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| Late evening view of the tents from our parking area at Atlantic Station. Note the Bank of America building poking over the "horizon". |
From the pages of atlanta-wineauction.org:
A New Event For A New Vintage
Reception, 7:00 p.m.
Dinner, 8:00 p.m.
Attire: No jacket or tie required.
In keeping with the changing times, the 2013 Wine Auction is inaugurating a new event for Friday night—the Vine-to-Table feast. This year we’re taking a simpler, fresher approach to our Friday night dine and dance party. Big tables. Big platters of food. Easier mixing and mingling. Big fun. The seating is still reserved, and the winemakers will be right there with you as always, but there’s a looser, more relaxed vibe in the air, right down to the music we play. Come get a taste of the new Friday Night Vine-to-Table feast for the senses. Special Guest Chefs include Chris Hall of Local Three, Greg Hardesty of Recess in Indianapolis, Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, and Patrick Owens of Langdon’s in Mt. Pleasant. A Silent Auction and music by Sweetwater Junction will keep you entertained well into the night, as we welcome our new Uncorking Cru to the Wine Auction.
A lot of words just to have our esteemed Sweetwater Junction's named in print as it was. It was a swanky affair, held in big, billowing tents near the park off of State Street in Atlantic Station. We enjoyed a nice, large stage and a massive dance floor. Did our best to keep it filled. Can't help it if many of the attendees sampled a bit too much of the wine that was being thrust upon them. It makes sense when I think about it. We played a typical set of neo-retro country-tinged rock and modern classics. It seemed to work for the setting; not too stuffy and not too forced.
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Panoramic view of inside the great tent. Really only the second time I've tried this on my phone.
Jack showed it to me - guess I need to start getting used to that! |
We loaded in early. Scratch that - Brian, Mark, and Pete loaded in early. I wasn't too far behind. I brought my GK head along with both SWR cabinets; I knew it might get loud. It always takes a while to set up for this band, since we do our own monitors and run our signals to the mixer for front of house. This time was a less than ideal. We have more inputs than our mixer can accommodate; nothing unusual. They had a 4 channel mixer serving the subwoofer. This meant that the kick drum and bass guitar would go through the sub, but not through the mains. That meant lots of bottom but no definition. I was asked to add more clarity to my signal. I added more mids, but what good does it do when it is getting rolled off via the low-pass filter of, say, 100 Hz that the sub bestows upon it's incoming. I can only theorize that Mark's kick suffered from the same brick-walled treatment.
My poor old SWR Goliath II is showing its age. The spring in one of the handles is stuck in an "open" position, so that the handle is at half mast. Worse though, is that the attenuator for the horn is shot. It does nothing, but when it is reduced (ie when the horn is set for more resistance), then a strange distorted noise comes through the signal. At least I figured that out, possibly one or two gigs too late. It's subtle and I wasn't sure what I was hearing. Now I know.
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| A crafty musician covers his equipment. |
We had some neat jams in the beginning. Mark gets credit in my book for always pushing to jam a bit and loosen up. I don't do that enough, and it felt nice. Pete has amazing facility on the keys, so he can just go. So can Mark. Together, they can take off and I try to make it funky or something like that. After sound check, we got in Brian's ride and jetted to his new abode in Little Five Points. Nice apartment with French doors and a very hip overlook. We ate at the Corner Tavern, a dark place with an extensive drink menu and decent blackened chicken sandwiches, although I opted for the Black and Blue burger. Our side salads weren't enough, so we all ordered french fries (for dessert)! Not so healthy, but it was to be a long night. That's my justification for meals like this. Plus, I had just had my annual physical exam. My cholesterol levels are nice and in the middle. No diabetes. Good EKG. So far, so good. Everything in moderation.
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| Pete Orenstein |
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| Mark Letalien |
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| Chris Garner - perhaps the best shot of Chris I've taken all of these years. |
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| The party was over too soon... |
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| ...thank you for having us! |
Highlights of the night were the extended funk jam that keeps 'em dancing: Standing On Shaky Ground --> Superstition --> Play That Funky Music. Who you callin' White Boy?! We took one break, but not for long, and we were back. Around 12:15 or so, we were given the sign to cut it off. We were in the middle of The Doobies' Long Train Runnin'. Well, we took that as it was the last song. We didn't even extend it, but the man got visibly upset with us when we didn't stop right then and there. Yikes! We just wanted to finish it. Can't even end with an appropriate closer? Hey, you, get off of my cloud! I thought he might find the extension cords and start ripping them out! A terse moment in an otherwise celebratory night. Hopefully, we helped in raising some funds for Atlanta's beloved High Museum of Art
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