DC

Yacht Rock played a private gig in Washington DC Thursday evening.  Easy gig!  Hans drove our gear up on Wednesday (and back on Friday) and we flew up and back for the event.  No riding in the van, and we still used our own gear, plus Kip running sound for us--that's the way to go!

We even had to time to check in to our hotel and walk to lunch before set up and soundcheck.

The event was at the Hard Rock.  Tiny stage, but we squeezed in.

This gig featured Robbie Dupree and Walter Egan as special guests.

Loud stage.

Post show, my alto got knocked over on the tile floor.  It's probably got some damage to the upper half--time to go see Bryan Lopes!  Good thing I have a spare horn at home.

Not the greatest of gigs, but the clients were super cool.   We hung out with them at the hotel bar afterwards.

In each of our rooms was a handwritten note from the client and a small bottle of champagne.  Nice touch!  I like these people.

Back to the airport the next day.  We rode with Robbie.  Walter stayed in DC for an extra day.

We flew out of Reagan National.  I've never been there.  Very cool architecture.

Quartet Gig

Yacht Rock had another rehearsal for next week's big shows at the Variety Playhouse:  Journey and YR one night (with former Journey singer Steve Augeri fronting the band) and Thriller and YR the next evening.

Tuesday evening I had a quartet gig with David Ellington (organ), Henry Conerway III (drums), and Jacob Deaton (guitar).  This was a weird one.  For starters, the address on the contract was incorrect.  I called the venue and got the correct address:  it was at that Washington Square looking thing in the middle of 17th Street.  Load in there is difficult--there's no good spot to park and get your gear out, so you basically just stop on 17th, throw on your hazard lights, and go for it.  We got down there (we were in a tent behind the Washington Square thing), and the tent was super hot, and of course we were requested to set up where the sunlight was blazing through the plastic window of the tent.  No power was available in that area, but a chef from the caterer and I found a spot where we could split off from the lights, and a venue guy found us an extension cord.  It just now dawned on me that I left my power strip which we'd used divide the electricity.

We set up and played the first half hour soaked in sweat.  Dave and Henry were so hot that they were in T shirts.

Someone must have called the tent people and asked for portable air conditioning, because a couple of guys showed up with giant ducts to pump in cold air.  Two vents to one side of us, and two immediately behind the band.  These things were blasting freezing air, so we went from sweaty to freezing quickly--everybody put his suit coat on.  The whole time, our charts were being blown everywhere.  My saxophone began the day pretty damn sharp, and by the end of the evening I'm getting pretty flat.

At some point in the gig we decided that we were cool enough, and I kicked the vents back out of the tent.

So...on to the music.  Not bad.  The band was pretty loose, which kind of frustrated me at times, but overall I think the playing was pretty cool.  I had hoped that Dave and I would play enough duo gigs that as we added other players, we'd still be able to keep the same focus and vibe, but it's not working out that way--both this quartet gig and the one I did a few weeks ago were both a little too...self-indulgent, maybe? for my taste.  Both felt more like jam sessions than gigs.

Anyway...we fulfilled our only requests of the evening:

1.  Turn down
2.  Play When the Saints Go Marching In

The person who made the song request immediately left the tent.  We played it, but I don't know why.  Some sort of test?



Afterwards, I went around the side of the tent to retrieve our cases, only to find that the duct work had completely surrounded them, so I had to wrestle them out of the way so that we could pack up.

Post gig, we did the same game of gear-loading-chicken with the traffic, this time in the dark.  Each of us was nearly rear-ended on 17th Street at least three times.  It makes me wonder how anybody gets in or out of this place, or where they're supposed to park.  Weird night.  I'm not as comfortable handling this kind of stress as I used to be.

Pizza Tour

Yacht Rock returned from a run up the northeast last weekend.  The drives were long, the sleep was limited, the food was mediocre at best, and our collective smell was...strong.

Wednesday:  travel day.  We left around 2 PM and drove to Virginia to spend the night, en route to our first gig outside Philadelphia.  Somewhere in North Carolina we ate ok Mexican food.

Thursday:  more driving on the way to Ardmore (outside Philadelphia), with a pit stop in Chevy Chase, MD to pick up Nick and eat lunch at Manoli Canoli.  I ate an entire pizza.

Ardmore was cold and rainy when we arrived.  Pretty easy load in through the back right to the stage.

The stage was on the small side, but not terribly so.  It was also very dead, with heavy curtains hanging around the back and side.  Behind me was the bar.

This was our first chance to publicly try a couple of tunes:  Arthur's Theme (The Best that You Can Do) and Who Loves You.

A crowd of right around a hundred people show up.  Not too bad for a suburban out of town club gig on a Thursday night.

The weirdest thing about this gig--the house sound guy informed our sound man Kip that the club was transitioning to new management, and the entire staff had been fired, but had to work their last three weeks before new people took over.  I'm not sure that's the best way to do that...

Friday:  our travel for the day only involved a trip from Philly to New York City, so Mark Dannells and I used the morning to practice our flute/guitar duo stuff for the wedding ceremony we were playing Saturday afternoon.

Speaking of wedding ceremony stuff--Nick forgot non-polyester clothing to wear for his part in the ceremony, so we stopped at a mall for food and clothing.  I'm not sure if food court Chinese food is a sensible choice, but that's what we did.

Greg, Pete, and I had a discussion about which A Team members we'd be.  My votes:

Monkeyboy:  Murdoch
Greg:  BA
Pete:  Face
Nick:  Hannibal

whatever.

New York City!

There was about an hour to kill before load in, so we went for a walk.

Our show was at Irving Plaza.  Any place that has a crew to help load you in is a pretty nice place.

We soundchecked--nice sounding stage!  Robbie Dupree came to soundcheck and we went over a couple more of his songs.

In between that and the gig, more pizza.  For whatever reason, I ordered two slices, but could only eat one.

Great gig!  New York is always a fantastic show, but this crowd was particularly good.  Approximately 600 in attendance.

Robbie Dupree came out.  We did Hot Rod Hearts, Steal Away, and Dance with Me.

photo cred Kip Conner

One of our Atlanta buddies, Kerry Glennon, was in New Jersey visiting her parents, so she came out. Super cool to see her when she wasn't busy working.

Post gig, the "fun" began.  We loaded out and drove to New Jersey to spend the night.  I went to bed at 3:30 AM.  Lobby call was 6 AM.

Saturday:  6 AM.  Today's event was a wedding in Virginia Beach.   I ate my other piece of pizza, and we pointed the van south.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.  23 miles of this, plus a couple of tunnels in the middle of the bay.  Cool/weird.  I'm betting it was sleep deprivation and the accompanying headache that made me want to jump out of my skin at the entrance to both tunnels.

We had to get to the gig early because everything for the reception had to be set before guests showed up.  Mark Dannells and I (and Nick on one song) played the ceremony--flute and guitar duo.

Perfect weather.

After the ceremony, we had a couple of hours and some really crappy sandwiches to kill.  Post sandwich, I think we all passed out on the floor.

There was a gift on my nord.

Sunday:  Keep going!  We got up and drove to Charlotte for our final gig of the run at the Charlotte Fillmore.

We stopped in Durham for lunch at Mellow Mushroom (and some football).  I ate another pizza.

The Fillmore is niiiiiiiiice.  It's located on the back side of the NC Music Factory (a loading dock looking outdoor venue where we've played a couple of shows).  This is a cool room with a nice sized stage.

Once again, a crew helped load in our gear.

A better than expected gig!  The long drives and little sleep  (and overall pretty shitty food) made us all really fried.  There was some concern that we would have fewer than fifty people show up for this show, but the attendance for the evening was right at 300.  Cool!

For whatever reason, there wasn't enough time for us to eat between soundcheck and the gig, so we planned it eat afterwards.  Our first plan was to hit the diner across the street from the Fillmore, but it was closed by the time we had loaded out.  The backup plan was to hit the Waffle House next door to our hotel.  After twenty minutes of waiting without so much as an opportunity for a drink order from the waitress, we got up and left.  The backup to the backup was Taco Bell.  I abstained.

Monday:  Back to Atlanta.  Peace.