The first two were in the parish hall, and turned out to be pretty easy. I think the most challenging thing about being in there is mixing, as we plug into the wall and use the speakers in the ceiling. From our spot in the corner, it's impossible to hear what we sound like--I had to walk out a half dozen times and check it out, usually right down the center aisle because of the Christmas Eve overcrowding.
I did help myself right from the start by unplugging all the XLRs from the mixer and zeroing out the board. No point dealing with all the crap. I did figure out how to use the onboard effects, so the second service got to hear us with reverb. Yippee!
Playing-wise, things were ok. I felt ok on flute, and my soprano felt really good (Lopes just finished putting it back together about a week ago). Christmas carols are pretty straight forward.
I raced out of Buckhead at 7, headed to church gig number 1. Driving and changing my shirt at the same time...what other profession does stuff like this on a regular basis? I thought, what am I going to say when I wreck with one arm in my shirt and my pants wide open?
I made it in plenty of time. No sweat. I could have changed my shirt in the parking lot.
The gig went pretty well. I did catch an audible--play Oh Little Town of Bethlehem on flute. I was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY out of tune on that one, and fumbling the melody a couple of times made me sweat, which my flute slide around on my lip, which made me sound worse, which made me sweat more. Turn up the suck! I was really bad on that. Good thing only about a thousand people heard me.
They did this really cool thing last year, so I was ready with my camera this time. Lights out, and then they pass candles out. It looks awesome.
No church gigs on Christmas Day.
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