Sunday, October 1, 2023: Salinas, CA. The day after Zach's big wedding, everybody (except Zach) flew (first class!) to California to play an event for Porsche.
Our flight landed in San Jose, and then we hopped in a sprinter van for an hour long ride to Salinas to a racetrack where Porsche was hosting some sort of big Porshe-fest thing with a million Porsche owners and a thousand Porsche race cars.
This gig was just about perfect--conditions were good, the gear was good, and the stakes had never been lower. I think we played for an hour. I was thrilled by all of this, as I was desperate to eviscerate the memory of that Denver gig where I hated everyone and everything and I wanted to die immediately.
We brought a Zach sub, Andre, and he dealt with our silliness and dead batteries and whatever really well.
After our set, we packed up whatever gear we'd brought, changed clothes, and then our handler guy from Porsche took us around to see all of the cars. None of us are car guys, but this was all really neat to see.
Obligatory dog pic.
When the event was over for the day, we got back in the sprinter van, this time headed to San Fransisco and our hotel.
I went for a run, which became an uphill hike, and then a massive downhill where I destroyed my quads.
By the time I got back to my hotel and ordered some delivery food, the only thing that looked decent was a Thai place. The veggies and rice dish was really bad--these veggies had definitely been in a steam bath all day. A whole plastic box of rubbery grossness, for which I paid something like $24.
Monday, October 2, 2023: San Fran Airport. We flew home first thing in the morning. Here's a $5 cup of oatmeal and blueberries. I'm not sure what exactly makes it that expensive.
Thursday, October 12, 2023: New Orleans, LA. We hadn't played a show in New Orleans in a few years, so this was almost starting from scratch. I always want to believe in the charm of this city...the reality couldn't be more different. It's dirty, it's falling apart, and the city doesn't seem to care. Careful where you step. I saw two people get arrested and put in police cars in the first ninety minutes that we were in town.
On the other hand, the new airport has been immensely improved...
We were at the House of Blues, but there was a private event in the main room, so we were in a much smaller space upstairs (the Parish Room). We also don't have much of an audience in New Orleans, so this was probably about the number of people we could expect to draw. It was small and dark, and the load in/load out was a mess, with lots of dirty hallway and small elevator.
Friday, October 13, 2023: Gulfport, MS. We left around lunchtime from New Orleans, so I had time to squeeze in a run on the levee before our departure. Not a bad little path!
Our Gulfport gig was at a casino. Check out this sweet view of the gulf from my room.
Check out these sweet bananas that are at least four days from being ripe.
Here's my dinner. Better than my San Fran Thai delivery. I was just about to get a cookie for dessert when I noticed that someone had possibly bitten one in half and put the rest back, so...no thank you.
This place wasn't too bad--the room was really cold, but it sounded good, and the audience was bigger and more enthusiastic than we'd hoped for. I think it was a win!
After the gig, Monkeyboy left his jacket in the green room, and I modeled it like it was a hot new item from JCPenney.
Saturday, October 14, 2023: Birmingham, AL. I went for a run along the beach before we headed out.
This gig was a private party at a country club. I didn't think this one had a chance, as there was SEC football on televisions and no bar stations in the ballroom, but the people showed up and danced. Not a bad night. Long set list.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023: Myrtle Beach, SC. This was a concert at a place called The Hangout, a massive fried food outlet with a large patio and outdoor stage behind. Also, this green room, which smelled like that plate of nachos on the table had been there for several days.
Outdoor gig and fall temps are not my favorite, but this one turned out to be ok, and we had a good crowd, and I had my heater.
After the show, we celebrated Mark Bencuya's birthday with a ridiculously extravagant cake from a fan. I had two pieces. But I also ran laps around the shopping mall by our hotel, so it all worked out.
Thursday, October 19. 2023: Atlanta, GA. We played the annual fundraiser for the CHaRM, the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials. We've done this one several times.
No loaders for this one, so we had to drag our own gear in and out.
We "world debuted" our new arrangement of Kenny Loggins' I Gotta Try with the hopes of having it polished before we see the man himself in California at the beginning of November.
Friday, October 20, 2023: Chattanooga, TN. It's been almost a year and a half since we last played the Noog, and in that time, our favored venue, The Signal, had moved to a new location (in the same general area by the Chattanooga Train Station where it was years ago). The new room is nice. Good gig. Most of us went home after the show.
Saturday, October 21, 2023: Kennesaw, GA. The Marietta Country Club is actually in Kennesaw, not Marietta, but whatever.
Their membership party is out on their driving range (also in Kennesaw). Same gig that we played last year. Twenty minutes from my house. Not my favorite gig, but whatever.
This one started messy, with the stage not being erected by the time we arrived for load in, so we had to wait on that. Then the generator was hours late, and Kip had to help the guys get it going. Whatever.
Then the sun went down and it got cold. I had my space heater under my seat, but I also relied on a pair of hand warmers to make it through. This will be my new strategy going forward.
Nothing else about this one is memorable. Some guy tried to make a joke about our gear getting stolen earlier in the year (I think he said, "Is that an Air Tag in your case, or are you just happy to see me?"). When Kip shot him a look, he said, "What? Too soon?" Whatever.
Sunday, October 22, 2023: Atlanta, GA. Pete, Nick, and I played a trio Yacht Rock gig for The Giving Kitchen (a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to food service workers). Kip was there with us to man the PA, and unfortunately, he had to MacGyver it when his mixer died. Straight into the speakers!
Further complicating our situation, Nick got caught in some sort of parade/road closure in midtown and only arrived around twenty minutes before our performance...not that it mattered, but it was quite the throw-and-go. To say he was frazzled would be a massive understatement.
Even on a little trio gig, I still managed to bring too many instruments.
Monday, October 23, 2023: Atlanta, GA. I recorded some flute parts for a band called Soccer Mommy out of Nashville, replacing some synth parts with acoustic flute. We finished three songs worth of flute before the afternoon ended.
A few thoughts:
1. It helped a lot that they had recorded the MIDI data from the synth parts, because the recording engineer and producer were able to send the MIDI to a notation program and generate sheet music, saving me from the task of quickly writing out the parts with a pencil and staff paper.
2. The engineer and producer like to keep the microphones a little further back than most people do (the mics were maybe four feet away, instead of six to eight inches). I think the idea is to get more of the natural sound in the room and keep all registers of the flute sounding even, but that also means that it takes more microphone gain (which is a sensitivity knob for the mic). For me, it made me really self conscious of how loudly I was breathing when playing.
3. Synthesizers don't breathe. Dave does. I had to adjust some of the parts for that.
Thursday, October 25, 2023: Las Vegas, NV. Travel day!
I had noticed a week before this flight that I was seated in a middle seat. Not wanting to be part of a sandwich for four hours, I opted back a few rows to an exit row window seat. It didn't occur to me, though, that I was the seat right next to the door. Sooooo, I got to see everybody get on the plane. Also, I couldn't put my bag under the seat in front of me, so my backpack ended up a few rows behind me in an overhead bin (which meant that I had to wait a while for the traffic at the door to clear before I could go and retrieve it). Finally, it was really cold! The door must have less insulation or something--I've noticed this with exit row doors over the winds, too. I'm glad I wore a jacket.
We stayed at the Tropicana, which is showing its age these days. I heard that the Oakland A's are moving to town, and the Trop will be torn down to make way for a baseball stadium, so they're not as interested in keeping up with the more glamorous spots in town.
On the flip side, we saw John Lovitz at check in. He was doing shows at the Laugh Factory for three nights.
Like most buildings in Las Vegas, the Trop has lights illuminating its exterior at night. Looks cool when you fly in at night, but this is how well lit my room was with no lights on.
Thursday, October 26, 2023: Las Vegas, NV. Yacht Rock was at the House of Blues (attached to Mandalay Bay). I think it's hard to know what audience you'll get in Vegas--there was a small contingent of loyal fans who made the trip, but probably the bulk of the audience was people who were in town and bought tickets on a whim, or people who were in town and were given free tickets. How many locals were in the audience? I'd bet that number was slim.
They didn't open the balcony so it made the main floor look pretty full.
Anyway, good show, and we had a lot of fun. Monkeyboy insisted that we recreate U2 at The Sphere by having the audience hold up their phones (like the wall of video screens) while we played Where the Streets Have No Name. I don't know that this landed with a room full of strangers expecting to hear Africa.
I left my phone on a case while I was packing up after the show, and Pete made me a new photo gallery.
Friday, October 27, 2023: Los Angeles, CA. The drive to LA is long and weird.
This is a gas station urinal:
These are mechanical puppets panning for gold in the parking lot:
We finally made it to LA, pulling into the YouTube Theatre a little late (it really didn't make a difference because the Loggins band was still rehearsing/soundchecking).
Set up and soundcheck were easy, and we played I Gotta Try for Kenny Loggins, who approved it for a performance that evening.
Dinner was sad--I ate a plate of green beans and bread--and it was served in a small, fluorescent lit room with plastic folding tables and chairs.
Our forty-five minutes were gone in the blink of an eye, and though I think it went well, I really don't have much memory of it. The room was huge, and it had big video screens on either side of the stage. Occasionally I would see myself and kind of test to see what the delay time was by nodding or turning my head, and then I'd remember that I was supposed to be playing a gig, and not watching myself play a gig.
After our set, I went for a run in Inglewood. Maybe not a good idea? I don't know.
Showtime!
Our hotel was a little chaotic (some lady was yelling at the front desk because her friend might be barfing from an episode of food poisoning, but no one from the hotel was in a hurry to help), and then Zach and I got on an elevator with no buttons for the individual floors. I have no idea how I got to my room.
Saturday, October 28, 2023: LAX. We flew home on this very airplane.
Be back in a week.
In the mean time, check out the new live Yacht Rock Revue record Coast to Coast!
