Memorial Day Weekend Roundup

I am starting training at a new job tomorrow morning so I will have to be a bit brief.  Friday night Sunset Strip played at Sunset Cove at Lake Lanier.  I had a bear of a time making it up there, with a dying cell phone & no charger, I had to try to find one.  Wal Mart let me down up in Cumming or wherever that was.  Heinous exit with clueless traffic design.  I stopped at an AT&T store, but they wanted $30 for a car charger that fit my phone (universal Android charger design).  Never got one thill on the way home that night.  The load in threw me for a loop but I finally took the right driveway & got my stuff on a cart for delivery to the beach stage.  The stage was a floating one out on a short pier/dock with a changing room/ship behind us for private hanging.  Nice bathrooms & AC!  I didn't mind the loadout too much, but that was not so fun after playing for 4 hours.

Saturday I was with Adrian Ash, Jason Passmore, & Tom Olsen.  We were hired to play for a wedding ceremony & the reception, both taking place in the bride & groom's backyard & patio area. Tom is a great piano player who knows many standards & played with Adrian on the Charlie Brown Chirstmas events.  We played a lot of bossas & reggae!  It was fun & with a laid back vibe to the whole procedings.  We actually played the pre-function, the ceremony, the dances, & the first third of the reception.  I thought we did well.  The step-father of the bride sat in with us to sing the first dance of "Crazy Love" & "You Are The Sunshine of My Life".  We also had a female singer for the Lauryn Hill version of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You".  Very nice & sparse.  Also played a nice arrangement of "When I Fall In Love", which has prompted me to re-examine this standard, in the usual key of Eb.  Found a good chart of it:

Hey, in this last pic I am "wearing" my NS WAV with my new strap attatchment.  This was the first time I had used it on a gig & I hadn't figured out quite how to have it angled out just yet.  It is going to take a bit of a learning curve to really get the hang of it.  The issue for me is that I really do rely on those fret marker dots, but the bass is almost angled away from me so that I can't see the dots when I'm wearing it.  I have since improved the angle a bit but it's still not perfect.  It is, however, a very cool thing with the wireless system I've also since started to employ.

After we played, a DJ took over & kept the party going.  I wandered around for a bit & snapped this just before heading out.  A very nice evening to celebrate some good people.

 Sunday was back with Sunset Strip for the Beers, Bands, & BBQ festival at Park Tavern.  We had the 5-7 pm slot, warming up for Behind the Sun, a seriously great Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band.  It was great that Sabina showed up with Jack & Spencer in tow!  Spencer apparently stole the show from us!  Nice to know he wasn't so afraid of everything going on.  I will put up some pics in the next few days so please check back soon!

Hey, I'm in this pic!  Proof that I was there.

The boys played out behind the stage.

You get down here right now!