Big trip time! The Yacht Rock Revue was out for over a week, with our initial foray into Colorado, a private gig in San Francisco, and then gigs in San Diego and Los Angeles (and a clunker in Vegas).
Saturday: We flew from Atlanta to Denver. Our gear had left earlier in the week, and Hans (driver of the gear) handed off the van and trailer off to us at the airport.
"We've landed on Hoth!" said Zach, after we touched down in the midst of a snowstorm. I've never seen that much snow at an airport before, but I guess if you travel through this airport, you get used to it.
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| another thing I've never seen: baggage claim for skis! |
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| Mile High Stadium |
Our first stop (after hitting the dispensary--Colorado has legal weed now) was the Gothic Theater in Englewood. It reminded me of the Vogue in Indianapolis, and holds approximately the same number of people. Bigger dressing rooms, though!
Surprise! Our first gig in Colorado, and we came within twenty people of selling it out (1030 in the room). How'd that happen? Who knows, but that's pretty cool. We played pretty well--
Minute by Minute was still a work in progress, but we added
Hold the Line-one of my favorites that we've tried to play in the past.
Here's video of the show:
After the show, we drove on to Boulder to spend the night.
Sunday: The next stop on this run was (obviously) Boulder. But first, we had most of the day to kill in this really cool town.
I went for a run. The altitude didn't seem to be a big factor, but there was lots of slush and still slippery snow.
On the way back, I stopped to meander through University Bicycles, the largest bike shop I've ever been in. If we're back here again with time to kill (and no snow on the ground), I might have to rent a bike.
Lunch: vegan pizza from Whole Foods. Lots of veggies and no cheese...
...and then a stop at another bike shop. Lots of cyclocross bikes here.
So...Boulder Theater. Nice room, big stage, plenty of dressing rooms (this time with heat!). We didn't knock it out of the park with the attendance, but it was solid--a couple of hundred people on a Sunday night is pretty damn good.
Monday: Off to Aspen, but before that, another run. It was too cold to go outside, so I ran on the treadmill.
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| hell no |
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| the view from our hotel room |
The ride to Aspen was beautiful, weaving through the mountains, in and out of the snow. The weather seemed to be completely different depending on which side of the mountain you were on.
At one point, we were crawling up a hill in a heavy snowstorm, and I wondered if we'd make it to the show.
Finally, we arrived at the Belly Up in Aspen. Despite it's small size, it's a legendary venue, hosting acts such as:
Widespread Panic, John Prine, The Flaming Lips, Jane’s Addiction, Thievery Corporation, The Raconteurs, Ben Harper, B.B. King, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Pitbull, SEAL, ZZ Top, Chris Isaak, Gomez, G Love, Bassnectar, John Legend, Damian Marley and Nas, Stephen Marley, Lucinda Williams, Snoop Dogg, Tiësto, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker, Wyclef Jean, Ice Cube, Umphrey's McGee and many, many more.
We had a great night! I think the room was (by the numbers) half full, but it didn't feel half empty, and people were digging it. I wouldn't be surprised if it sold out the next time we come through here.
Tuesday: We spent the night at a hotel in Snowmass, with rooms, as Monkeyboy put it, "made out of spare parts."
By far, the strangest thing in this room was the vintage "artwork."
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| A well hung family |
Onward! We flew a regional jet to LAX. Most of us were upgraded to first class!
The Aspen airport is surrounded by mountains, so we went all the way to the end of the runway, gunned the engines, and just cleared the ridge at take off.
Very pretty views once we were aloft.
From LA, we turned north and flew to San Francisco, landing on a perfect afternoon in the Bay area.
We each had our own hotel room for the two nights we were in town to play a corporate party (same people who took us to Greece last year). Sweeeeeeet! Two blocks away from Fisherman's Wharf.
I set out on a run. My first thought was to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, but I got there a half hour after they'd closed it to pedestrian traffic for the evening.
I worked my way back the Presidio. (Meg Ryan never looked better than in
The Presidio)...
...through the Palace of Fine Arts (built for the World's Fair to show the world that San Fran was back from the earthquake of 1908)...
...back across the city...
...down Lombard Street...
...up Telegrah Hill to check out Coit Tower...
...down the hill to the Transamerica Building...
...and back out to the piers along the bay.
I was tired. Two burritos for dinner, and I crashed.
Wednesday: I slept late and then went for a walk around the Wharf.
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| Alcatraz in the bay |
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| also, this bird in the bay |
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| tulips for Beth |
We had a mid day load in/set up (backlined gear for this show--our van and trailer were in route from Aspen to San Diego). Pretty good gear from SIR San Fran (the guitars were not so good, though).
We had the afternoon off, so I went for another run, this time exploring a different part of the city.
First, I went by The Fillmore....
...and then the hill (Alamo Square) from the opening of the TV show
Full House...
...then past City Hall...
...and this sweet Mustang...
...and the turnaround for the trolley. Pretty cool.
The gig this evening was a bit of a snoozer--two hours in a dark, cavernous room. Easy enough, I guess, but not the manic energy we'd experienced at our recent public shows. We finished around midnight, packed up, and headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep.
Thursday: Surprise! The fire alarm went off at 1:40 AM. I think I'd fallen asleep around 1, and we had to be in the lobby at 5:45. This sucked. Everybody outside!
We were almost immediately sent back inside. Somebody had burned something in the lobby's snack shop microwave. However, the two guys manning the front desk had a lot of trouble turning off the alarm. For maybe ten minutes after I'd crawled back in bed, a different alarm went off, with the request from the front desk to disregard it (he kept saying something like "please return to your daily business," which I think must have been a mistranslation).
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| Zach's solution |
So...5:45 AM. Off to the airport for a flight to San Diego, connecting through LA. Greeeaaaat. We did get upgraded again, which was cool. I slept for the entire flight.
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| the Bay Bridge in San Fran |
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| front row seats |
LAX had stress relief dogs that you could pet while you were waiting to board. What a sweetheart!
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| leaving LAX |
I woke up when we touched down in San Diego, and actually didn't feel too bad. We passed Jason Nackers (who drove the gear from Aspen) at the gate, hopped in the van, and headed to the gig.
We played The Music Box in San Diego. Great sounding room, though I think the giant video screen behind us gave off a lot of interference--every sax solo had issues with the microphone dropping out, and there was plenty of static to dodge. Still, the crowd was pumped (our second show EVER in San Diego, and the first in years).
We had a little bit of time, so I went for a short run around the bay.
Fun night. I like this place. It feels like it will be sold out the next time we play here.
After the show, we drove about an hour out of San Diego, making the longest day even longer.
Friday: Across the desert to Las Vegas.
Tonight's venue was another "Top Golf," but unlike the one in Nashville, this show was not in a separate room--it was up against a giant video screen, and we looked out at about fifty TV screens and the actual driving range. Very distracting.
I went for the customary pre-gig run.
This was our weirdest show of entire run, but the idea of playing a public gig here doesn't make much sense--everybody that works in Vegas is in the entertainment/service industry, so who's around to check us out on a Friday night? I think sixty people showed up. The entire set was a grind, and I was distracted and disinterested. Also, we were basically outside, and my hands got colder and colder as I sat there. Glad to be finished with this one.
We stayed in the Tropicana (woo? no.). Only in Vegas is there a line twenty people deep trying to check into a hotel at 12:30 AM, and the guys at the counter couldn't have been much more inefficient.
Saturday: Headed back to L.A. for the grand finale of this trip.
The big gig of the week was a sold out show at the El Rey, a super cool art deco theater. This place looked and sounded great--a perfect compliment to our music.
Since this is L.A., we had several friends sit in--Robbie Dupree (
Steal Away) with Brian Ray (
Etta James, Paul McCartney), Matthew Wilder (
Break My Stride), Elliot Lurie (
Brandy), and Peter Beckett (
Baby Come Back). This was the most important gig on the run, and fortunately, it was the most exciting. We crushed it.
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| Brian Ray's SG |
It was an amazing night.
Here's Peter Beckett doing his thing.
And here are a bunch of professional photos from the show:
After the show, we headed to our hotel by LAX. When we walked in, there was NO ONE AT THE FRONT DESK FOR NEARLY 10 MINUTES! Finally, some doofus employee came out of the elevator. He completely screwed up our rooms. Total moron. I thought Nick was going to strangle him.
We slept for a couple of hours. It didn't matter because we were finally going home!
Sunday: Our flight was delayed. All of the people in this picture got on the plane. I slept for two thirds of the trip. It's good to be home. The end.
