Yacht Rock just returned from a great trip to Los Angeles--2 House of Blues gigs and a wedding, plus some cool sightseeing. I had hoped for a celebrity sighting and an earthquake, but neither materialized.
This was our first time flying keyboards--my sax case has made a couple of flights now, but our four keyboards had never taken to the air. Evidently, the cost to rent two Fantoms and two Nords is insanely high, so in order to make the trip more cost effective, we had to do it.
I think Bencuya was more concerned than I. Our cases are ATA rated, but you'll never really know until you actually hand them over to the baggage guys. It looked bad slamming on to the baggage carousel, but all of the gear worked perfectly--no damage whatsoever. Take a bow, SKB!
Thursday: we flew out in the morning, landing (due to the time zones) at LAX around lunch time.
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| we hadn't even checked in to our hotel, and there was already a police chase on the local news |
After dumping our gear at the hotel in West Hollywood, we strolled down Santa Monica Blvd to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch and margaritas.
There was a liquor store pit stop and some record store browsing before we eventually wandered back to the hotel. Pete made a phone call and got us into the House of Blues on Sunset Strip to see Shuggie Otis.
Another drink (warm tequila), and soon I was hanging out in a restroom stall.
At some point, Nick dragged me out into the parking lot, I projectile vomited three times, and the House of Blues asked us to leave. Oops.
Friday: Water, water, water, water, but still quite a hangover.
We swung by SIR and picked up some rental gear. Fortunately, the House of Blues has some gear available (drums and amps), so we only had to pick up things like keyboard stands and an acoustic guitar. From there, we headed to Anaheim, a distance of approximately thirty miles down I-5. It took us three and a half hours! LA traffic is incredible. I mean that in the worst way.
The House of Blues in Anaheim is in their Downtown Disney complex, an outdoor mall of gift shops, restaurants, and a movie theatre, all sandwiched between the gates to Disneyland and a Disney hotel.
The gig was pretty good. The house drum set was in pretty bad condition, and the available guitar amps were not ideal for Monkey, but all in all, it was fine. There looked to be two or three hundred people in attendance, and they dug it.
We packed up and headed back to Hollywood. Circumstances dictated that we take all the gear out of the van and bring it up to our hotel rooms. Definitely no fun at the end of a long day.
Saturday: we reloaded the van in the afternoon and headed downtown to checkout the Grammy exhibit across the street from the Staples Center. So awesome! Lots of cool memorabilia, including an entire floor of Ringo Starr stuff. Incredible!
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| Thelonious Monk's hat |
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| Herbie's Grammy speech |
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| sheet music from Miles' Porgy and Bess |
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| Herbie's keytar |
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| photo from Born to Run |
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| Let it Be/Abbey Road kit |
Our Saturday night gig was at the scene of the crime--the House of Blues on Sunset Strip. A much cooler experience than the Anaheim show--better gear, better crew (Jim Croce on monitors!), better location. On top of that, we had Elliot Lurie, and Peter Beckett, and Ron Moss sit in with us (on Brandy and Baby Come Back). All of these factors brought forth a really kick ass performance for maybe five hundred people! Sooooo coooool. We're definitely playing here again!
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| with the Led Zepp Riot House across the street! |
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| the scene of the crime |
Here are a couple of video clips:
Sunday: we returned our gear to SIR, ate brunch at a great place called Grub, and headed south to play a wedding reception for some cruise ship friends in the Carlsbad/Vista area.
Sunday afternoon, but still there was traffic. What the hell?
We loaded in the gear we'd flown (saxes, keyboards, guitars), and the rest was back lined by a nice crew of sound guys (friends of Kip). No problems. Other than my EWI freaking out again on a humid night (I guessed correctly on which was to turn the adjustment screw and made it through Africa), it was a relaxed gig--definitely nice to see some of our friends out in California.
The gig was over at 11 PM. We were on the road around forty-five minutes later for the hundred miles back to Los Angeles.
Monday: I turned off the TV at 2 AM. We were in the lobby at 7 to catch the plane home. Ouch.
