As Fall Ends

A few more shows as fall ends...

October 23, we played Chastain again. This show was originally to be at the Roxy, but we moved it. Quite a bit chillier than our night here in August. I am a big wimp about being cold, so as soon as this show changed to outdoors, I started watching the weather.

 

Other than a few random gear malfunctions, there was nothing really to talk about for this show. This used to be our Thriller/Purple Rain show, but now everybody does that, so other than one song off each album, this was mostly our usual stuff. Can Chastain be just another night on stage? I guess so. I did play some nice stuff in the dressing room before we went on, so there's that.

October 28, we played the Georgia Theatre in Athens. Yay for this one! I do love playing this room, and we had a great crowd, especially for a Thursday night.

Unfortunately, I had another issue with my gear--this time with my effects pedal that I use for saxophone stuff. I first noticed at Chastain that one of my settings had randomly changed, and by the time we started this show, ALL of my settings were randomly changing. Basically, the thing went insane. We got through the gig ok, though. The main one was the two delay settings I use for Maneater: the first was too quick (I heard that at Chastain), and the second, usually set to repeat every four beats, would now repeat every three beats. It didn't take long before I decided to pull Nick aside and veto that song.

October 30, we played the Moo and Brew Festival in Charlotte. I think this is our fourth time? Maybe it's the third. It's usually scheduled in the summer, but it landed at the end of October this year for some reason. High of 60. Low of 40. I had concerns. 

This is Duke. I am familiar with his breed!

Soundcheck was early and the gig was late, so we had a few hours to kill at the hotel (the green room situation here is pretty terrible--usually the model apartment in a nearby building with a significant walk to the stage). I went for a run and then ordered some Indian food. Excellent refueling. 

Check out this guy, whose Halloween costume was...LEGO DAVE! Outstanding!

So...my move for this gig was to bring a space heater, and it worked pretty well! I wouldn't say that I was ever warm (even with the heater, three shirts, a vest, and a suit jacket), but I wasn't miserable, and we had a good time. Plus, I could occasionally lean down and warm my hands up, and that made all the difference.

So, yeah! Fun gig for a bajillion people. Excellent. That's pretty much all I want out of this gig these days.

The following weekend, Yacht Rock had no gigs, but I picked up a musical, playing the Reed 2 book for Chicago at the Cobb County Performing Arts High School (Pebblebrook, though the shows took place at South Cobb High School). I wonder when this became a thing?--paying a band of professional musicians to come and accompany the students. 

Who cares? I really enjoyed the challenge of playing all the parts (my book had piccolo, clarinet, soprano saxophone, and tenor saxophone), and I wish more of these made their way to me, even if they aren't as lucrative as playing Baker Street. 

Plus, this show was indoors!

One Million Pictures from Hawaii

...but first...some other random gigs!

First up was our trip to Charleston (Isle of Palms, to be exact). We played the infamous Windjammer, a dive bar right on the beach that attracts some pretty big names. If you've ever seen us at the Park Tavern in Atlanta, this had a similar, but sandier, feel.

They did have dogs in the bar, though. All total, there were three chocolate labs, and they were all very sweet.

I had wireless microphone troubles again on this gig (for whatever reason), and it squashed my whole mood about this one. It was probably an ok gig, but I was preoccupied with the equipment gremlin. 

Here's a random hotel room--the window was on the side wall, just past the desk. Not something you see every day.

The next day, we played a wedding behind a beach club. When we showed up for load in, the tent company was only this far into setting up. Evidently, whoever packed the truck forgot one critical piece that held the whole tent together, and so the entire operation ground to a halt until it was delivered. 

Soooo...knowing that we would probably be faced with a frantic load in/soundcheck situation, the van headed back towards the hotel so that we could eat. This was some pad Thai with rice noodles. It didn't taste like much of anything, even by strip shopping center standards.

Here's our green room. No walls = excellent ventilation! Kudos for the non-styrofoam coolers, though.

And look! A tent! A stage! It all came together in time. How about that!

This gig was much better than the previous night. Did this tent sound better than the previous night's tent? No idea, but my wireless microphones did some sort of electronic belch at soundcheck and then began working fine, and so did I. Also, this crowd was outstanding in terms of looks and enthusiasm.

Oh yeah, and we let Peaches (James, our lighting guy) set up his lights and do his thing. Pretty epic for a wedding reception.

The following week, we played a fundraiser at the Atlanta Zoo. Fine for a Thursday. Whatever. Better than the 10 High. The hardest part of this one was the downtown traffic and the rain.

Here we go: the Hawaii portion of the blog. Actual number of pictures from this trip: sixty-three.

Sunday morning began the long day of travel. People who envy your trip to Hawaii probably don't consider the entire day spent on an airplane. It's definitely the equalizer in this equation.

Both sides of this trip had layovers in Los Angeles. Our flight out of Atlanta made it as far as taxiing to the runway (so I am told--already asleep at that point) before a broken fuel pump (a critical component, I would say!) sent us back to the terminal. After a maintenance check, it was determined that our jet would not be flying, so everybody had to get off and get rebooked on other flights. Some of us went to Seattle, and some of us went on a later flight to LAX.

Unfortunately, the later flight meant that we missed our connection to Kauai. Delta rebooked us onto an American Airlines flight (I did not know this was a possibility).

Pizza at LAX. Not bad at all.

And then we had to go through one thousand frantic steps on the Hawaii government website to prove that we did not have COVID and didn't feel sick. Major pain in the ass--I had to repeat the entire process three times before it finally worked. The big hiccup was that we had done all of the preliminary stuff based on a different flight to Hawaii, so each of us had to create a new trip--like filling out an online customs form with all the "what flight are you on," "where are you staying," "what is the purpose of your visit" kind of information.

I was so frustrated that I almost ate my phone.

We got on the plane at the last minute, but it wasn't even half full. 

Six hours later, we landed in Kauai, and our luggage made it, too!

Made it! Here's my room.

Here's the view from my room. Aloha!

First exploration of the resort (the Grand Hyatt in Kauai).

not a dog, but pretty cool

also not a dog

My run/hike took me up the coast on sort-of-a-trail. Here are a third of the pictures I took!

After lunch, I did my best to lie around and do nothing. It's not my thing, but I tried hard.

This seal is good at it.

Dinner was...I don't remember what this was. It's roasted peppers and rice noodles and tofu and tasteless. I ate a bunch of bread with it.

Tuesday morning's breakfast of champions. A large coffee and three bananas was $12.52, by the way. $2 per banana. 

Speaking of coffee and fruit, our rooms had bidets. It's an interesting experience.

Day two run went in the opposite direction. Not as much to see, as it was mostly just a sidewalk along the main road.

Is a dog.

Lunch time! Here's what I ate every day for lunch. It's a veggie burger, fries, and a side salad.

Tuesday night, we played our show--a corporate thing for a tech company. Great gear, considering that we were on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! 

When I am in Hawaii, I eat all the pineapple. That's the law. I don't know what the red powder was, but it wasn't enough of a deterrent to slow me down.

On our final day here, I ran more or less up the coast again, but more on the road/sidewalk, which eventually gave way to a dirt road.

We hung around most of the afternoon, even though we'd lost our hotel rooms.

Waterslide. Did it ten times. 

And then it was time to go home. The shuttle dropped us off at the airport, but I guess Delta didn't know we were coming? It's odd(really irritating) that there was no one working the counter at 5:30 in the afternoon. 

Also irritating was the limited food options at the airport. I couldn't find any meat-free options, so here's my dinner (plus water from the water fountain).

It looks like a regular jet, but the inside was like a refrigerator. Nooooooo! It was so cold, I couldn't sleep.

We landed at LAX at 5 AM, and per usual these days, we had to go out on the tarmac and get on a bus to another terminal. 

LAX at 5 AM. No people and no food options, and a very grumpy Dave. The coffee shops opened at 6 AM, but the line was immediately (and consistently) twenty-five people long, so I walked up and down the terminal for an hour and hated everybody and everything. 

I sat in a middle seat next to a big, stinky guy...and Monkeyboy. My neck was stiff from sleeping. It sucked real bad.

The following weekend, we played a wedding in Atlanta. Yay for local gigs! This tent did little to keep us warm, however. The outdoor gigging season has ended, or should be ending--my hands do not like the cold.

Not too bad of a night, though! 

Speaking of outdoor gigs...we're back at Chastain Amphitheatre in Atlanta for a fall/Halloween show. Hopefully there will be enough lamps on stage to keep us warm.