Louisiana

Of all the "touring" that Yacht Rock has done in the past few years, we had yet to make a pass through the New Orleans area--we'd come as close as Biloxi on a random gig a few years ago, but a string of a shows had yet to line up. I was therefore pretty excited when these dates were added to our calendar--New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and a wedding to cover the bill!

Thursday: The flight to New Orleans wasn't too early. Once we arrived, there was ample time to park the van at the House of Blues and walk around the French Quarter.

The veggie po' boy that I had for lunch was not good--basically a fistful of olives, lettuce, and shredded cheddar cheese, which I drowned in hot sauce.

This is the smallest House of Blues--the capacity is somewhere around 840--that we've played. I think we had around a quarter of that for an audience, thanks to some generous ticket give-aways. A pretty good first effort, I guess.

We played pretty well--there was a little bit of rust from not thinking about this stuff for a week, but we had a good time and got through it without any disasters...except for my delay setting on the Maneater solo! Whoops! "Somebody messed with my presets," as we would say. Normally, the answers in the sax solo are generated by my effects pedal, set to whole notes and a single feedback. Post-solo analysis revealed that it was set to whole note triplets (how is that even possible?), so the delay was an extra second and a half late. Whatever. It was painful. Technology bites me in the ass again.

Friday: Pictures from my morning run.

abandoned naval complex

I was really excited to run across Doreen, whom I'd only come across on the internet. Equally exciting in person! She can really play!

Our gig for the evening was at The Varsity Theatre in Baton Rouge, a gig I thought would be a random one time gig, kind of like the place we played in Raleigh, North Carolina once or twice, never to return.

Instead, we were surprised to find a good sounding room with an enthusiastic crowd, and the band responded with a great show! I'm sure we'll be back here the next time we make this trip.

Saturday: A couple of pictures from my morning run. I tried to make it all the way down St. Charles  to the Audubon Zoo, but I ran out of time.

Our final gig on this run was a very late wedding in New Orleans, so several of us killed time at the National World War II Museum, which was spectacular. I spent most of the day there.

48 star flag

Around 5 PM, I made the walk across town to the Roosevelt Hotel where we were playing.

The Roosevelt Hotel has amazing Christmas decorations, and it seems like half of Louisiana was in there trying to get the perfect photo for their holiday cards. It's really something to see. I'm probably in the background of a few pictures, asleep in a chair.

Here's a Southern Living video showing the process:




So...the gig! The thing that was mostly paying for this entire trip! We played two sets beginning at 10:15 PM. Ouch. I was really tired from the day's activities and spent the whole night watching the clock.

The bride and groom ended the night with a Second Line parade--the hippest, most New Orleans way to say good night.

The holiday gigs overall better than the previous few years. We've got a couple of corporate things later in the week, and then holiday shows at Venkman's on Saturday night. Stay tuned!