Halloween in Buckhead

Last night Yacht Rock played "the place that used to be called Andrews Upstairs but is now called 8 Traxx Disco."  We did a set of Yacht Rock and then Michael Jackson's Thriller in its entirety.

I used to really like playing Andrews/8 Traxx when the stage was a bit larger.  Since they converted it to basically a carpeted sidewalk, it's really hard to have fun on stage.  Now we're all in a row, with me on the opposite side of the stage from where I normally set up.  It's a drag.

Sitting next to Bencuya feels like I'm taking a keyboard test.  Last night's grade was probably a B-.  I just couldn't get going and I was tired and made too many stupid mistakes.  I hope he doesn't think I play that poorly all the time!  I was pretty embarrassed about all of my screw ups.  On You're So Vain, he mercifully offered to double me ("to make it sound bigger") after I choked on it at soundcheck.  He makes it look (and sound) so easy.

Pete and Alyssa Olson had a baby yesterday morning, so Vanessa Oliverez subbed for him.  She did a fantastic job.  Here's her costume (pilot for the Mile High Club).

Here's Greg Lee as Captain America.

The Great Mark Bencuya as Captain Fantastic (Elton John).

Nick Niespodziani as Captain Stubing.

Mark Cobb as Captain Chuck Yeager(meister).

Myself as Captain Jean Luc Picard.

My man Mark Dannells as Captain D.

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Friday in Nashville

Yacht Rock played last night in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge.  There was an 80s band and a 90s band downstairs in the Cannery Ballroom, and we played upstairs (with some bad glam rock opener).

Dig my John Oates look!

The gig was pretty good.  That stage (really, that whole room) is super loud.  It feels to me like the drums are in the monitors, and then everybody jacks up their personal amplifiers to balance that.

Anyway, the gig was pretty good.  We played Thriller again, to a pretty lukewarm reception.  In the quieter moments you could really hear the crowd talking.  When we finished, they wanted us to come out and play more Yacht Rock stuff (which I can dig), but it was like "Hurry up and finish Thriller so you can play Rich Girl."

I heard that Nick walked into the dressing room area after the show and one of the opening band guys was receiving some sexual favors on the couch.  Rock and roll lives!  It was the same girl that asked if she could play my flute (no), and then kind of seductively cheered me as I pulled a swab through my tenor ("yeah...clean it out...yeah").  I can't remember what else she said to me--I was trying really hard to ignore her (questions about what shoes I'd be wearing in the next set, things on that level).

The best part of this trip was that we stayed at the Hotel Indigo, which is a sweet boutique-style hotel with huge, cool rooms.  I roomed with the one and only Mark Dannells.

Other than that, it was pretty much the usual situation up there.  We showed up, we played, we slept, and we drove back.  Dannells, G Lee, and Ganesh got up at 5 AM and drove back early.  No thank you.  The room was awesome!  The beds were very comfortable, and the shower had those humungous shower heads (but no shower doors?).  You've got to take advantage of stuff like this!

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home.  Mark Bencuya got into it!

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Thursday

Last night Yacht Rock played our usual Thursday night hit at the 10 High.  The 10 High is under the Dark Horse Tavern in Virginia Highland (816 N. Highland Ave, Atlanta GA 30306).  Here's a MAP.

The reason I am being so specific is because THERE WAS NOBODY THERE!  Jeez!  The crowd was the size of an audience for an original act.  It was really sad.  We made no money.

Most of the highlights were supplied by Mark Cobb, who played with more energy than he's summoned in some time.  Everything was leaning forward tempo-wise, and so all the songs had an extra intensity.  It was pretty cool.  I think the pushing left less room for us to screw around, and made the gig a little tighter--everybody was playing like they were holding on  to him for dear life.  I dug it.

Ganesh Giri Jaya and Kevin Spencer manned the front tonight.  It seemed like Ganesh sang ninety percent of the songs.  I'm not sure why it worked out like that, but every time I thought about it he was on lead vocal.  Normally I am a big fan of the way his voice strains at the top of his range--I think it sounds really cool when it's sort of starting to break up (similar to a altissimo sax note that sort of splits), but last night it sounded like he was just getting abused and his voice couldn't do it.

Other than that, it was a night of equipment failures.  Mark Bencuya's amplifier speaker crapped out on him, leaving him with no way to hear himself.  On the break, he and Greg got Greg's spare bass amplifier out of his car, and the input jack on the amp went bad!   Somewhere in the second set, Mark Cobb's drum throne broke (the bracket that holds the seat to the tripod).  The weld just gave way.  What a night!  Fortunately, none of my stuff broke.  Weird, huh?

Iron Men invaded/manned the merch booth last night.  Dig it:

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On the Run!

So...I've been out on the Jillian Michaels Wellness Cruise (she of The Biggest Loser TV show).

Yes, she really is that tiny.

This might be my favorite cruise of all the ones we've done this year (The Rock Boat X, Kid Rock's Chillin' the Most Cruise, and Zac Brown's Sailing Southern Ground Cruise).  The other three cruises were music oriented cruises, which meant that we were always out hanging with other musicians, being seen, and partying hard until dawn.  This one was a boat of people who we trying to get their lives together by getting in shape mentally and physically, and they couldn't have cared less about us.  As a result, I spent lots of time in my room (we had our own cabins this time), asleep--like ten or twelve hours a day.  It was great.  I needed the rest.

We played three shows--Thursday night, Friday night, and Sunday night.  Playing on the deck of a cruise ship isn't bad--I usually don't even notice the motion of the boat, but  the wind was a problem with all the microphones up.  I didn't have a windscreen on my sax mic, so I made one out of a paper napkin and gaff tape.  It worked great.

The time that I wasn't asleep was spent out and about.  We stopped on Friday at Norwegian Cruise Lines' private cay (Great Stirrup Cay) in the Bahamas...nice!

Saturday was all day in Nassau, Bahamas.  Again, nice!  I hung out with the one and only Mark Dannells. A good time was had by both of us.  It was almost like a date.

We began with coffee.

Not much else to report from that.

We got back into town Monday afternoon, and I went straight from the airport to a House Live gig at Ventanas.  It was kind of tough.  I wasn't tired, per se, but walking off a plane and onto a four hour gig was  harder than I thought it would be (especially when the first hour is solo saxophone!).  I survived.  Wayne played some cool iPhone synth stuff (and I played drums).

Tuesday was an unpacking and teaching day.  I spent most of Tuesday night fixing charts and writing charts for the Lovett show.  As fate would have it, he wanted to add Thriller (the song), but my Thriller chart was in my cruise gear (not at home yet!) because we played that album on the boat.  Nuts!  I had to retranscribe the song and put it in Finale.  I went to bed around 5 AM.

Wednesday morning I had a mega rehearsal with Ben Lovett for his upcoming Halloween show this Sunday night.  It should be great!  His music is cool.  You can hear some of it here.  I played some stuff on his record last year.

I left straight from there to go to Sixthman to pick up my gear from the cruise (all of our equipment went down to Miami last week to get on the boat--now it's back!).  I grabbed my stuff, went home, put it away, took a shower, taught a lesson, and left again for a House Live gig at the Aquarium!

It took me two hours to get to the Georgia Aquarium last night.  Two hours!  What the hell!  I heard different things...all I know is that I was stopped outside of the 285, and I freaked out and got on Northside Drive and made my way, and it took 2 hours.  I heard multiple accidents and high water were the culprits.  Anyway, I got to the Aquarium right at 7 PM, and Wayne and Jeff started without me.  No biggie.  What could I do?  I requested that Jeff send a helicopter, and he said no.

The gig was for CAT (as in Caterpillar).  Usual stuff...House Live.  This one was actually really fun.  We were on the loud side, which made it easier  to play (and hear the track).  I think I've finally got my articulation for improvising worked out on flute.  It's taken me this long to figure out how to have that lose feeling in my face, tonguing lightly, but still have the focus to make a good sound.  It's different on every instrument, for sure, and just because you can do it on tenor doesn't mean you can do it on flute, even if you are a competent flutist!

The usual Wayne Viar lovefest:

Tonight is just our usual Yacht Rock gig at the 10 High.  It feels like I haven't been there in six months.

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