Saturday, April 6, 2024: Savannah, GA. The helicopter gig (as we know it) again, on the driving range again, but with a better (covered) stage. I love the helicopters. The gig is whatever.
Not much else to report. The vegetarian option for food was a grilled cheese sandwich.
I ran on the treadmill when we got to the hotel, as there was no time to squeeze it in before the gig.
We did immediately try several of our new cover songs out, and they went well--no train wrecks!
Thursday, April 25, 2024: Destin, FL. The first time we played here, I never thought we'd have to come back (it's a stage in a sandy field between some neighborhoods), but here we are for the first year in a row. I guess it's fine. The six hour van ride to get here really sucked the energy out of wanting to play the gig, though (even though a slept for most of the trip). Always a good crowd, though.
This show was shorter than usual (and started at 7 instead of 8 PM), so I ran before and after the gig.
This was our biggest crowd at Avondale Brewing--at least, it had the biggest ticket sales. No Charles Barkley on this night, though.
What else...my alto reed was very soft--probably time to swap it out for a new one.
I still haven't found a good running route here--it's one of those places where the sidewalks abruptly stop in random places, only to begin again in two blocks.
Saturday, April 27, 2024, Las Vegas, NV. Up early (7 AM) to drive back to Atlanta to jump on a plane to Vegas for a corporate gig. I slept pretty well on the flight, though I was awake over Oklahoma City long enough to eat the burrito I'd brought on board. Very tired.
The backline company for this one was pretty good. The only had the cheap Guitar Center keyboard stands, so I had to stack two single stands (in the style of The Great Bencuya!), but this was a better move than having a foot wide gap between the two.
The Fantom (top keyboard) that they brought had a loose memory card, so Eric, the backline guy, had to take the panel off the back, clean and reseat it to get it to work. Scary moment for a second there.
The Nord Five--the piano sounds were really bright and loud compared to the organ. Are these factory settings? I wonder. I guess I could've tried to reset it, but I didn't notice until the gig had started, so I just rode the volume knob all night.
The local audio crew was not ideal. There were three or four guys, but only one spoke English, so all requests had to be made through a translator. They also dispatched some stuff (which drove Zach crazy), and the process of sorting it out took a little extra time when we were all short on patience.
Anyway...we stayed in the same hotel. Check out this room!
The Sphere looked like the moon this morning. Kip had the great quote: "That's no moon."