Thursday: We flew out to a gig in Virginia Beach.
 |
| Stacked up in Atlanta. I'm kind of impressed that I wasn't already asleep by this point in the flight. |
This one was strange, to say the least. We played a Thursday nighter in a country bar (complete with a Cowboy Troy style emcee)--a free show for god-only-knows who's going to show up. The skies over Virginia Beach/Norfolk are thick with Navy jets, and the largest Navy base in the world is right here. Would it be a Top Gun situation?
Uh, no. More like a Wild Wing Cafe situation. I did watch a bit of the NFL preseason game (Dallas and Arizona), and endless repeats of some bro country jackass's music video/commercial on the ten TVs ringing the room.
Other things...fruit for dinner, courtesy of the Walmart across the street--way better than bar food...opened my garment bag to discover that I'd packed no shirts in my stage clothes--I borrowed a spare shirt from Nick and wore it four days in a row...plenty of possible strippers on the dance floor...easy load in/out.
Friday: On to Baltimore! We spent most of the day in the van, and traffic compounded our problems. We pulled up to the door at 6:15 (instead of 5). Everybody worked quickly to get set up and sound checked in an hour, leaving us about an hour to eat and change. Special thanks to Kip and Zach for getting us up and running so quickly!
Pretty decent gig, all things considered. The crowd was excellent--pretty good for a rare public show in Baltimore, and I had a good solo on Turn Your Love Around. Kind of a boomy room, though, but the stage was a good size. I certainly wouldn't mind coming through here again.
Here's the show:
 |
| all hail Kip's pack job |
Saturday: Oyster Bay, Long Island wedding. We had to learn some god awful modern pop song, but they apologized for it after the reception. Other than that, kind of a normal gig. Billy Joel apparently lives ten doors down.
Mark Cobb anticipated my boat pictures in this blog, and though I deleted a few, here they are. Amazing views. Being rich looks fun.
 |
| little photo session |
We spent the night in a very strange Holiday Inn--the most ass-backwards layout in the universe.
 |
| this dude passed out waiting for his laundry to finish |
More boats, more Long Island Sound.
This place was beautiful! The weather was perfect (almost 80 and overcast).
 |
| making small talk before the show |
 |
| smoke from a distant fire |
Everything looked great and sounded great, and we played great and had a great time--a very pleasant way to end the weekend. You can see a set of pro photos from the show here.
Monday: We adjusted our flights to beat most of the bad weather hitting La Guardia this morning, but it was still a little wet. Made it home in time for a late lunch.
