This Week in Yacht Rock History

Yacht Rock took to the road again July fifth, headed towards the Atlantic Ocean. This trip was the reverse of last year's (read about that one right here).

Friday: We played a country club/beach club place in Sea Island. This is the same gig we did last year where they set up a stage in the dunes between the club and the beach.

But first, saxophone repair! I put a new cork foot on the palm key D. No more wad of tape underneath it.

dazzling work, if I do say so myself

Ok, back to the gig. This one's a little annoying. The location isn't ideal, and sand gets in all our gear because the grounds crew is constantly driving tractors behind the stage, stirring everything up (and they don't care enough to go slow).

There's also this thing where the crowd doesn't seem to know how to act at a show--are they supposed to clap like it's the symphony, or lose their minds like it's Beyonce, or is it somewhere in between? Or maybe they so rarely see a band where everybody's playing an instrument and it all sounds good, and they kind of stare like kids watching the animatronic band at Chuck E. Cheese. Whatever it is, the vibe is weird.

the view off the back of the stage

A little over an hour into the festivities, we had to take a pause when the lightning got a little too close and too frequent. Here we are comparing weather apps on our phones.

This felt like it was staring us down, so we hopped on stage, played about five or six more songs, and quit, with the thought that if the weather turned ugly, we'd need time to pack all of our gear up, but also to load it into the trailer and get the van and trailer off the beach.

Saturday: Onward to Charleston for a sold out show at Music Farm.

First up: these bananas are green, like as green as the day they were picked in Ecuador, like Go Green! Go White! green. They've got maybe a week before they're gonna be edible. Strike one, Music Farm.

Music Farm is kind of like the Park Tavern in Atlanta--there's plenty that doesn't bug me, and I think the staff is happy we're there, and the crowd's big and we're all making money, but the venue kind of can't help but shoot itself in the foot (green bananas, stage lighting, green room, and the sound of the room). They care, but not enough to solve any of these problems.

at least they spelled Revue correctly this time

I don't know, maybe I was still grumpy about the previous night, but I just never could get going on this one.

Sunday: Myrtle Beach House of Blues. Another late check/short drive kind of day. Another House of Blues.

Like pretty much every HoB, this one had a nice, big stage, and things sounded good (especially compared to the two previous nights). Also like every HoB, it had the weirdo, burned out staff. Do your best to ignore them (they will do the same to you!)!

Anyway, around 800 in the room, I think, but maybe half those were from ticket giveaways, so...for the most part, everybody seemed really happy, but I'm sure there were people there who just ended up there on a Sunday night and were NOT INTO IT. I'm talking about you, teenage girls with your arms crossed the whole night. Your parents loved us. On the whole, I say this was a surprisingly good gig.

Very excellent to have Mark Cobb back on board, even in this very special outfit.

Finger update: almost back to normal!