We started out Tuesday morning, driving all day and into the night before finally stopping on the north side of Washington DC. We stopped to eat in Richmond.
Wednesday morning we drove from DC into New York City. Our first gig was at Dominion NYC, a really cool room on Lafayette. Great stage, great equipment, and a great sound man. They even helped us drag our gear in. Total pro situation.
After soundcheck, we ventured out in search of food. Gaia was closed, so we ate at Katz's Deli.
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| the table from When Harry Met Sally |
This show was a Please Pleaserock Me (Beatles) show; we played all of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for the first set, and then a second set of more Beatles favorites. Big fun! Unfortunately, we had twenty people show up to witness our awesomeness. Too bad--we really played well. Some highlights were Peter's rendition of Getting Better and Greg Lee's version of Maybe I'm Amazed.
We hired a local trumpet player to fill out the horn section. Through blind luck, we ended up hiring Seneca Black, with whom I had played several Atlanta shows years ago. He played great, and was an extremely nice guy. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again.
Post show, we stowed the van, checked into our hotel (Holiday Inn Soho), and wandered off into Chinatown in search of food and drink…at 2 AM. You'd think that something would be open, but we ended up at the Whiskey Tavern. No food and not much in the way of drinks, though our waitress was cute. We did a round of shots with pickle juice chasers. It seemed like a dare. It wasn't bad, but I like pickles.
I got up the next day and met my sister for lunch, and then went exploring.
I went and checked out the music stores on 48th like I usually do in NYC, but Manny's is gone, so now it's just a block of Sam Ash. Boo.
I went in Roberto's Woodwinds. It very cool (and very much just a sax shop). One time when I was there, they let me try a bunch of horns that I had no intention of buying. I brought my mouthpiece with me, but there was an awesome tenor player there practicing. I was too intimidated to do anything more than listen.
Onward!
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| looking down Broadway--this is the corner where the original Birdland was located |
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| Rockefeller Center |
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| Grand Central Station |
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| guerilla marketing at the Apple Store in Grand Central! |
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| the old Brecker Bros. club 7th Ave South |
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| activate Mikhabrekah! |
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| the new Freedom Tower in the middle of the picture |
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| we met up for drinks at 5 PM and pizza from Lombardi's |
After retrieving the van (and passing a doorstep with a giant shit on it), we loaded into our gig at the Canal Room. Easy load in right off West Broadway right onto the stage. This was a good size room, and we filled it with a good size crowd for a Yacht Rock show. The sound on stage was boomy and the power made our amps buzz, but the audio out front seems like it was pretty well balanced.
Unfortunately, I played a really poor show--I spared no song. I have no excuse; my brain just didn't show up for the gig. We recorded our performance, but I ruined it. Too bad, too, because Mark Dannells played great (one of his finest Peg solos ever) and Mark Cobb played great (terrific drum solo at the end of You Should be Dancing).
After spending the night in New Jersey, we got up Friday and headed down to Washington DC for a show at the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA. Another easy load in, and another good sized room.
This gig was a benefit for the National MS Society. We helped raise some money and played a great gig! Dannells was superb once again, particularly on Peg and Rosanna, and Cobb contributed another outstanding solo. I played better, too (I screwed up a lot less), but I was still kind of flat on my solos.
A few crowd videos…
We spent the night at a beautiful Marriott. Dannells wandered off into the night. Where he went we will probably never know, but we were genuinely worried about him until he returned.
Saturday was an all day drive back to Atlanta. We stopped for BBQ at Saucy's in Petersburg, Virginia. I had a half rack of ribs and then licked the aluminum foil clean.
We got back to Atlanta around 9:30 PM. Easily the coldest weather we'd seen all week!
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