The first part of the Olypmics was to get dressed in a black suit (with tie), grab equipment out of your car and navigate down a sidewalk full of people who don't care that you're wearing a suit and moving heavy equipment. Total distance was a little over a hundred yards, but each of us made multiple trips, and then we each had to scramble to find parking somewhere in the vicinity. We gathered back at the stage, threw our equipment up and played two sets of Beatles--a lot of three minutes songs in each one hour set! The crowd was good--estimates were in the six hundred people range, and it was well received. Tree Sound provided the PA, using their solar powered generator. Very cool. We were off the grid!
Things went pretty smoothly. We were near the end of the gig (third to last song) and Mark Dannells started Revolution in Bb instead of B. No big deal. The whole band shifted with him (kudos to Mark Bencuya for transposing the Wurly solo on the fly!). After the song ended, we informed him of the mistake (and if you know the way in which we would "discuss" something like that, you'd know how small he felt). He thought he'd played the entire song in Bb and the rest of the band had played in B; he was so upset that he threw his guitar down on the stage and left and missed an entire song having a mental shit fit somewhere. It wasn't until after the gig that we were able to explain that we'd changed keys pretty much instantaneously to accommodate his error. Dannells was suicidal with the thought that he'd gone tone deaf.
Dannells told us at the start of the gig "I do what I want." I guess that includes keys.
Paul Poovey played a great version of the Penny Lane piccolo trumpet solo (definitely worth checking out the mp3s on his brass quintet's website) and Greg Lee sang the hell out of Maybe I'm Amazed. Nick was awesome on everything else. I was just along for the ride on this gig.
When the gig ended, we packed up everything, found our vehicles, parked illegally, and hoofed our gear back across the hundred yards (still in suits). A couple of us ran by the office and dumped our gear before heading to Smith's Olde Bar for 500 Songs for Kids, a really cool benefit. We've done it a couple of years in a row now.
The throwing of the Milanos:
Bencuya and I dragged a couple keyboards up the back stairs and into Smith's. I think the first sign that I will never be a rock star: my feet don't like Chuck Taylors. I'm more of an Adidas guy. Maybe I should have signed on with a Run DMC tribute? I don't know. Anyway, my feet hurt, which made the standing around and waiting for our turn seem like forever. Maybe it was forever. I was fading fast at that point.
We got the call and threw our gear up on stage to play Dancing on the Ceiling. My arpeggiator was awesome, by the way. About four bars into the first verse, Nick waved it off. We went into With a Little Help from my Friends. I don't if that's a legal move at 500 Songs, but I get the feeling we have enough clout to do whatever we want. We did "our" song and the crowd went wild (it helps that Nick sings the absolute HOLY HELL out of it--if you need proof, listen to this version from the Variety Playhouse in January). Whoa baby now.
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| My man Mark Dannells: Back from the Brink |
So…final events of the Olympics: keyboards go back in the cases, I grab the keyboards, feet are hurting, down the two flights of rickety stairs, across Monroe, past the people having sex in a car (YES!--I was like--"this is awesome! it's really happening! I've got to stop looking! I can't stop looking!"), gear in the truck, back to the office to get my other stuff, home, unpack the truck again, pack the truck again.
I went to bed and got up a few hours later for ye olde church gig. Keep on keepin' on.
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