Bahamas and Bacon

Here it is...the blog about our trip from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Grammy Women Who Rock cruise.  It makes perfect sense that you would hire a band of seven dudes to take part.

Tuesday:

Got up super-damn early to fly to Miami to get on the boat.  This picture is before the door had closed.  I, for one, was asleep before we pushed back from the gate, and slept almost until touchdown in Miami.

I was awake, obviously, to take this cliched picture of the airplane wing somewhere over south Florida.  Behold the wonder of flight.  Check out all of that lower air pressure over the top of the wing, generating lift and keeping us from death.

We got on the boat with little hassle.  I saw the Indigo Girls in line front of us.  Amy had a baby strapped to her chest.  Emily was looking a bit harried in sweatpants.  That was it as far as contact with the stars.  I can't even say for sure that they were actually on the boat.

First order of business was lunch.  The seven of us really do eat with our phones out.  Usually it's happening in a shitty shopping center Mexican restaurant, though.

I ate that.

You can't see it, but Pete's on his phone.

I ate that.

The view from the port of Miami.  LeBron's house is somewhere out there, still for sale, I believe.

My cabin.

Nap time?

The Great Bencuya posing for the sail away.

Leaving Miami.  You can't see it, but there's probably quite a bit of porn being filmed in the buildings in this picture.

So...here we go with show #1.  Our first stage was in the Atrium (the lobby of this floating hotel).  An excellent slot to have because of all the foot traffic on the first night--it helps spread the word about us.

Not so great was the Nord Electro 2.  Far inferior to the Nord Electro 3 I use at home (and usually get on the road).  Boo.

Good first show!  We had a really good crowd of people walking by who stopped to listen.  I would even say that the room sound was not as harsh as it has been in the past.

The only hairy moment in this first set was the Love Boat Theme.  I had my chart, so it was pretty easy, though I play quite a bit of one-hand-EWI, one-hand-keyboard, which requires a review for coordination.

Wednesday:

I slept as long as I could.  Woke up and got some coffee inside me.

We were in Freeport, Grand Bahama for the day.  As soon as I realized where we were, I knew there was no point in getting off the boat.  The last time we were here, I had no cash for a cab, so I tried to walk to civilization/free wifi.  After an hour of walking to nowhere, I turned around and went back to the boat (another hour in the sun).  This time...no.  I had a single dollar in my wallet.  Not happening.

This Bahamas Celebration boat was in the slot next to us.  It must have hit something, as it was listing to port.  Wikipedia says they hit something coming out of this very harbor on Halloween.  The hole has been patched, but she still leans.

A panoramic view of the port.

My cabin.

Our second scheduled performance was Wednesday night in the big theatre.  Before us was Heart.  They sounded great.  Super bad ass.

Following them was Emmylou Harris.  Also incredible.

Then us!  Another great slot.  We didn't have a huge crowd at the outset, but it was decent by the end.

Nothing unusual about this setlist.  I wish we hadn't played I Wish, as I was tethered to my laptop on a MIDI cable with the EWI.  Pete was playing my keyboard and I was right up against him.  I'd guess it looks a little weird (like me playing EWI on the front line doesn't?).

I like the sound in here.  One of my favorite things is that when I step up to the front of the stage to play a sax solo, I can hear my horn in the PA, so I don't overblow.

Back in my room, the towel animals had arrived.

Thursday:

We woke up in Nassau.  I sent my son a picture of Atlantis, right off the back of the ship, since he sees the commercials for it at least twice an hour on TV.  It's right there!  This is as close as you're ever going to get, kid.

Panorama of Nassau.

Like Freeport, I've seen all I want to see of Nassau.  Just to double check, I got off the boat.  The area around the port is super touristy;  Hard Rock Cafe, cheap diamond store, Señor Frog restaurant, straw hat retailer, shady taxi cab drivers, drug dealers.  Check.

Later in the afternoon, the band got dressed in our finest polyester for a beach photo shoot with Will Byington (who does all the awesome shots on the boat).  Stay tuned for those pictures, which looked pretty fantastic when he scrolled through them for us on his camera.  We got all the way up to our chins for a couple of shots.

Thursday was our night off from playing, so we went to the Teppanyaki place for dinner--a boat tradition for Yacht Rock.  More rice for Dave, please.

Another towel animal in my cabin that night.

Emmylou Harris played again, this time in the smaller room.  It might have been the same set she'd played the previous night.  Still sounded great.  Her sound engineer deserves a raise.

I checked out Mindi Abair, smooth jazz saxophonist and vocalist on the cruise.

Some time after midnight, a few of the guys got up at the jam session to play We're an American Band.  Greg Lee on vocals.  I've never seen Nick with a Les Paul before.  Monkey was having some anxiety and exited the stage as soon as this was over.

Friday:

More relaxing, hanging out with The Great Bencuya, and later on Mark Cobb.  The girl in the picture has a great butt.

I saw Emmylou Harris one more time.  Why do older women wear long, silk robe kinds of tops?

Set #3 on the boat.  Rough start for Dave.

No excuses.  First tune, Greatest American Hero, I laid into the verse while the rest of the band was playing the intro.  I thought, "Why does this sound so weird?"  When it dawned on me that I WAS THE ONE SCREWING UP, I had no way to get into the introduction.  Instead I looked down at my hands like they belonged to someone else.

Of course, after the first chorus when it goes back to the intro again, I played the verse over it again, perfectly duplicating my first big mistake.  Nice going.  I nailed the synth solo in the bridge, though.  

Arthur's Theme and Lotta Love got cut, as did Doctor My Eyes, Listen to the Music and Two Tickets to Paradise.

The drummer and bassist for Heart sat in with us on Rosanna.  It was bad (I don't mean the good bad, either).  Not one you can fake your way through.

Thus our cruise ended.

didn't use either one!

 Saturday:

We had to get off the boat painfully early--a 7:45 AM call.  My phone kept saying that we were three hours behind, so I had to set multiple alarms (one of which woke me at 4:15 AM) so as not to oversleep.

The reason we had to boogie back to Atlanta so early?  More gigs to do!  It was time for the bacon gig in Druid Hills!

The ultimate show of self control--I only ate four pieces.  Pete had five.  Pete wins?  I had lots of garlic bread and salami instead.

This gig got a little 10 High-ish, with a breakdown and band intros during Brandy and a spontaneous performance of Steve Miller's Swingtown.  The crowd at this gig (our fifth time doing it) was really cool, so it was a good way to cap off the week.

It's almost mandatory that guests wear costumes.  Charlie's Angels were here, as were Ponch and John from CHiPs, Annie and Daddy Warbucks, and Scooby Doo.

No cops this time.  See y'all next year!

Trio Time

I had an excellent trio gig tonight with David Ellington and Craig Shaw.  I can't remember the last time Craig and I played a gig together...it's been many years!  Anyway, both sounded terrific--we had a great gig.  The "others in the room" (you wouldn't exactly call them an audience, since none of them were listening) got a little loud, but the pay was good, the band was great, load out was easy, and I somehow managed to not pay for parking.  When I got home, Maggie chased me around the house and then peed on the bed, but just a little.  Not too bad for a Sunday.



If you just can't believe how good these sound, come see Ellington and myself (the Dave and Dave Duo) Tuesday, November 11 at Churchill Grounds (9 PM), or Friday, November 14 at Sun in my Belly (7 PM).  Stuff like this:

Corp

Yacht Rock played a corporate gig last night at the Fox.  Pretty easy, but not much to talk about.

We kind of got screwed again on food--not as embarrassing as last time, but still pretty lame.  I brought my own waffles and clementines just in case, and I ate them all.

We had Matt and Cole from The Shadowboxers subbing for Nick and Cobb.  I spent much of the gig staring at Cole, trying to figure out why he would never look at me.  He looked at everybody else all night, but the only person actually facing him...I got nothing.  My ESP was worthless, but it gave me something to do.

It's weird playing with a couple of subs.  All the songs sound like alternate takes.

Load out was a mess even by Fox/Egyptian Ballroom standards.  Not only were we competing with catering and decorations, but I think there main stage was changing things up and there were several stage panels in the alley.  I think catering told us we could get in the middle of their load out so they could get mad at us about obstructing their load out.  On top of that, it was cold and windy.  We had to walk all of our gear from the back door almost all the way to Ponce, around the trucks and through the trash.

Crashes

Compared to some of our previous weekends, the Yacht Rock Revue had it pretty easy last week--a quick trip up to Nashville and then a wedding back in Atlanta.

Before I go any further, though, you should check out our video of Jason Carter Says Yes.  Half of the music is live stuff from us at the 10 High a few years ago, and half was done via email (such as the sax and strings).  I love the way this turned out.  I am also very jealous of Greg Lee's hair.



Our version was based on some weird stuff Bencuya laid on us in the van many years ago called Jimmy Carter Says Yes, a song poem which uses some of JC's inauguration speech.  Bizarre, but nearly equally awesome.



Our version from the 10 High is probably the best of all three, and still pee-in-your-pants funny after we've heard it a hundred times.

Friday:  The plan for this trip was to assemble at noon and head north, presumably beating traffic and getting up to Nashville with enough time to tackle anything necessary in soundcheck, and then eat.  Right.  Various delays with traffic/Friday Atlanta bullshit caused a delay.  We made it as far as Marietta before stopping for gas (and waited nearly forever for some old man to move up enough to trip the left hand turn signal).  Getting back on the interstate, there was a strong smell of gasoline, so we pulled off in Kennesaw to investigate (couldn't find anything).  A few of the guys needed food, so we tried to find a Chipotle in Town Center Mall, but it wasn't there.  We got back on the interstate and stopped in Acworth at a Wendy's.  So...two hours into our trip, and we'd gone about 30 miles!

From there, it was pretty smooth until we got to Franklin, TN, where traffic came to a screeching halt because of a crash (and ensuing car fire).

In spite of that, we were still in decent shape at load in, and the crew (led by our monitor guy named Crash) helped us get our gear in and on stage.  I think we set up reasonably quickly, but there was a long delay before we began checking things.  In the mean time, we played with the lights.

We were still checking things when they opened the doors.  Why'd it take so long?  Nobody knows.

The time crunch left us with about an hour to eat before we were to play, so we ran across the street to a latin restaurant.  Not my favorite place to eat--maybe I just didn't order well?  I tried their gumbo, but it was mostly just chicken broth with some carrots and rice.

We raced back over, changed clothes, and it was time to go.  The first set was another performance of Michael Jackson's Thriller.  Not too bad!  We have now played it enough that it's pretty comfortable.

Mark Dannells played the Beat It solo while standing on a chair.  More impressive was the fact that he was able to get down afterwards without falling.

Plenty of tang-galloping happened here.

The second set was a regular Yacht Rock set.  Our special guest for the evening was Walter Egan!  He  played on Magnet and Steel, Hot Summer Nights, Monday Morning, and Go Your Own Way.

Hey there Bencuya.

The sound was...really loud on stage, but not horrible.  I could hear everything pretty well.  Out front may not have been as clear.  Reports from family and friends in the audience were that the sound was dominated by bass and kick drum.  We also got word that the front of house guy was at one point texting, at another point asleep, and at a third point NO LONGER MANNING HIS POSITION!  That's not so good.  It's safe to say that we've been spoiled by Kip and Zach at Athens Sound.

We loaded out and headed to our hotel, but not before passing a third crash, this one a bad wreck of a car jammed under and eighteen wheeler.  Bad stuff.

Saturday:  back up and out the door.  I slept a lot.  We made a pit stop for gas and Monkeyboy bought Perrier at a gas station on the north side of Nickajack Lake.  It's a treat for him.

We made it into Atlanta with enough time to stop for lunch before loading into our gig, so we hit Goldberg's Deli at Paces Ferry and Northside.

Load in, soundcheck, blah blah blah.  Zach was manning the PA for us at this wedding reception.  With plenty of time to kill between soundcheck and the gig, we convinced him to drive us back to the meeting point to retrieve our cars, which probably saved me an extra hour by the time we would have loaded the trailer, driven back to midtown, unloaded the trailer, and then gone our separate ways.

The gig was no big deal.  Early in the evening, they passed out small tambourines to the crowd (oh shit!), but they were so cheap (and there were so many of them), they ended up sounding like cicadas in the background.

Over at 11:15 PM.  Home before 1 AM.  Not too bad.

Sunday:  As I mentioned previously, there's been a lot of frustration from the vocalists lately about the mix.  I thought a good way to reassure them would be to record a mass so they could hear it.  Now I'm wondering if I've just given them something to pick apart and use against me.

If they can complain about my mixing, can I complain about their singing?


No public gigs this week, but next week we'll be on the Grammy Festival at Sea (http://www.grammy.com/news/grammy-festival-at-sea-to-set-sail-nov-4-8).  Wee.  Sleepy time for me.

The week after that, the Dave and Dave Duo will be at Churchill Grounds Tuesday, November 10, 9-midnight.  Here's some stuff from our recent gigs at Sun in my Belly and JCT Kitchen and Bar.