We added a couple of new tunes: Band on the Run (which technically we added last week, but I just started playing the keyboard part this weekend) and Running on Empty (which technically has nothing for me to play). The former is much more interesting for me to play now that I have a greater role in the music. To the latter, I added some organ to kind of fill it out--the live recordings I looked at had one keyboardist but two guitars. We have one guitar and two keyboardists (well, one and a half, let's say) so I'm providing an anonymous layer of harmony and volume.
The gig began with Band on the Run, and the rest was kind of downhill. I'd practiced that song a bunch, so I was confident and played well. Everything else (other than Running on Empty, which I'd also played a lot during the week) was pretty sloppy. My solos on Biggest Part of Me, Takin' it to the Streets, and Lowdown were bland.
Anyway…the Park Tavern PA only has six vocal microphones? Maybe five? Ganesh got a 57 and I ended up with a massive wireless microphone. When I tried to adjust the boom stand, the microphone clip broke--the threads came out of the plastic. Great…I turned off the mic, set it out of the way and got on with the gig. One of the sound guys came by later and got it back together with a wad of electrical tape. That held until the end of the gig. I felt lucky that the thing didn't come apart and fall in my lap. Falling on the keyboards would probably have broken some keys.
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| Ganesh on drums: sweet red Vistalites |
I wonder if we're getting pickier about the way things sound for us? Even with good sound guys, we still had some feedback problems, and generally a really loud, muddy sound on stage. Is it the shape of the tent, the placement of the PA stacks, the relatively short distance to the opposite wall, or are we just not getting things the way they need to be at soundcheck? I'm not sure. I know that I went back and forth with my volume all night (too loud, not loud enough), and was pulling my ear plugs in and out from song to song trying to hear the stage sound. Every time I see audience videos, the sound out front is fine, though, so I'm not sure what the solution is. They did upgrade the monitors (which I think has made a significant improvement). I wonder what it would sound like if the stage was in a different part of the tent?
Oh well…still, it's great to play for a crowd that was really into it, and I sure do appreciate the gig. We have yet to wear out our welcome in Atlanta! The next Park Tavern show will be September 27.
Once again (I think it's happened after every one of these shows this summer), I encountered rain on the way home. I had to stop under an overpass and reconfigure my gear to keep the electronics from getting wet. Boooooooo. Any Yacht Rock fans sell Bakflip bed covers?
