Who Cares?

I had a great experience tonight recording horns for a song titled Who Cares at Madison Studios in Chamblee.  Last night I wrote a nifty horn arrangement so that we could record before I go out of town for several days.  Paul Poovey (trumpet), Eric Alexander (trombone), and I went in and knocked it out--and everybody dug what I wrote.  Super cool!

Sandy Springs

Yacht Rock played a really cool concert in Sandy Springs last night at their local amphitheater.   About 1,000 people crammed in there to see us on a nice Sunday night.  We played well, we had fun, and Kip made us sound good.  What more could you want?

Here are a couple of cool photos in the midst of me not playing a bunch of buuuullllllshhhiiiiittt on either The Biggest Part of Me or Takin' it to the Streets.  Take your pick--it's the same saxophone diarrhea in either C or D.  Not my best playing.

(photo cred:  Nicole Jerovics)

(photo cred:  Chadwick Hunter)

Our next big Atlanta show is July 19 in Piedmont Park.  Come see us!

The Usual Stuff

Yacht Rock played a wedding last night--a pretty normal gig of two sets.  Things of note:

1.  The first dance was a Depeche Mode song called Somebody.  The mother/son dance was Take Me Home, Country Roads.  An immense distance between two genres spanned in a matter of minutes.

2.  There were multiple speeches/toasts.  Most people had their notes on their phones (one guy had his notes on a iPad).  Very strange to see people holding the microphone (not near their faces for some reason) in one hand and their phone in the other.  Sign of the times.

3.  On our break, a partygoer came into our dressing room asking for drugs.

The room looked very nice, and because we had Kip running sound for us, sounded better than it ever has.  We should take that guy everywhere we go.

Also, this guy:

Freaky Friday

I played two gigs yesterday--a bizarre trio gig and then a pretty normal Yacht Rock gig.

My trio gig was a last minute call to provide background music for an awards ceremony at a hotel in Buckhead.  We set up on stage in the back of the room, ready to roll.  Right from the start, the staff asked us to play softer because there was a meeting on the other side of the air wall.  It was kind of hard to believe because the attendees walking in were drowning us out, and then the MC made announcements through the PA...I beg to differ that volume was an issue.  Whatever...the bigger issue at hand was that no one quite seemed to know the flow of the event.  A half hour into the gig, they began the program, so we took a break.  "How long is the program?" I asked one of the coordinators. "An hour."  The trio found a place to hang out in a sitting area.

A half hour later, I went to see how things were progressing, only to find that they WEREN'T DOING THE AWARDS!  They were eating!  Uhhh...are we supposed to be playing?  Nobody knew (or apparently cared).  I gathered Nick and Kevin and we prepared to play for what was left of lunch, only to be told that there were four minutes left and then the awards would begin.  So...back to being on break?  The same coordinator came over to us and said, "We're going to be talking for the rest of the program, so y'all can pack up."  Oh...kay.  We pulled our gear out into the pre function area, packed up, and left.  Three songs.  What the hell just happened?

The Yacht Rock gig was at a golf course, one of those repeat events from last year and the year before.  We squeezed onto a too small stage for three sets.

First set, nobody acknowledged us;  second set, really excited about us;  third set, pandemonium.  We even broke the neighborhood curfew for a quick encore of Footloose.

We had Pete and Monkey back.  Monkey played a particularly awesome solo on Two Tickets to Paradise.

North Carolina

Another fun weekend!  Yacht Rock was in North Carolina this past weekend with a public show Friday night and a wedding Saturday.  North Carolina is always good to us.  Specifically, your women are really hot.  Thanks.

We had Matt Reed subbing for Monkey on guitar and the Dude from the Shadowboxers subbing for Pete.  Both did an excellent job filling in!

Friday:  We played in Charlotte at the NC Music Factory, which looks like a loading dock in the middle of a group of restaurants.  The last time we played here there were major problems with the stage and the tin roof over it--namely, every time the bass played a G, the whole thing would sympathetically vibrate with it.  Peg was a lot of fun that night.

On this trip we had Kip with us.  Yay!  No rattling Gs.  Kip can make any venue sound good--this was a great gig because he was there.  

Matt Reed

Kip

We had a really good crowd!  I think Charlotte should definitely be a regular stop on our trips to the Northeast.

Saturday:  we drove to Highlands, NC for a wedding reception.  Weren't we just here?  We were just here.

color coordinated suit and binder

Dude's pants are too tight

What can I say about this wedding reception?  Nothing.  It was easy.  We sat around for hours beforehand.  I ate all the pineapple.  It was over at 11.  We drove home afterwards.

Sunday:  Church gig.  The band leader noticed that I was playing clarinet instead of soprano saxophone.  I think I switched about five weeks ago.  My mix sounded good, though the piano still doesn't have much presence.  I'm still thinking about getting a better microphone for the job.

Sin and Salvation

The gigs continue!  Following Thursday's Eddie Money experience, we played a wedding reception, a dive bar, and a church parking lot.

Saturday:  We played a friend of the band's wedding in Johns Creek.  Nothing unusual about this reception to report, though the crowd was waaaaaaay above average in looks.  Also, the pre-gig meal was excellent.  The only crappy thing about this gig was the load in/out.  At the end of the night, pushing our gear through down a wet, dirty hallway with broken glass was kind of crappy.

Sunday:  Up at the crack of dawn to fly to Dallas, TX for a gig.  We played a birthday party at a dive bar near SMU.  The guy in the seat next to me transformed into a mummy soon after we took off.

Thankfully, we had no problems with Delta even though we were flying a ton of gear--four keyboards, my sax box (with 2 saxes, EWI, flute, piccolo, and 2 sax stands), and a bass guitar checked.  Maybe our hometown airline is getting it together?  The guy mentioned something about my case being overweight but ok, and with a little research I found out that Silver medallion members (our company credit card) have a higher weight allowance (70 lbs) which extends to everyone on the reservation.  A ha!  That's going to be our first point in the argument with Delta counter people from now on, as the language on the Delta website is very clear.

We landed at DFW and one of those Mercedes sprinter vans picked us up.  Very cool.  I wish we had one of these.

We had plenty of down time before load in, so after lunch at Urban Taco (excellent!) I took a stroll around the SMU campus.  

Wish I'd known the pool was open!

So, the bar...much like the 10 High in Atlanta (that is not a compliment).  The steps to the stage were a couple of glassware trays with gaffe tape.  

made out of these

The sound guy misread the stage plot and wired the inputs and monitors backwards--a mirror image of the stage.  We set up normally anyway.

The stage sound was not good.  There were a couple of resonant notes in this corner of the room, and when Greg would play a G or a Bb they were three times as loud as everything else.  I guess the sound guy didn't know how to get rid of that.  We also had a few squeaky microphones and ever changing monitor levels.  I think the sound guy might have been a little overwhelmed.  Another instance where it would probably be worth the expense to bring our own sound man.  

Shannon Pengelly subbed on guitar with us and did a fine job.

We haven't played a gig on a stage like this in a long time.  I can't say that I miss it.

The most significant part of this experience was the male stripper who popped/fell out of the giant cake and gave the birthday girl a dance on stage.  This was a first!

I'm not the only one taking a solo in this picture

Monday:  5:30 AM lobby call for our ride back to the airport.  Once again, no problems checking our gear.  The guy didn't even weigh the sax box--he just asked me how heavy it was.  I rounded down.

Our next gig was a fundraiser at a church in Buckhead, playing a concert in their parking lot.  Shortly after load in, the sky opened up, and we thought that the gig might get canceled.  

Eventually the weather cleared up and the gig went off without a hitch.  We had Matt Reed and the dude from the Shadowboxers (Matt) on the gig.  Both Monkey and Pete are on vacation this week.

Whew!  We have a few days off before our next show--Friday at the NC Music Factory in Charlotte.