Due to the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade, we had to come up Euclid from Inman Park instead of Moreland, and then beg our way through multiple checkpoints, and then avoid several pedestrians. Somehow, we all squeezed through before the cops shut everything down.
So…we sold out the Variety! Yay! Very cool. Our opening set was ten early 90s pop tunes (Bell Biv DeVoe, Janet Jackson, Color Me Badd, etc). Not my favorite music by any means! We nailed it though, mostly because Nick made insanely good tracks to which we played along for every song. We couldn't have pulled it off without them.
There were a few technical glitches--we got a little off on Miss You Much (the phrase going into the chorus section is longer than normal); Bencuya's Fantom (keyboard) rebooted a couple of times mid-show (which is always terrifying). He had a keytar MIDI'ed into it, and maybe that was causing the problem. Also our outfits (dress shirts, bow ties, cardigans, baseball caps) were kind of warm!
Big debut of my new bari sax mouthpiece (the Detroit Rock model from Vigilante Mouthpieces) on My Prerogative. I've been playing the same mouthpiece since college, and I decided to get something a little more in tune with my current style of playing. It's really awesome. I'm excited about playing it some more.
Why is there bari sax in this song? Did Bobby Brown owe somebody money?
My solo at the end of this was some bluesy bullshit. I ended up in front of the monitors but behind the main PA in a sonic no man's land where I felt very exposed…playing bari sax on a Bobby Brown song…in front of a thousand people…oops.
Our Thriller set went pretty well, especially since our rehearsals were focused mainly on the first set stuff. I had a couple of tunes where I needed a chart (and had a chart), but the stage was dark and I couldn't see!
More technical problems…the "butt kicker" that Cobb uses as part of his monitor failed, and my EWI went dead for a second while I was sitting there. I turned it off and turned it back on and it was fine. What the hell was that?
My alto solo at the end of Lady in my Life was, as in past years, musical diarrhea. Kind of a "Here's a saxophone--play a solo NOW!" feeling after not playing any saxophone earlier in the set.
Sunday: for the first time in five weeks, I was back on my AM church gig, playing both morning services. This one had a horn section for the morning one--some fun sight reading.
In the second service, I got to play over Dustin's super hip arrangement of some song with the teen choir, and then blew over a gospel thing. Dustin's thing sounded like Vince Guaraldi.
It's good to be back! This was a fun morning. I found out I even have my own robe now (for whenever we play the second service). Welcome to the big leagues!
My PM gig was not bad. After a long time, I finally found a good soprano reed. It feels like it's been months of struggling. My flute playing, however, has gone to shit after a couple of weeks of neglect.
On the mixing side of things, one of the singers accidentally turned off her mic (it has a switch on the microphone). After the song, I reached over and turned it back on. Before the next song, she told me she didn't think it was working, and I explained that she'd turned it off but I'd turned it back on. She sang another one, and again said it wasn't working, so I bumped up the fader and the gain. She still wasn't satisfied, so I pushed her fader all the way off and turned off the other three singers (I'm sure one harmony vocal full blast sounded great out front). The band leader said she was too loud, so I put everybody back, but left her gain on the high side. In the next song, he mic started clipping…I let it distort for the whole refrain and then backed it down. Fun with singers…
Upcoming gigs!
October 31, Georgia Theater (Athens, GA)
November 1, Music Farm (Charleston, SC)
November 8, Smith's Olde Bar (Atlanta, GA)--Please Pleaserock Me
November 17, House of Blues (San Diego, CA)
November 27, Egyptian Ballroom (Atlanta, GA)
December 6, Mercy Lounge (Nashville, TN)
December 14, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)
January 4, House of Blues (Los Angeles, CA)
