Day and Night in Carrollton: Extreme Conditions at the University of West Georgia

If it looks hot in this picture, you can bet it felt even hotter.  We all felt the sense of disbelief when we arrived to find a stage sitting with no tent or let alone a cover.  It all makes sense in a way, but it has been a while since we've set up in direct sunlight.  Better than cloudy and rainy, at least, right?

This was our first show without Johnny.  He has moved on to new opportunities and he will be missed greatly.  His power and range were a marvelous highlight to the frontline of Platinum.

This place was hard to find!  I drove around a while and walked with Anton for a spell.  Gus finally rescued us from the parking lot!

I played some Stick, particularly on the recent dance track Fancy by Iggy Azalea.  Anton nailed the synth bass track, so I just doubled it on the Stick.  That bright attack seemed ideally suited to the repeated figure.  We also debuted the recent Taylor Swift pop tune Shake It Off.  I wanted to play that on Stick but I don't think it worked that well.  I ended up using my bass.  We were supposed to play our Rihanna medley of Where Have You Been/We Found Love, which does work well on the Stick with 2-handed tapping on the bass side.  Unfortunately, it was passed on, even after I put some time into making it groove a bit better.

We were joined by Bogey on vocals and a trumpet player who's name I've since forgotten.  He wasn't happy about his monitor, or lack of.  Ben wasn't happy to have him standing on his side of the stage, as he was rather loud.  The things I miss in my own little world next to Gus and Glen.

We were delayed since the awards dinner ran late.  We stood on the stage a good 25 minutes or so until folks finally started joining us outside.  Hurry up and wait!  Well, as soon as they appeared we started up and the party was great.  The honoree danced up front and he seemed to have the time of his life!  It was a great performance by all.  The extra horn sounded great to me, with some nice tight playing.  He had a flugelhorn that he used for some solos.  Beautiful tone on the baby.  He and Anton worked really well together.  Bogey was charming and lent his considerable vocal skills to our vast repertoire.  We even did some requests.  Folks wanted to hear The Time, so we did our medley of The Bird/Jungle Love.  This party was for the sexy people after all!