Let Me Explain

What's been going on? Let me explain.

The day after Thanksgiving, Yacht Rock is playing a short set at Criminal Records in Atlanta--it's scheduled for thirty to forty-five minutes of music, and we're going to play several of our originals. Because there's a TON of keyboard stuff on our stuff, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were marathons of programming and practicing to get ready for Wednesday's rehearsal (plus, there was a fair amount of apathy which drug the whole process out). Anyway, Wednesday, big rehearsal on little sleep. We survived--Bencuya and I were, I think, pretty pleased that we were somehow able to cover pretty much everything that needed to be there without any sonic holes.

Wednesday night, I totally switched gears and practiced music for my Thursday big band gig. I worked through everything enough that I felt pretty comfortable. Luckily, I was playing the same book (tenor 1) that I played last month, so a big chunk of the music was somewhat familiar. At the end of the night, I went over the Yacht Rock music one more time to make sure it was still organized in my head.

Thursday was another rehearsal, and everything was a little bit more comfortable than the day before. I didn't even need to reference the charts that I'd written for any of it. Thursday night, I played with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra at Venkman's.

Here's the gig. You'll probably want to skip to 39:45 unless you want to watch the high school band that opened for us.



So...Friday, Yacht Rock played at Venkman's.

I felt good, playing-wise. Played some pretty rippin' stuff.

Today was our first time using these new keyboard stand things. I think they achieve the desired look and they were plenty comfortable enough to use on the gig, but they are extremely frustrating for setup--figuring out how to route all the cables through it easily added fifteen minutes to building my keyboards. I'm sure it'll get easier once I figure out a system, but goddamnit. That didn't even include the time it takes to actually unfold and set the stand up. We're going to need a crew guy for this, or I might light mine on fire.

In other news, or first single has a remix by Jamie Lidell. Check it out.

Another Light Week

 Last week was light--just a Wednesday corporate gig in Atlanta at the Hyatt downtown.

I'll be honest...I know nothing about who hired us, what they do, what the event was for--nothing. We played ninety minutes, then packed up our gear and split. It was easy and mindless. The only musical moment that I can think of is that I quoted Wayne Shorter's Footprints in I Can't Go For That. I want to think that the audience really dug that.

Friday, I got called to play a gig, but Yacht Rock had a video/photo shoot thing, so I couldn't go.

Sunday, I had my church gig and played pretty comfortably. I didn't have much time to practice flute this week, so I was relieved that my face held up as well as it did on the gig.


This week has a couple of rehearsals, an Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra gig on Thursday night, and a Yacht Rock gig Friday night. Yee haw.

Not Much to Say About This

Friday: Yacht Rock played Bogart's in Cincinnati. Our third time, I think.

Duke on security!

All the usual stuff here. The gear came in, we set it up, soundcheck was quick and painless, and then I walked to an Indian place about a half mile away. The food is good (hadn't had Indian food in quite a while), but the styrofoam and plastic spoon hurt my soul.

We had plenty of downtime between soundcheck and the show (9 PM start), so I made use of it by warming up a bit more than usual. I felt pretty loose on the gig.

This room filled up quite nicely, and it was cool to see some familiar faces.

Saturday: Louisville. I like this room, too.

All the same things apply here--the gear came in, we set up and sound checked (this one also sounds good), went to eat (tonight at the Mediterranean place a few doors down), played a whole bunch of stuff on flute and saxophone in the name of warming up. We started at 9 PM.

Tonight was the first night where the response to us playing Africa was just kind of average. Has Africa's popularity crested? It's ok with me if it has.

Just like last night, the room was sixty or seventy percent full. Not packed, but no empty pockets on the floor. Another solid show, and some people made the trip from Cincy to see us two nights in a row.

Sunday: For the record, I redeemed myself on my church gig this weekend. My flute face was back to normal.

Privates

We successfully returned home from Charlotte on Monday at lunch time.

Tuesday morning, we were off again, this time to Miami for a corporate event. Matt Reed subbed on guitar for Mark Dannells (who was able to drag himself out of his South Carolina hotel room and make it back to Atlanta).

The gig was a major clunker. Very few attendees bothered to come back to the ballroom, so we played to maybe a dozen dudes (maybe one or two women, as well) who stood on the far side of the dance floor and watched us. This went on for two hours straight.

We flew home from Miami Wednesday morning.

Friday: Bonus church gig Friday for All Saints' Day, and my face was like James Friggin' Galway. Seriously, I wish my flute playing felt this easy every time--it makes it that much worse when I play like crap.

Saturday, we flew to Jacksonville to play a wedding for a couple of fans. An outdoor wedding in a tent on the beach...hmm...the weather worried me.

Nice gig, though! The weather was never an issue, the tent didn't sound bad, the crowd was great (the bride and groom are fans of the band and have seen us at multiple shows), and Georgia beat Florida (so Kip was happy).

Jason Nackers filled in on drums and Rob Henson played bass. I've been a fan of Rob's playing back to our college days twenty-five years ago, and he was awesome again tonight. Nackers was spot on with everything, and his new jacket looked very cool. Excellent sub work by both.

Sunday: Oh, hey shitty flute face. I was AWFUL at my church gig. My chops felt terrible and sounded bad until about halfway through the service, and it would've been cool if God had helped me in this time of need, but he didn't. Long tones in between the rehearsal and service did. A good nap would've helped even more.

Last Week's Roundup

Friday: Yacht Rock headed up to the northeastern corner of Georgia, hopped the state line, and continued into South Carolina until we reached Walhalla. Never heard of it? You're not alone.

I'm guessing this was some sort of local concert series. 

It looks like a old school auditorium, smells like an old auditorium. A charming little room. Sounded good, though.

I don't remember much about the gig, but it did enjoy the chance to sit on a bench outside for about an hour and practice. Actually, that's not true. The room was so dark, I never saw anyone in the audience. I remember that.

Saturday: We played at The Senate in Columbia, South Carolina for the first time today. Since we were early to load in and the weather was perfect, I had a chance to walk around the state capitol complex and some of the University of South Carolina campus.

By the time I made it back, set up was in progress. We played this gig with the drum riser pushed off-center and turned thirty degrees, and no one that I asked had any explanation why. It didn't change anything sound-wise, so...I don't know.

A couple of other things about this one:

1. Mark Dannells woke up feeling pretty sick, and by the time we started this gig, he was in hell--he kept a stool onstage next to his amp, and ended up playing a couple of songs sitting down.

2. Pete's guitar pedal had some sort of issue during the gig, so Zack came out to check on it. In the process of crawling between my keyboards and the drum riser, he must've stepped on the mic cable for my saxophone stuff such that it immediately started going in and out (which I fixed by kicking my effects pedal a few times).

3. The Indian restaurant that I selected was closed. I went instead to the Mediterranean place next door because they had "vegetable curry" on the menu posted in the window. "Vegetable curry" turned out to be steamed veggies dumped over rice, which was blah.

Other than that, it was a pretty good gig. I had a better Biggest Part of Me solo than the night before (when I kind of shot my wad too early and played a bunch of crap).

Sunday: We spent the night in Greenville, South Carolina. Monkeyboy was in such poor shape that we left him at the hotel--our sub guitar player, Matt Reed drove up from Atlanta to cover for him. When we called him, he'd just returned home from a gig...in Charlotte! Ouch!

Oh yeah--this is the gig where there's a drain directly in front of the stage, and when the wind blows at you the smell of raw sewage is quite powerful.

Having said that, the weather forecast earlier in the week said there'd be rain and cool/cold temperatures, but this day was pretty perfect for an outdoor event. Yay for that.

On to the gig--Matt Reed played great! It felt like his tenth gig in a row with us. No problems at all.

My gimpy sax mic cable gave out completely at the show, and so Zack opted to completely bypass my effects pedal, which made a lot of the stuff I played feel...underwhelming. I had a spare cable with me, but it was packed away because everything worked fine at soundcheck. Bummer.

Nothing else particularly memorable about this one.

Will Monkeyboy survive? How will he get back to Atlanta? Stay tuned for next week's blog!

Some Different Stuff

Thursday: I was finally in town and able to perform with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra at Venkman's. Such a cool gig--the music is fantastic, and I have as much satisfaction learning the music as I do actually playing with the guys in the band.

The Georgia Tech big band opened for us. I think somebody said that Tech has five big bands--wow! That's more than Indiana had when I was in school. I wonder how many bands the bass player has to play in (usually the problem with multiple big bands)! This particular ensemble had seven saxophones, too--also a problem for jazz programs.

Anyway, ALJO was fun. My preparation was good. Justin Powell's trumpet solos were brilliant. We're back November 21!

Tech big band

Friday afternoon, I got a call to fill in with FunkCake at the Copper Coin in Woodstock. Funk Cake is a modern brass band--trumpet, two saxes, trombone, sousaphone, and drums, and they play their own originals and funny arrangements of modern pop songs. Alex, the leader and trumpeter, brings maniacal energy and big love to the gig. It's silly, yes, but it's also fun, and another opportunity to play saxophone this weekend.

Here's a tune from the gig:



Saturday: It rained all day. Yacht Rock had an outdoor gig. It's gonna get cancelled, right? Nobody's going to show up. The vendors are all gone. We're not going to set up our gear on a wet stage.

Well, guess what...they set up two dry risers in the back of the stage, we played an acoustic/radio set up (2 acoustic guitars, bass, a single keyboard, hand percussion, and me on one saxophone), a handful of people (maybe forty?) showed up, and with the exception of Africa (which I had absolutely no idea how to play on saxophone) and Hey Nineteen (a lesser musical catastrophe where I reached out in the musical darkness and found nothing to hold onto), it was pretty painless. We made the best of it.

Just weird enough to be mostly fun, and I was home early enough to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat dinner.

Sunday: I played my church gig this evening, and my flute face felt great. Not always the case, so I wanted to point it out. Last week, my sound was kind of ragged. A solid week of playing and a good warm up made the difference.

Hooray

Hooray for in-town gigs!

Friday: I got to sub in with Bumpin' the Mango again, in Roswell again (part of their "Music on the Hill" concert series), but this time on bari sax. Neil Newcomb played tenor.

I had a good week of practice leading up to this gig, but things got off to a rough start. On the second tune of the night, I got to PAGE THREE! of What is Hip before realizing that I was playing the tenor chart on bari--since we're a fourth apart pitch-wise, there are weird notes but not a lot of outright clashes that would tell me something was wrong. Instead, I was like, "this feels so familiar but sounds kind of strange." Man, I felt soooooo stupid! Realizing what was happening, I half transposed the tenor chart down a fourth/half played by ear the rest of it.

As soon as the song was over, I deleted the chart from my iPad so there would be no evidence of my wrongdoing! It never happened! Then I spent three or four songs trying to gauge (based purely off facial expressions) whether or not Neil had noticed me on the wrong chart.

The gig got better from there, and in between sets, the sound guys even figured out how to turn on our monitor so that we could hear ourselves (which hopefully means that nobody could  tell what I was doing on What is Hip?).

Me: We can't hear ourselves at all.

Sound guy: I've got you cranked. I can't give you much more.

Me: It feels like it's not on.

Sound guy: I went over there. It's blasting.

Five minutes later, sound guy is over working on our monitor.

Sound guy: I don't know how it happened. Somebody turned the volume all the way down on the wedge. That's why you couldn't hear it.

Me: Huh.

Anyway, good gig! It was easy to pack up one horn, and I was home in twenty minutes without ever getting on the interstate. Gotta love that.

Saturday: Yacht Rock played a fundraiser in John's Creek. Our third (maybe fourth) time playing this same gig. As far as corporate/private gigs go, this one is a breeze…1. it's local; 2. the weather's always nice; 3. the people are cool; 4. it sounds good; 5. there's a noise curfew at 10 PM. Home by midnight. Hell yeah.

In other news, next year's Yacht Rock Revue tour has been announced.

FL-GA-TN

Wednesday: We've had a string of Wednesday gigs going, ending with this one in Grayton Beach, Florida at A.J.'s, a roadside dive bar a half mile north of the Gulf of Mexico. On this particular night, we were guests of Berkshire Hathaway--some sort of corporate party thing, so we crammed the gear onto a tiny stage and got ready to play.

Setting up in this space wasn't too bad, and soundcheck was quick and painless, so I went for a run before dinner. It wasn't too hot, but the humidity made up for it!

For a private gig, this one wasn't too bad--the crowd (which appeared to be mainly middle aged women) was on the dance floor early in the night. Between the people watching and the TV watching (there was a screen in my line of sight that played Gomer Pyle USMC, Green Acres, and two episodes of Hogan's Heroes), I was occupied.

Tuesday night, I'd begun to feel the beginnings of a cold, and around the time we finished this gig, I was dying! I was in bed within minutes of arriving at the hotel, and slept as late as I could.

Thursday: Back in the van, back to Atlanta. I slept in the back seat for as much of the trip as I could.

When we hit town, we went straight to Callanwolde Arts Center for a fundraiser gig. Being more tired and more sick than the day before, this one was that much more difficult to get through.

We made it through, though, and got the gear back in the trailer and went our separate ways. I took my snotty handkerchiefs and sweaty running clothes home and went straight to bed.

Friday: Big fun in the morning. Our dryer died Tuesday night, and Friday was the only time I had to work on the repair (blown thermal fuse).

And then, it was off to Knoxville for our inaugural show at the Mill and Mine! Nice room!

Featuring lots of bead board backstage!

Yay, Knoxville! Who knew almost 900 people would show up on our first night in town? Nice room, nice sounds. I can dig it.

Saturday: On to The Signal in Chattanooga. I like this place, too, for similar reasons. Nice green room, nice stage, good sounds in my ears.

Bonus: we had ample time to go find food after soundcheck, and several of us walked a couple of blocks to a food court/food hall called Market South--basically a collection of several restaurants with group seating in the middle. You order from a big menu and the server takes it from there. Market South had a pizza place, an Asian place, and...

...an Indian place! I had vegetable vindaloo, a side of rice, some kind of dahl, roti, and a weird pickles + deli mustard thing that I didn't eat. The rest of it was really great, though.

Back to the gig! Lots of people at this one--another good show!

We drove back to Atlanta after the gig.

Sunday: The dryer is fixed!

In other news, my cold is gone, but now I have an enormous, angry stye on my left eye! What I thought was swollen sinuses (from the cold) has become its own thing. I'm glad to have a week at home to deal with this.


Gigs this week:

Friday, October 11: Music on the Hill (Roswell) with Bumpin' the Mango
Saturday, October 12: Summit Rocks (Johns Creek) with Yacht Rock Revue