Thursday: Yacht Rock was back at our regular gig, the 10 High, for the first time this year! It was just the way we left it--dark, stinky, and dirty. Too bad. We had everybody there except Mark Cobb, who is out on paternity leave. Daniel Morrison filled in for him. He was solid.
Mark Dannells played really well. I, on the other hand, just kind of spaced on a lot of stuff. For instance, we were playing What a Fool Believes for probably the five thousandth time, and I couldn't remember whether I pedal on an F or a Bb, so I guessed (correctly). I had lots of stuff like that--I felt confused.
I'd spent most of the day rebuilding my rack. UPS was a bit rough in getting it to Miami last week, and broke both rack rails loose. I took everything out, put new screws in the rails, and put it all back together. I also strapped my power supplies to the power strip in there, since UPS had helped them get out and bounce around. Big fun! I got it all back together, and then had to set up my entire Yacht Rock rig so I could test everything and make sure all my connections worked. Success on my first try.
Friday: Yacht Rock played our second gig at the Georgia Theatre in Athens. It's sooooooo cool in there. We sold it out again.
This time the on stage sound was much better. I could hear things very well. I played pretty well--fewer brain farts than the previous night. It took a while, but at some point I was able to forget that we were recording and just play. Dave Barbe brought his mobile recording unit over to capture our sounds. Hope we get something good! Short of that, I hope we can fix it!
Mark Bencuya played a couple of good solos. His spot on Peg had this cool start-stop thing that I liked, and he got off a really screaming synth thing on I Wanna be Your Lover. Really good stuff.
The second set featured a couple of our Dazed and Confused tunes, so I didn't really do much after the break.
Saturday: we rode up to Nashville to play the Mercy Lounge. Good news in Tennessee! Not only did we sell it out; the club got so many calls about tickets after we'd sold it out, they turned their phones off that afternoon to avoid it! The next time we go up there, we'll be in the Cannery Ballroom--much bigger.
This was a fun gig. Walter Egan sat in with us. In addition to Magnet and Steel, he played on Go Your Own Way (he and Dannells played the guitar solo in unison). He was very generous in hanging out with us, swapping stories and putting up with our silliness. He spent the entire second set sitting right behind me on the corner of the stage.
Ganesh Giri Jaya played drums with us. He was really great. It makes me wonder if he wouldn't be better off on a smaller kit like the one he used in Nashville--he was so relaxed and smooth. I really dug it. He looked like he was having a blast, too.
Sunday: we got up and drove home.
I played my church gig that night. I guess the only noteworthy thing was a vaguely latin sounding song that I played flute on. It was short form--just a verse and refrain. I came in the second time around playing vaguely latin flute, and there was never a good spot to get out of the way of the vocals, so I ended up kind of smothering the song. Oops. It wasn't on purpose…I just couldn't find a logical place in the arrangement--the intensity never changed, and if I'd stopped it would've sounded wrong.
I know what else happened…I was messing around with the band mix, and I couldn't get the piano to come through the mix, so I swept the mid EQ around and it suddenly jumped out! I think I laughed out loud. I ended up pulling the fader down quite a bit once I found that bump. It was kind of funny how that worked. I did the same thing to the acoustic guitar. Every week I get a little better at it.
This week is kind of slow. It'll be a good chance to catch up on some other things.
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