Thursday: The work week began with a Thursday morning gig. If you're a normal person, being at work at 9 AM isn't that horrible, but for me, that was pretty rough; with traffic, it took me an hour to get there.
The gig was some sort of 80s party, and we played two sets between 12:15 and 2:45. Afterwards, we loaded the gear back into the trailer and went our separate ways. I sat in traffic for an hour. I got home, sat down at my computer, and woke up in the dark. I remember pretty much nothing else about the gig.
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| Ganesh subbing on drums |
It was the first time I've ever seen de-icing in Atlanta. It makes you wonder how much practice the dude with the hose gets at this. First they spray the orange stuff, and then they spray the fluorescent green stuff. Did Nickelodeon choose the colors?
Our gig was a corporate Christmas party in San Francisco, and the location was a very cool venue called Bimbo's 365, a place with a very hip, Rat Pack sort of vibe. You could easily picture Dean Martin coming around the corner here.
In between soundcheck and dinner, I went for a run along the bay.
The gig was pretty good, I thought. I liked the backline gear that I ended up with, things sounded good in my ears, and there was an excellent dancer in a red dress that kept us awake (the gig was between midnight and 2:30 AM, Eastern Time). I even had a good sax solo on the outro to Africa, something we don't do very often these days.
We took three taxis to the hotel by the airport. After a quick shower, I crashed. This photo was taken at 12:32 AM, and I was asleep seconds later.
Saturday: My alarm went off at 4:05 AM, and Greg and I were in the lobby ten minutes later. By 4:45, we were in the San Francisco airport for our flight back to Atlanta.
I crawled into the plane, got in my seat, and passed out, waking up only when the pilot announced that we were on our initial approach into Atlanta (around thirty minutes out).
Back in Georgia, we dispersed to get our cars and then headed to Venkman's for not one, but TWO sold out holiday shows--an unplugged set and a regular electric set. I felt surprisingly good for both--I guess that was just enough sleep to carry me through, though I did start to get kind of brain dead in the middle of the second set. Both performances were solid/low anxiety.
7 PM show:
10 PM show:
And we're not done yet! See you at the airport this week!
