The weird thing about this gig is that it was held in the W Hotel, or whatever it's now called--it's the hotel on the north side of Perimeter Mall. The room is kind of small for a seven piece band, especially when it's lined with vendors trying to talk up their specialty foods. I'm curious as to why the event is not held at the Crown Plaza at Ravinia across the street, or even at Villa Christina, both of which have significantly larger spaces.
The gig itself was pretty good. Our stash of alcohol was inconveniently located in a room on the tenth floor, so I think everybody stayed pretty sober. Good thing, too, because the ballroom lighting options were either overhead florescent lights, or almost total darkness.
Another crappy feature of this venue was the thermostat, which evidently didn't care that there were several hundred people and several little cooking stations and a band dressed in plastic clothes. It was super hot--like outdoor hot. The EWI did not care for this; my solo on Hey Nineteen was a little slippery because the heat and humidity in the room caused it to react strangely (until I could adjust the sensors).
I screwed up part of my Dannells duet on Still the One. I'm finally off my chart, and I can play the thing perfectly at soundcheck, but I can't quite do it on the gig. I've got no good excuse.
We played Whatever Gets You Through the Night again--a fun song for me and one that goes over very well, but I'm worried it's going to disappear again because Nick hates it. I like it a lot. Figures.
The gig ended promptly at 10:30, which was so very nice. I was home by 12:30. It probably would've been earlier if the load out wasn't such a rat maze.
So it goes! Big week next week. Stay tuned.
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