Sweetwater Junction at Buford Community Center

The Mach II version of the band reunited once again for a fundraiser last night in Buford.  When this band gets together, we have a lot to offer.  The key was keeping the volume down and delivering some dance rock classics.  And we did.  I was one of the lowest volume gigs this 5-piece lineup has ever managed.  What was the trick?  It was an intimate gathering and the first set was performed while the crowd ate.  That helps to dictate our operating levels.  We quickly merged into our favorites of Into the Mystic and Can't You See.  The folks ate it up, while they were eating up the tailgating-themed fare.

One cool point I remember well is our soundcheck run-through of 50 Ways to leave Your Lover.  I will remeber it well as I sang it, for the first time ever.  Of course, I had played it the night before in the Paul Simon tribute act.  I also finally have that easy yet pesky chod progression down.  It's common knowledge that Tony Levin played on it, along with the "seperates the men from the boys" drum performance of Steve Gadd.  Tony's part is way easy compared to the drum track, but his note choices are so clever and it really makes the track blossom.  For some reason, his option for varying the octaves had always added a clever twist that kept me from really "getting" it.  It makes sense now.  Glad it did, as I was able to convincingly talk Walt through the changes and we played the whole tune down.  Mark nailed the tricky drum part, of course, so that was the impetus behind our impromptu rendition.  I hope we can do it again one fine day.