Friday: I got to sub in with Bumpin' the Mango again, in Roswell again (part of their "Music on the Hill" concert series), but this time on bari sax. Neil Newcomb played tenor.
I had a good week of practice leading up to this gig, but things got off to a rough start. On the second tune of the night, I got to PAGE THREE! of What is Hip before realizing that I was playing the tenor chart on bari--since we're a fourth apart pitch-wise, there are weird notes but not a lot of outright clashes that would tell me something was wrong. Instead, I was like, "this feels so familiar but sounds kind of strange." Man, I felt soooooo stupid! Realizing what was happening, I half transposed the tenor chart down a fourth/half played by ear the rest of it.
As soon as the song was over, I deleted the chart from my iPad so there would be no evidence of my wrongdoing! It never happened! Then I spent three or four songs trying to gauge (based purely off facial expressions) whether or not Neil had noticed me on the wrong chart.
The gig got better from there, and in between sets, the sound guys even figured out how to turn on our monitor so that we could hear ourselves (which hopefully means that nobody could tell what I was doing on What is Hip?).
Me: We can't hear ourselves at all.
Sound guy: I've got you cranked. I can't give you much more.
Me: It feels like it's not on.
Sound guy: I went over there. It's blasting.
Five minutes later, sound guy is over working on our monitor.
Sound guy: I don't know how it happened. Somebody turned the volume all the way down on the wedge. That's why you couldn't hear it.
Me: Huh.
Anyway, good gig! It was easy to pack up one horn, and I was home in twenty minutes without ever getting on the interstate. Gotta love that.
Saturday: Yacht Rock played a fundraiser in John's Creek. Our third (maybe fourth) time playing this same gig. As far as corporate/private gigs go, this one is a breeze…1. it's local; 2. the weather's always nice; 3. the people are cool; 4. it sounds good; 5. there's a noise curfew at 10 PM. Home by midnight. Hell yeah.
In other news, next year's Yacht Rock Revue tour has been announced.
