Vegas and LA

The beginning of a long week.

Friday: We assembled at the Atlanta airport for our flight to Las Vegas, where we would meet our gear and faithful crew of Kip and Zach for a public performance at the Silverton Casino. The van and trailer had left three days and 2,000 miles earlier.

Atlanta legend Bill Hatcher, stationed at the airport

over Bovina, Texas

over Kingman, Arizona

Lake Mead in the distance

over Henderson, NV

over Las Vegas

The gig was a public show at the casino's event facility, which was sort of a permanent tent off the side of the main building. The whole thing was rather surprising--1. that anyone would show up, 2. that anyone would know who we were, 3. that the place actually sounded pretty good! A nice size stage and an easy load in, and one ninety minute set eased us back into gigging.

Saturday: Mid morning, we loaded up the van and headed to Los Angeles. The local crew guy in Vegas tried to scare us into thinking it would take eight hours with traffic (for a four hour trip), but we fortunately didn't believe him.

I'd never made this trip across the desert before. It's really beautiful.

We made a pit stop in the middle of nowhere (Baker, CA).

After lunch in Fontana, CA, we were making great time, and the guys decided to add a little air to one of the van tires. Kip noticed that the tire was leaking at the valve stem and opted to swap it out for the spare.

In the process of removing the lug nuts, one of the wheel studs broke off. The two neighboring lug nuts proved to be especially difficult, and were later determined to be stripped.

After an hour of work, they got the good wheel on the van and we were on our way.

Our first LA show since last year's Club Bahia dud was at the legendary Roxy Theatre on Sunset Strip. Tickets sold out the day before (500 person capacity). Super cool!

We had a camera crew in tow for this one. Here they are getting footage of us ordering pizza.

The show was amazing! Everybody was really pumped about the gig, and the wave of excitement in the first set was was incredible. We had the guys from the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast open the show, and Elliot Lurie and Matthew Wilder came and sang their hits (Brandy and Break My Stride) with us. An audience member sang along to Africa with his hand over his heart. A guy held his phone aloft as it continuously scrolled "MONKEYBOY!!!!" during the guitar solo on Hotel California. As for me, I had a big solo on Biggest Part of Me, accompanied by the voice in my head screaming THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW AT THE ROXY IN LA!!!!! THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!

Big night for the band. We came; we saw; we conquered!