Yacht Rock played three gigs in New England this past weekend; Thursday night in Providence, Rhode Island, and then two nights at The Royale in Boston.
Thursday: There aren't a lot of flights between Atlanta and Providence, so we had to go early, landing around noon. After lunch, there was still plenty of time to kill, so I went for a run. Chilly, but not freezing.
The gig was at a club called Fete Music Hall, and it seemed to be in a warehouse district, but that whole part of Providence looked a little rough. The gig was mostly a war of attrition--we were all pretty tired and fried from a long day. Even though the turnout was good for our first time here (286 in a room that could hold 730) and it sounded good, we were all ready to go to bed.
Video evidence of our gig:
Friday: Night one in Boston. A pretty slammin' gig! We had Keisha and Kourtney Jackson joining us as background vocalists, and Robbie Dupree came up to sing a few with us as well. Just over 800 in attendance, even though the gig was sold out--we're guessing that those 200 people stayed home to watch the Red Sox. That excuse is lame. We were finished by 9:30, and I was in bed in my hotel room by 11 PM, watching the game (didn't stay up for all eighteen innings, though).
You can hear just how loud the crowd is in this one:
Saturday: A Nor'easter hit New England, so today was a day of hiding in our hotel, waiting for the gig.
Night two was also sold out, and only hundred or so people failed to show. Another boisterous crowd and another entertaining gig. What else can I say? Boston was tremendous.
Vids:
And this...
Sunday: Not a Yacht Rock gig, but I do want to mention that I killed it on my church gig this week--it was half classical/chamber music style stuff and half improvising, and I was all over it. I'm still enjoying the challenge of it, too.
Monday night (now a week ago), Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo played at Elliot Street Pub, just blocks from where the Falcons were playing the Giants on Monday Night Football. The entire area was choked with cars, either parked or searching for parking. What a mess. I tried a lot near the pub, but turned away when the guy wanted $60. I ended up in a street spot about ten minutes away.
The band was Scott, John Sandfort on tenor, Nick Johnson on guitar, Nick Rosen on keyboard, Jon Chalden on drums, and me (also on tenor). Pay no attention to this photograph.
It was a little bit like Mardi Gras--the band set up on the sidewalk, people standing around in the street with drinks, obnoxiously loud tailgaters across from us, and a constant stream of jerseys into and out of Elliot Street. The playing was fun as always--Nick Johnson pretty much destroyed the other three of us who were also charged with soloing--and the hang was great. We finished just after 8 PM.
I walked back to my truck to find a $25 parking ticket, which is probably what I would've paid to park legally, so...there's that. It's annoying for a gig that only paid $75, though.
Buckhead is weird, man. Weird vibes. I don't get it.
Thursday night, I played a trio gig in Buckhead--strictly background music for some kind of corporate mixer. Maybe 200 people in the room, and several of them seemed to be going out of their way to stand as close to band as possible while holding conversations, all the while seemingly oblivious to us. Later in the evening, a man, armed with a small PA and a wireless microphone, shouted over us (and the indifferent crowd) instead of asking us to stop for his announcements. Very strange. Sometimes it feels like people don't know what live music looks like up close, so they treat us like furniture, or catering.
Anyway, enough about that. The gig was with Nick Rosen (keyboard) and Robby Handley (bass), and once again it's been way too long since I've done a jazz trio gig (maybe a year at this point), and I was anxious about whether or not I could remember any tunes and/or play over changes. Much to my surprise, things went very well, and I was actually really happy with what was coming out of my horn. It definitely helped to have such musically eloquent friends with me--Nick and Robby were great. Pretty easy gig, and the check was in my mailbox when I returned home. Boom!
Friday night, Yacht Rock played the Buckhead Theatre, just down the street from my Thursday gig. The ownership has done a lot to improve the sound of this room, but it's still not quite there--things are very boomy and noisy on stage. I heard that it was good out front, though, so that's good, though I think that's mostly because our front of house guy, Kip, is extremely good at his job.
We had a pretty good crowd--around a thousand people, I think--and they were pretty into what we were doing, but maybe not? It was tough to get a read on these people. We would get a pretty big reaction for a song, but it would completely die away before we could start the next, so...I don't know what that means. They were weird. It's Buckhead.
The setlist was a mix of regular songs, some Thriller album cuts, some that we brought back (Frankenstein, Tiny Dancer, and Sister Christian), and a new one (More Than a Feeling, featuring a killer vocal by Nick). Greg really nailed the vocals on Sister Christian. For me, it was a pretty even show, playing-wise.
Saturday afternoon, we all drove up to the mountains to play a wedding reception at a winery. The weather was really beautiful in the afternoon.
super cool VW bus/photo booth
Unfortunately, once the sun went down, the winds started whipping through the tent (at one point, it nearly carried away the catering tent just outside of the reception). The first set got colder and colder, and by halfway through, most of my fingers were numb, which made playing saxophone and EWI interesting, to say the least. On the break, my hands thawed out and the catering people shut one of the tent flaps, and we survived a second set that ended just before midnight. Immediately following was one of our fastest load outs, and the seven of us raced back down 400 with the heat on.
Sunday afternoon, I was back in Buckhead, this time a little south of the Theatre to play my church gig. Mostly flute, but I gave 'em some piccolo for the last song. Cold again, though my fingers didn't go numb this time.
Church musicians are a different breed altogether, with their own humor and eccentricities--it's like playing in the pit for a religious theatre show...I'll just leave it at that.
I had two gigs this past weekend; Thursday night, I played with Rob Opitz's Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Saturday night was a Yacht Rock gig, though different because we had several subs. I guess that I should mention my third gig of the weekend as well--I've been back in the church gig scene.
Thursday's gig with the ALJO was their monthly show at Venkman's, and we all squeezed onto the stage and hammered out complicated big band charts. Fortunately for me, I got the set list a week and a half before, so I'd played this show ten times before the day of the show, and was therefore very comfortable with all the syncopations and awkward licks. I held down the bari sax/bass clarinet chair for the night, a nice change of pace from my other gigs. The band is stacked with some of the heaviest guys in town, so there is understandably A LOT of solo time, but the charts are really hip, and the band crushes it. Check out how well the ensemble plays together.
Though the camera has trouble focusing, here we are!
Saturday's gig is was a repeat customer from the previous year--a benefit for mental health facility. I wasn't sure what to expect, though, because we would be missing Mark Bencuya, as well a Nick on the front line. Scott Sheriff came down from Nashville to sub for Bencuya, and Keisha and Kourtney Jackson subbed for Nick, and the set list was duly shuffled to accommodate the different voices. I wondered if the crowd would be disappointed, but everybody was cool. The first set was a pretty tame, almost corporate vibe, but everybody came forward to dance at the beginning of the second set, and it got pretty wild (as wild as you can get in the Atlanta suburbs). Done by 10 PM, home way before midnight. Perfect weather.
As I mentioned, I'm back on the church gig thing after a year and a half out of it, and I'm liking it so far. It's an afternoon gig, it's all on flute, it's mostly just reading charts, and nobody cares what I did the night before. I'm using it to keep my flute playing together.
Thursday: We played a fundraiser for a recycling center in Atlanta. The usual corporate gig level of energy and enthusiasm. Pretty painless, and we finished at 10, so I was home by 11:30 (which was amazing).
I'm a big proponent of recycling, and this fundraiser was aimed at helping a center which handles hard-to-recycle stuff (paint, tires, styrofoam, weapons grade plutonium, etc). While this is all super awesome, it was extremely disappointing that there was no recycling bin in the band's dressing room, which means that all of this more common and easy-to-recycle plastic is probably going to the dump.
Plastics are now in the food chain, people. It's a serious problem.
Friday: Country club party. Another low energy easy one. This one ended at 10 PM as well, and we had some grumpy dancers. Evidently they messed up their scheduling, and they should've done 8:30-11 instead of 7:30-10. We'll try again next year.
Saturday: Off to Athens for a sold out show at the Georgia Theatre!
Finally, a gig with an audience! The Georgia Theatre is a great room--they've finally got the sound issues fixed. This was a particularly excellent crowd, and Kip really nailed it on the sound.
Here's the show. Looks and sounds as great as it felt on stage.
Friday: We played The Fred (the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater) in Peachtree City for the third time, and for the third year in a row, we had rain. The crowd persevered, though, and it stopped just in time for us to begin.
This was not our usual show--for one thing, we had Ganesh Giri Jaya on drums, plus a horn section of Rob Opitz, Sam Skelton, and Wes Funderburk. Additionally, we played an entire first set of Beatles songs, something we haven't done in a few months. Everything turned out great. Good gig.
Saturday: Our Saturday gig was a private party in Louisville, so another airplane ride, another tent, another pair of backline keyboards. This was a good one, though--the backline was excellent, the tent sounded pretty good, the weather was just about perfect, and the crowd was into it. All in all, it made for a pretty easy night.
pretty dog halfway through my run
country club gig=brushing and mouthwash
The roughest thing about this gig (other than some dipshit Lyft drivers) was the tiny tent where we hung out--comfortable for four, very tight for nine. Plus, lots of mosquitos. Cell reception was fine, though.
This week, the Yacht Rock Revue went to Florida for a couple of gigs before returning to Atlanta for a Saturday night gig at Venkman's.
Thursday: The Beacham in Orlando. I'm pretty sure I saw Tower of Power play here in the early 90s.
While I'm happy that we're in a venue closer to Orlando (previous gigs at the House of Blues next to Disney are far away from most of our target audience), I don't think The Beacham is going to be our new favorite place to play. Decent crowd for a Thursday.
Friday: Tallahassee.
we hit a lot of bugs
Friday's show was a street party before Saturday's FSU game. We'd played one of these maybe three years ago, and it was enough of a success that they've been trying to get us back every year since then.
Quite a party! Even if they had no idea who we were, the crowd was good and enthusiastic, and pretty entertaining. We had one drunk girl climb the barricade, pull herself on stage, get escorted off, and immediately returned to her spot in the front row before we'd finished the next song. The cops took up positions on the back corner of the stage soon afterwards.
Saturday: Atlanta. We got drove home from south Georgia Saturday morning and set up for a birthday party at Venkman's. It was us, but it wasn't specifically a Yacht Rock gig--a little of everything. Some Tom Petty, some U2, so Zeppelin, some Beatles, and some of our regular stuff. An easy night.
Back to Indy, this time for a corporate gig. This one was an 80s themed party, and though it started with an awkward quiz from the client (..."You got some Jump (Van Halen) for me?"..."Um, no"..."You got something from Top Gun?"..."Uh, no, but we do have Kenny Loggins on the set list"..."You got some Wham?"..."No, but we could do some George Michael") and took about forty-five minutes to get the people movin' and groovin', we eventually won them over. Easy gig, good backline, a pretty venue, and really nice people. Plus, check out the incredible backdrop for the stage!
This was a long one by Yacht Rock Revue standards--three shows in California, two days off in Salt Lake City, a travel day, and then three shows in Colorado.
Friday: We flew from home (Atlanta) to Los Angeles to meet up with our gear (which had been driven west earlier in the week).
After a nap, I watched the movie about Mr. Rogers, Won't You Be My Neighbor. Excellent stuff, even on this tiny screen!
Two nights at the El Rey!...
...but first, a short run around Beverly Hills!
There's an Indian restaurant across the street from the El Rey. I ate there before both shows on this trip. I think Samuel L. Jackson was in there on the second night. Otherwise, it was a guy who looked exactly like him who gave me a look like "Don't you DARE stop and say anything to me."
Night one was a little clunky for me. We added two new songs--Even the Nights Are Better and Tiny Dancer. I always need a half dozen attempts of playing my parts with the band before I can be comfortable, so it felt in both cases like I was chasing the music. We also hadn't played together in a week, so there was some rust there, too. It was enough to get the machine up and running, though.
We were super damn tired by the time this one ended. Fortunately, we did not have to pack up and load out!
When we finally headed for the van, somebody was shooting a car commercial in front of the theater.
There was a waxy Robert Pattinson (on the right) in the lobby of our hotel.
I went to bed at 1:30 AM, which felt like 4:30 AM. Long day.
Saturday: Slept like a dead guy, then went for a run. We were right down the street from the Hollywood Bowl, so I ran by it.
I made a left and headed up the hill, but ran out of sidewalk. When I crossed the street, the intersection was the end of Mulholland (a street I've heard of!), so I ran/walked up Mulholland.
Not the best place to run--no sidewalks! So I headed back down the hill on the other side, passed Hollywood High School (I guess I never thought there was such a thing in real life), and headed back to the hotel.
After lunch, I took a short lap around the area.
many a hit record has been recorded here
Jimmy Kimmel Live is just a stage in their parking lot
The Chinese Theatre. Star Wars opened here. Nuff said.
funny internet stuff from Friday night
Night two at the El Rey was, for the most part, much better. Sleep, food, and one gig down helped, and the sold out room gave us extra energy. Special guests for the evening: Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass, Peter Beckett of Player, Matthew Wilder, and Joe Sumner (Gordon Sumner's son).
The two new songs were better for me (though still not nearly perfect), and I recall a moment in Tiny Dancer when we hammering it and I thought "Holy shit! This sounds just like the record!" and the emotion of the song really hit me. On the other hand, I was so mad by the time I'd finished fucking up Minute by Minute that I thought I was going to have to leave the stage. Also an emotional moment, I guess.
All in all, though, this one had a lot of fire behind it--we put on a great show for a packed house.
Sunday: Pete told me that he and Nick had hiked in a canyon around the corner from our hotel, so I thought I'd stay off Mulholland and check this out instead. I think I took a wrong turn going up the hill, though, because the trail got really narrow, and I was ducking under branches and crawling up inclines on my hands and knees.
I finally reached the top of the ridge and headed down a much more organized path.
And then, off to San Diego! But first, a shitty Mexican lunch.
The Music Box in San Diego is a cool venue.
The lighting guy reeeeeaaaaaallly loved his haze machine, and at some points I wondered if I was even visible in the cloud. Also, this light was blinding.
Surprisingly, this was another great show--no big letdown after Saturday night's big gig, and the crowd was tremendous, especially on a Sunday night. I am also happy to report that I had none of the wireless microphone problems that I'd had the last time we were here. Note for Future Dave: select microphone frequency AA next time--it's clear.
Monday: The van and trailer headed east, so we a few days to kill. I went for a long run before our flight from San Diego to Salt Lake City.
Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, but we got upgraded. Free bananas!
Salt Lake City--went for another run, ate at an Indian restaurant, went to bed early, slept like a dead guy.
Tuesday: nothing to do all day. I walked to the campus of the University of Utah and went swimming at the pool.
After lunch (more Indian food!), I detoured over to see the Mormon Temple.
Got it. Seen it. The rest of the day consisted of a run and more Indian food (not the other way around, thank you very much).
Wednesday: A run, some breakfast...
And then the van picked us up to drive to Colorado.
Amazing scenery in the Utah desert.
I drove today, so two bananas and three oranges.
We spent the night in Grand Junction, Colorado. The usual stuff: a run, dinner at an Indian restaurant. When I returned to our room, though, my running clothes smelled so bad that I had to use the hotel laundry.
Thursday: Scenes from my run.
Just for the record, I ate Indian food for lunch.
The trek to Aspen! More driving, more beautiful scenery!
This evening's show was at the Belly Up in Aspen. We had to set up early so that they could show the Thursday night NFL game first.
what a sweetie!
the last time we were here, these hills were covered in snow
Another packed show! This place holds 450, and if I remember correctly, we had 415. Pretty cool, especially on a Thursday night where we've only played once before.
Friday: a little run before we left for Boulder.
our hotel
wildfire burn
The Boulder Theater show was tremendous. It was nice to stretch out on stage after behind jammed into the Belly Up. The room was once again very full, and very excited to see us, we played well, and I almost got Even the Nights Are Better and Minute by Minute completely right.
Saturday: After Friday's show, we went ahead and drove to Denver to spend the night so that we could spend two nights in the same hotel. Sooooo...I went for a run, and then went to a hipster Indian restaurant for lunch.
just a statue in a parking lot
Last gig! The Ogden Theatre in Denver. What a neat room! Things sounded really good in my ears, and we almost sold this one out. I can't believe how many people showed up--it was kind of amazing. We played pretty well, but it also felt like we were getting tired.
Sunday: We made it! Denver-->Atlanta. 3 hours home.
