Friday: Yacht Rock had a benefit gig at Greystone in Piedmont Park. It's one of the more difficult venues we've played recently; load in requires driving into the middle of the park (and then getting back out to park somewhere), and the room at Greystone is not what you'd call "acoustically friendly."
Piedmont Park sent us a PDF with a map and the code to get into the park, this time we entered from Park Avenue (crossing the bridge over the dog park). Over the park and around the lake to Greystone is no problem, but once you unload your gear, where do you park? The parking garage is almost out of the question because you would have to drive back to Monroe, then go a block down the street to the road with the parking deck, park, and then walk quite a way back. Instead, I opted to leave my truck in the neighborhood just outside the park on the other side of the bridge.
The room at Greystone is pretty, but with long parallel walls and a concrete floor, it's probably not suitable for an amplified band. Plus, the end of the room where the stage is had only fluorescent lighting, so we were pretty much in the dark except for the stage lighting that Kip brought.
We played two sets. Early in the first set, I dropped my flute right before the solo on Lotta Love. It sustained no damage! A few songs later, I managed to accidentally mute my saxophone for an entire song (playing the guitar harmony on Still the One). Not my best work. I butchered Sara Smile soon after that.
We packed everything in the trailer at the end of the night and Nick took it home. The park was ferrying people back to the parking garage on golf carts, and a guy gave Bencuya, Dannells, and myself a ride back to the gate. Along the way we had to stop so he could direct Greg and Cobb (both in their cars) out to the 10th Street park entrance. When we asked him why, he said that the bridge was not structurally sound! I said, "I drove my truck over it twice today!" He replied, "You got lucky."
After he dropped us off, a large box truck came rumbling up to the gate, opened it, and crossed the bridge. As I was pulling away, the four cars of the people from the benefit also entered the park and crossed the bridge. Umm…shouldn't the park tell somebody?
Saturday: Worlds Collide! Yacht Rock traveled up to Nashville for a gig at a Hot Wings Festival. We got there in time to watch a couple of bands before us--the first being some kind of southern rock thing (with what looked to be a bunch of players more than a band--based on very minimal eye contact between the rhythm section and the number of guys reading charts), and a second band of hipsters doing an Avett Brothers/Mumford and Sons kind of thing (acoustic guitar, upright bass, mandolin, banjo, accordion, basic drums).
We closed out the evening just as Tennessee lost to Georgia and the sun went down, leaving us on a dark stage, playing to maybe a hundred people (hard to tell because the park was dark as well) for a ninety minute set. I'm not sure what to make of this gig--the festival was never packed to begin with, and as it got dark it seemed like the tents/booths all closed up and left, and the whole thing ended right as we began. Pared with a below average PA (mismatched speakers, feedback, and I think three monitor mixes for the entire band), minimal lighting (though I had a light that blinded me the entire show), and some other questionable moments (the guy jiggling the extension cord to try and get it to maintain steady electrical current, never noticing the wiring nearby sparking and then SMOKING--hopefully my gear was not plugged into this!) made for a less than appealing gig. I will say that the on stage sound turned out to be fine (and really loud), but it was not a problem, and we finished at 8:45 or so (after an encore), and we had belly dancers for one song. Just another adventure, I guess.
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| sometimes you find a bra in the back of your amp |
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| blinding |
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| really blinding |
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| making me blind |
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| belly dancers! |
We drove back to Atlanta after the show. I pulled into our garage at 3:20 AM. Our dog was so excited to see me, she peed on the bed, so my night ended with me stripping all the sheets and sleeping directly on the mattress. Fun.
Sunday: nothing to report from the PM church gig. I was very glad to have the rain tonight (Sunday) instead of last night.
Hey--we're on the road this week!
October 10, State Theatre (Falls Church, VA)
October 11, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
October 12, Rams Head On Stage (Annapolis, MD)
October 13, Visualite Theatre (Charlotte, NC)
