Saturday January 7, the small and ergonomic version of Platinum, namely Platinum Soul, played at Ventanas. It is billed as "Atlanta's Premier Rooftop Event Space and Helipad". Going to their web site, I learned that ventana is Spanish for window. This place has lots of floor-to-ceiling windows and perhaps one of the best views of the ATL from it's 14th & 15th (location of their helipad - makes you wanna yell "Air Taxi! Follow that copter!") floor locations. It was stunning. It was also windy and warm and great to hang out on the patio next to the gas fire pits, that is until the thunderstorms (in January?) came along. We enjoyed our boxed lunch of cold chicken and such from Affairs to Remember fireside. I for one enjoyed the spread: grilled chicken, leafy greens with dressing/dipping sauce for the chicky, black eyed pea salad w/diced jalepenoes, seasonal fruit (strawberries & the like), roll, frudge brownie. Nice.
It was the same lineup as New Years Eve, with one minor change - Gus was back! Hey there, that's a nice surprise! Great to play with the big man once again. We tried a couple of new things, for us anyway. We did Mother's Finest finest tune Baby Love, the live version, mind you. It could be considered our proggiest tune in the book, with lots of tight kicks and blues-inflected licks. It was decent, considering we didn't get a soundcheck run-through to work it out prior to tackling it in front of an audience. We also played Barry White's You're the First, the Last, My Everything, which went much better than last week's feeble attempt. Other tunes: a straight ahead jazz set to open it up: Mercy Mercy Mercy, Stella By Starlight, All the Things You Are, and Freddie Freeloader. My electric upright was put to good use for that set. We kept on going in that vein after the 1st set: Georgia On My Mind, Come Away With Me, Easy, more of our typical early night's selections. Later we ventured into some other territories: Michael Jackson's Rock With You and then a KC & the Sunshine Band medley: Get Down Tonight --> Sheik Yerbouti (not the FZ album but I like that spelling!) --> That's the Way (I Like It). I know, it's not exactly revolutionary or adventurous, but it's still nice to play some things we've never done before as a band. If we knew Sledgehammer then that would have been something to get into. Let's Go Crazy went over well too. Hey, I almost forgot to mention that I had a mic and got to sing a slew of backups. Fun! I was a Pip for Midnight Train to Georgia! The crowd really got into dancing - shouting for Brick House! Ended the night with Purple Rain, as we do so often lately. Nice venue, but the load in/out was not easy. At least security gave us the OK to park in the empty lot for free!
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