Friday: We haven't played the Georgia Theatre since last October. It's good to be back! Such a great room with a cool staff and a fantastic audience. Not quite a sell out, but we came pretty close. The last time we played was immediately following a UGA football win; this one was at the end of finals week.
This was a really fun gig for me. I had a great time and played really well.
This was our debut of Steely Dan's Bodhisattva. I'm not sure the crowd was really into it. What would it have been like if we'd played it back to back with Kokomo? Hopefully, we'll never know. Awesome work on the former by Mark Dannells and Mark Bencuya. My part was easy.
I played piccolo on You Can Call Me Al for the solo instead of keyboard. It definitely gets a crowd reaction, and I am also more accurate. That's the way to go. Cartage for me!
Monkey had a bad night. He was NOT happy, though his second set was better than his first.
Saturday: After a short night's sleep, we were on the road at 8 AM, headed for Nashville. Yacht Rock was hosting our Smooth Revival up there, so we had to get in and get set up pretty early in the day. We took over the entire Cannery Row, with bands in the Mercy Lounge, the Hi-Watt, and the Cannery Ballroom.
Performing with us at this show were John Ford Coley, Peter Beckett, Walter Egan, Robbie Dupree, and Bobby Kimball. We'd worked with everybody except Bobby, so most of our soundcheck was dedicated to a run through with him. He was a hundred miles an hour right from the get go. After ripping through the Toto stuff and Bodhisattva, he gave a little piano showcase (some crazy blues piano into Big Chief into Burn Down the Mission). I'm totally jealous. I can't do any of that.
Nashville's Space Capone played before us. They're really cool and sounded awesome. 70s disco funk!
I had a bad night of playing. My alto reed kept choking off, I played a bunch of wrong chords, and by the break I was pretty brain dead. They should have taken me outside and shot me.
The stage was back lit with several motorized LED lights mounted on poles on the back of the stage. They were constantly moving and changing, and in combination with the haze machine in the corner, it looked like we were hosting a rave. There wasn't much light shining towards us from out front, though, so I wonder of we were silhouetted the entire night?
The great Kip Conner ran sound, which means that everybody probably heard every note of the bullshit I was laying down. Great...
We loaded out in the rain.
Sunday: I got home, unpacked my gear, ate lunch, and headed out the door again to my PM church gig. Not too bad, though I was kind of worn out.
I bought a new/old soprano last week (a mid-80s Yamaha 62 purple logo--same vintage as my alto), and this was its big debut. I like it so far, though I want to have Lopes check it for leaks and adjustments. My other soprano is a Yamaha 675. The 62 is lighter weight (my thumb appreciates that), has better tuning between the left and right hand notes, and has a lighter sound.
I have two jazz gigs this week, so stay tuned for audio from those.
