Friday, November 8, 2024: Phoenix, AZ. Yacht Rock played a private event at a golf club in Arizona. Good gear from SIR in Phoenix--always greatly appreciated!
Anyway, it was a strange party. Very few guests seemed to be there during our set.
Novmeber 9, 2024: Denver, CO. The next morning, we were all up early to head to Denver for a public show at one of our favorite venues, Mission Ballroom.
We flew on Frontier, which was a little bit of an adventure compared to our usual Delta flights. We ended up with twice as many bag tags as we needed, and Frontier wanted to cancel them all and start over, but most of the luggage was already tagged and on its way...everything turned out ok.
Panera breakfast in the Phoenix airport. Peter Olson and I sat here drinking coffee and talking for so long that we nearly missed our flight to Denver.
Made it. Apparently budget airlines don't get to use the terminal?
We were at the venue plenty early, so I went for a run before soundcheck. On the way back, a dog (on a leash and everything), swung around its owner and bit me on the butt! It left a mark, but more to the point, it hurt my feelings! It's me, Dave, friend of dogs! You got the wrong guy!
Anyway...great gig!
November 10, 2024: Travel day. Ooof. We flew from Delta to Salt Lake City, hung around for a few hours, and then flew back to Phoenix. Looooong day, something like 10 AM - 7 PM.
Here's my burrito on SLC.
We got back to the hotel in Phoenix, where I opened the sandwich I'd brought home from the airport, and promptly passed out for a couple of hours, and then woke up at midnight and stayed awake for a few hours. It was messy.
Monday, November 11, 2024: Phoenix, AZ. We had a day off here in town, so several us made the trek to the Musical Instrument Museum. It was ok. Some highlights:
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| one of Joey D's organs, and a couple of saxophones from his collection |
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| this weird whistle saxophone thing...kind of a "concepts of a plan" |
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| one of Chick Corea's rhodes pianos |
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| Eric Dolphy's alto |
I went for a run (the running was really good in Arizona--flat, and good temperatures, and sidewalks), and then I took a car to an Indian restaurant. Our hotel had zero food nearby, so everything was a car ride. Boooooooooo. This really hit the spot.
November 12, 2024: Phoenix, AZ. We did the same golf club event again that we played last week, for a different audience, but it was just about the same turnout. More importantly, it was colder and later in the evening, and my hands went completely numb and it was awful. So bad, in fact, that I had to get help from some of the local crew to pack up my personal gear because I didn't have enough feeling in my fingertips to unscrew things.
Even an hour after the gig (including about twenty-five minutes indoors), my fingers were still frozen. It wasn't until we were most of the way back to the hotel that the blood finally returned. I'm hoping that the band will rent me a space heater for future events like this one.
November 15, 2024: Niagara Falls, ON. International gig! We got up early in Atlanta and flew to Buffalo, where two vans picked us up to ferry us across the border into Canada.
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| Peace Bridge! |
Our gig was at the casino next to Niagara Falls in a beautiful performing arts center that they have. Check out the view from my hotel room!
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| hotel lobby |
There was a food court, but we each had a $200 tab for meals, so I called room service, because why not!
The venue was great, the gear was just ok--I ended up with two giant, weighted action keyboards that felt weird to play on this gig.
Plenty of people in the audience (including the Canadian guys who came to see us in Cleveland a few years ago and brought their same banner). Good gig overall!
Zach is leaving us at the end of the year. I'm going to miss him every day.
Our show was over pretty early, so after packing up and eating cake and changing clothes, we reconvened at the sports bar in the casino to watch the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight. The room was overwhelmingly pro-Tyson.
