, I could hear my inhaling being picked up by the microphone. Really weird. In the second set, I followed some strange idea that I was unraveling and totally missed the bridge. It snuck up on me.
The other biggie of the night was Jealous Guy (the Donny Hathaway version). I got a solo on that one. My first set solo had an error (followed by an audible expletive), so the second set solo was played like I wanted everybody in Decatur to feel it.
We added My Sweet Lord for this show, which got me seriously listening to All Things Must Pass. One of my faves, for Beth:
Speaking of the sound guy: in between shows, I was sitting at the bar eating, and the sound guy came up to me. First thing out of his mouth: "You claps on Eight Days a Week need to be more defined. By the end, you were getting it." No "nice show" or "sounds good." What an asshole!
Saturday: I played a wedding gig at Agnes Scott with a bunch of friends. Not much to say about that one--it was a nice jazz gig in a comfortable setting. Very easy. At some point, we gave way to an iPod full of hip hop. They tried to bring us back out to play a few requested songs, but it didn't go so well--they then demanded that we play something more upbeat! We once again turned on the iPod to calm the masses. Easy gig; I was but a sideman.
Funny thing about this gig: I had originally gotten the call for this gig but turned it down because I had something on the calendar. A few weeks later, my gig died. I contacted the leader of this gig to say, "Hey! Hire me!" but he said they'd already asked somebody else. I was bummed. Days later, I got another message asking if I was available--the other guy had fallen through. Yes! The gig came back to me!
On the way home I saw a nasty car fire. I passed by right as the firetruck was pulling up. 285 on a Saturday night!
Sunday: Church gig number one was fine. That one's gotten into a groove. No dirty scowls from the leader, and no bitching from the band. Even the substitute sound guy was on it. Yay!
Sunday night, Yacht Rock played a wedding at the Temple in Buckhead. Pretty easy stuff. They wanted all the 80s music we could do--no problem. We also threw in some funkier stuff for dancing. A few examples:
sax solo at 1:55
Use Me by David B Freeman
sax solo at 3:30
Kiss by David B Freeman
sax solo at 2:30
Caribbean Queen by David B Freeman
I guess you could say that Use Me and Kiss are about the same solo. No argument here. It didn't help that they came back to back in the set. Hopefully you can see (hear) past that.
Monday: I spent all day Monday desperately charting out songs (eleven in all) for a Tuesday morning rehearsal. I finally finished at 5 AM on Tuesday, then packed up my gear and got in bed at 6 AM.
Tuesday: I was up at 9, and at rehearsal at 10. Considering I wrote all my charts, found my sounds, and maybe played through things once, I fared pretty well. I've got a ton of work to do in the next week, getting ready for the big show at Variety Playhouse (the Second Annual Reagan Rock Prom).
No big deal, right? I got home, took a shower, and went back downtown for a House Live gig at Ventanas. The three hours of sleep I got did not carry me through. I drank three cups of Coke on the break, and that helped for a while, but then I crashed. I felt like the gig would never end! Somehow, I made it to 10 PM, packed up, drove home, and went straight to bed. Which was good because…
Wednesday: I was back at rehearsal at 10 AM again! What a nightmare! Obviously, nothing was any better than it had been the day before for me--I hadn't played a note of the stuff in the previous twenty-four hours. We waded through the rest of the stuff we were learning for this week. Now it's up to be to internalize it. Bencuya and I may get together to make sure all the keyboard parts are covered…great…a test! I'm going to pulling an extraordinary amount of music out of my butt.
I spent tonight organizing, repairing stuff, paying bills, and cleaning off my desk. Tomorrow, it's time to bear down. Next week looks to be just as crazy.
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