Platinum Performs at Gainesville's Newly Opened Robson Event Center

It's that good, people.  I think the L-shaped area makes for a fine acoustic space.  Remember, take the L out of Lover and it's over!  For a "loud" room of brick and steel and no carpeting or curtains, the place held it's own as far as soaking up the sound.  Some folks decided they couldn't hang.  Those that did were treated to some unabashed sets cherry-picked from Platinum's extensive list, with a slight emphasis on country. traditional and neo.  No, we didn't do Dixieland Delight, but come to think of it, we oughta.  This band could almost pull it off, save for the fiddle.

I worked on some of the charts, as they were first dances and my charts were made a long time ago, when I first started in the band.  I didn't subscribe to the sense of detail that I might these days.  It turned out to be a good thing that I did give a hard listen.  I had some of the changes simply incorrect.  I also went over the last song of the night, the Dirty Dancing theme (I've Had) The Time of My Life, which of course, has that octave-based funk-esque line, not to mention that cool diminished-sounding horn hit after the sax solo.  I decided to learn it since we do it with out a horn and need to get that strong.  It came out good on the gig.  Nice.  Sound check went well.  Interesting to note that Derek had some issues with a connection to his amp.  Then I had a bad cable from my acoustic guitar to my DI.  Then during the first set, Glen lost the sound from his keyboard.  That turned out to be an issue with the keyboard and the wedge of David's that had developed a short of some kind.  Weird that that is the only sound source for Glen's keys.  He got it back as we launched into I'll Be, my lone guitar feature.  As I stayed on bass, not knowing his situation was getting remedied but still requiring his focus, I did not play it.  It turns out I certainly am more comfortable with the guitar part than the bass part!

My fretless got a nice feature on Mercy Mercy Mercy.  I probably over-played, but then again, that's the only time I get to blow.  Hey, time to rise up!  A la the Falcons!  Also, is it bad news to delve back into earlier tunes late in the evening, for instance, Brown Eyed Girl?  If it gets a fickle crowd off of their feet, I guess there are no rules.  They really seemed to enjoy us, but it's hard to tell in the moment.  A dance band thrives on dancing fools; without a packed floor, we feel we are not a success.  Sometimes people are just content to sit there and watch.  Before long, it was the bouquet toss (another victim of a low hanging chandelier) and the garter snatch (snicker).  Then we honored their request for Free, a Zac Brown Band tune we've played once before.  I like the version that SWJ did that mashed with Into The Mystic.  Kevin did a great job on this and the dances earlier, not to mention the evening closer of that Dirty Dancing toe tapper.  Had a nice groove and we nailed the horn lick!  Much better for me to hit it with the others than to just ride the D like I used to back when McDougal was with us.  Check him out here - he's a great singer, guitarist, piano man, and our tax preparer (for 3 years now, going on 4).  He helped me out quite a bit in my first year with this band.