Northeast Run

Last weekend, the Yacht Rock Revue headed back out on the road for a weekend in the northeast. Sold out crowds and weird weather abound.

Thursday: Our first show of this run was at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, a beautiful venue that was recently renovated and reopened in 2011. We flew into Philadelphia, drove to Wilmington, and grabbed a quick lunch before setting up our stuff. Mark Bencuya, Monkeyboy, and I found a local deli to our liking.

I had enough time to squeeze in a run before the show.

ice in Brandywine Creek

Market Street in Wilmington

This was a really good first gig of the weekend. The room sounded great, the crowd was surprisingly good (350 people was comfortably full on the floor), and we played well. Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac was added to the setlist this week, a song that half of us hated to hear, but it's fun to play, so I think we're keeping it. All in all, a pleasant surprise in Delaware.

After the gig, we drove an hour and a half into New Jersey.

Friday: On to Boston!

lunch stop somewhere in Connecticut

We played the Royale in Boston--this gig was a little nuts. The gig had been sold out since before Thanksgiving (1250 people!), and they were just about foaming at the mouth by the time we hit the stage. Some guy climbed on the stage (and may have stage dived/crowd surfed after that). There seemed to be a cheering section for me that erupted as soon as I stood up for my first solo (special thanks to the guy who brought a pink inflatable saxophone as a prop). Later on a conga line formed and tried to bum rush the stage (luckily thwarted by Kip just as they reached the bottom of the stairs to the stage). Awesome energy from everybody in the room, though.

The only (kind of) downside to playing the Royale is that they had some kind of late night disco/dance party, so we had to stop playing at 9:30 so we could clear the room by 10:15. It was a little weird to push everybody out and rush us down the elevator so quickly, but then on the other hand, an early night is nice, too.

Here are a couple of video highlights, via our super fan Brian Liss:

We didn't get food before the gig (we were an hour late to load in), so afterwards, we went to a restaurant and gorged ourselves.

Saturday: Woke up in Natick, Mass to high winds and falling temperatures. New York City bound!

Tonight's show was a sold out performance at Irving Plaza (1100 people in this one). We also were tasked with breaking in the new PA that they'd just installed. Also...holy shit it's cold.

The tiny, tiny, tiny backstage bathroom. This photo is actual size.

Set 1:



Set 2:

photo cred: Kip Conner

Robbie Dupree and Matthew Wilder sat in with us on the first set. When we returned from the break, it felt like our audience was too tired or too drunk or something--the enthusiasm of the first set had worn off.

photo cred: Zach Wetzel

Sunday: NYC to Washington DC to play The Hamilton. Our third sold out show (600 people for this one) in a row. Good stuff again from the band and the crowd, though we had a little bit of second set lag from the audience again. The Hamilton is a jewel of a place to perform.

Here's a super slick move by The Hamilton--at intermission, they put tickets for our show there in the spring on sale and announced it to the crowd. By the time we loaded out at the end of the night, all of the seating (half the room) had already sold out. More places should do this--such a smart move!

In spite of hand cream, gloves, and...pockets?...my hands dry and crack in the winter. This particular split opened up the day before we left for Wilmington, and was still killing me when we finished in DC. This happens to be the exact spot where my thumb touches a piano key. The second set of the Hamilton show was incredibly painful.

Monday: Flying home from Reagan International. One of the prettiest airport concourses in the country (spoiled only by the kiosk selling MAGA shit).