Yacht Rock played a 3rd of July show last night in Sugar Hill, GA (right near Duluth). There's no good way for me to get to that part of town--for this one I had to make my way over to GA400, get on at Holcomb Bridge Road, head north for seven exits, and then continue east. For no apparent reason there was an obscene amount of traffic, and coupled with a GPS failure (insisting on taking me to Creek Road instead of Level Creek Road), a trip that should have taken one hour took two. I was completely incensed by the time I finally made it.
The guys coming up from Atlanta had similar problems, though, and we all arrived right around the same time.
Load in and set up were uneventful. We drove across the field and up to the stage. Kip mixed us, which once again saved us hours of frustration.
This was a fun gig. I was dreading the heat, but temperatures were pretty pleasant, and a good breeze kept us pretty cool. The crowd got better as we went. I'd imagine that it took quite a while for people to get into the park (based on my experience of trying to leave at the end of the night), and maybe no one was too keen on sitting in direct sunlight for two or three hours to hear us.
I had a good show, though Kip reported that my microphone was kind of choppy--maybe a little bit of loss of signal when I was up front for Baker Street. I think I only picked up a saxophone three times the entire night, so no big deal.
This was the first gig in the history of the band where we played no Hall and Oates. None. Zero. One for the record books.
We packed up during the twenty-three minute fireworks show. Twenty-three minutes! Quite a budget. Very impressive.
What's up with the music selections for fireworks displays? The Sugar Hill show began with a selection from the band Saliva (I am told), then Toby Keith, and on down the line. Pretty dreadful. Eventually they got to Born in the USA, which unfortunately is not the patriotic piece that you think it is. I bet we'll hear it a few more times before the end of the week.
