David Freeman Music

I played two Yacht Rock gigs yesterday, each very different from the other, unified by the fine plaid suit I wore to both. Gig Number One:  The Yacht Rock Revue played a lunchtime gig at the Galleria, in an outdoor courtyard between the office buildings.  We had to be  there at 8:30 AM…way early for any band.  The load in was down a ramp to the stage--couldn't have been easier, and a welcome change from some of our more recent Battan-Death-March type stuff.  We set up, soundchecked/pissed off people who were working, changed, and ate Williamson Brothers BBQ .  Hell yeah!  It was so good. The gig was really easy.  I mean, daylight and no alcohol on either side of the bandstand could have made for a really rough show, but to me everything was relaxed and very cool.  No hassles, no requests for Journey.  The weather was great, the sound was good, the band was happy.  Great gig! Gig Number Two:  I played with the Yacht...

Yacht Rock played an awesome gig last night in Scottsdale (Phoenix) Arizona at a place called Different Pointe of View .  The venue was a restaurant on the top of a hill overlooking the city.  It was an incredible view, and a really fun gig. Different Pointe of View the view We left Atlanta around 10 PM Monday night landed in Arizona at 2 AM (Atlanta time), tired and hungry.  No bags, no bags, no bags…baggage claim was a problem!--some sort of jam--that kept us standing there for forty-five minutes in the middle of the night.  From there, it was a twenty minute van ride to the Pointe Hilton where we stayed and performed. Most of the band opted to go find food in the middle of the night, so the "overnight guy" offered to drive us in the hotel van to civilization.  We ended up ordering from a Del Taco at something like 4:30 AM Atlanta time.  Ouch.  Spicy chicken burrito was ok, though!  Our driver must have had a bet with the front de...

Saturday night , Please PleaseRock Me had our monthly (really probably more like six weeks) show at Smith's Olde Bar.  Not much of a show for me;  most of my work comes in the week or so prior to the gig, writing charts and thinking about arrangement things that didn't work at the previous show.  Fortunately, we'd just played a Beatles show the week before , so there wasn't much prep work for this one. I have to get this out of the way:  I hate the sound man.  OK, hate's not the right word, but Saturday night's FoH sound guy is a frikin' douchebag.  As soon as I walked in the backdoor of Smith's and saw him, I was crushed…I knew right then that there would be an entire night of him being a pain in the ass and solving my problems that didn't need solving and offering suggestions when I wasn't asking for one, and eventually NOT HAVING MY CLARINET BE AUDIBLE FOR ANY OF WHEN I'M SIXTY-FOUR .  I won't even bother with the other particulars...

Yacht Rock played a private party last night at Star Provisions (Howell Mill and 14th).  Super easy gig.  It turned out to be a lot of fun. The load in sucked.  This one is like a "Hotel Intercontinental and Use the Freight Elevator" kind of sucks (different from a "Fox Theatre/Egyptian Ballroom Vertical Phonebooth for a Freight Elevator" kind of sucks).  You load in at the back corner of the building, go up the ramp, across the back of the building, in the back door, down one hall, then down another hall to the freight elevator.  The other option is to use the passenger elevators, but only one (the left) goes to the fourth floor;  the other only goes to three, so if you go up that one, you have to jump to the other elevator when it tops out. The room itself is pretty cool.  Great view.   I've been there before on a House Live gig . Catering for the event was by Taqueria del Sol.  Half the band tried to load in from there…on purpose,...

Many fine sundresses were in attendance last night at the 10 High, and I, being the number one fan of the sundress, say thank you, especially to the one in front of me for the first set.  I wanted to take pictures, but I think that'd be crossing the line.  And, I think she was there with her mom. The gig was…two gigs in one.  The first set was really solid.  We had Greg singing for Nick and Dani (Dani's birthday!) playing bass for Greg, and we had no problems in that configuration.  Everybody played well;  I was particularly digging Mark Cobb 's hi hats.  Is that a fair compliment?  I don't know.  It struck me that the hi hats sounded really good, though.  Worth mentioning.  Cobb was really playing well. I played well, too, probably because I could hear myself.  I think I've got the stuff in my rack dialed in.  Turn it on and turn it up. I played tenor only once the entire night--the sixteen measure solo in Too Ho...

The overwhelming majority of my blog posts are silly stories centered around my job.  How about something useful! Monday night, I played flute for hours and hours…one of those nights where I was really feeling good.  When I tried to warm up on Tuesday, all my lowest notes were gone.  I thought, "Wow, I really overdid it!"  so I played long tones in the middle of the flute and worked my way down, but the notes on the foot joint were really difficult.  After about an hour of not being able to get it happening, I inspected my foot joint.  Aha!  My Eb pad had kind of disintegrated. Until I can get to Bryan Lopes for repairs, I'm using saran wrap.  It works well in an emergency!  Wrap it over the key, twist in the back, and put a piece of scotch tape there to hold the twist in place. davidfreemanmusic.net

I did my two regular church gigs this past Sunday.  It's been a while!  I've been in and out of town over the past few weeks. Church gig number one was fine.  Everybody had been sending subs over the past month or so, but they were all overlapping.  I think that at least two of the regular guys were always there.  It worked out fine.  Nobody said anything.  Then again, maybe nobody missed us. When we were loading out, one of the band members was talking money with me.  We're still not all paid equally (still a sore spot for we the underpaid!), and the last time any of us had brought up the subject with the band leader, we'd been told in so many words "not right now."  The guy I was talking with wants to open the discussion again;  his wife just lost her job, and so he's asking for more money because he needs to make up the difference in income (making $50 more a week?).  I'm not sure that's a solid argument. I don't quite foll...