Live at the Omni: A Monday Night Corporate Affair

Atlanta's Ferris Wheel as viewed from the Omni Hotel

Some folks have it good.  A Monday night swanky party downtown and no apparent need to rise and shine the next morning.  It certainly is nice, and nice to be hired to play the hits for their dancing pleasure.  Atlanta's own Platinum was the seasoned choice for their entertainment needs.  It takes a few minor miracles to pull off my getting there at the appropriate time on a school night, and school had indeed just started.  Thanks to my good wife and her mother for the unwavering assistance in my regard.  It was a rather large room up on the 4th level of the Omni Hotel in downtown Atlanta.  I had some weirdness with my rig during soundcheck, but I guess I got it worked out.  As a semi-post-script, I figured out that I truly need a short 1/4" cable to connect my bass to my wireless transmitter.  I like one with right angle plugs, so I guess I'll shop around for a couple of those.  I seem to have a lot of issues with my jacks in my basses, jacks in my pedals, my strap pins, etc.  Not a very glamorous predicament, you may agree.  Still, is there one more crucial?  I kinda doubt it.

One big stumbling block for me (and maybe to a certain extent, Derek) was Da Butt, that hip tune by D.C.'s E.U. (Experience Unlimited) and made super-famous in Spike Lee's School Daze.  Yeah, shame on me.  We've played it before.  Years ago.  Somewhere, I have the David Freeman invoked chart to prove it.  Could never make complete sense of it.  Glen spelled it out for me,but I still didn't get the verse-chorus form down.  I'm just this side of too white, I suppose.  I've since learned that it is a Marcus Miller tune, and it's his famous '77 Fender Jazz tone all over it.  Never knew that.  It has synth bass too.  I try to cover that lower octave with the octave pedal, then switch it off for the incidental slaps.  It's got a little bit of minor blues to its form.  Need to get it in my head, since I typically don't have a music stand in front of me by the time it's called, late in the evening.

Earlier in the night, I sang Johnny B. Goode and it packed the floor.  It was one of those freakish "perfect song of the moment" tunes, when everything went well.  Derek played his tail off and we had a nice trade off with Anton wailing on a chorus or two.  Gotta love it when that happens.  Now if I could only get my duck-walk down!

We had a remotely located green room on the 4th level, where we were fed one of the best meals we've ever been served.  They even served us salads, bread, and dessert.  Yes, we had a server.  He wasn't much for small talk, but he treated us well.  We asked him to save our desserts and coffee, which he did.  However, he locked the doors, front and back, and nobody could unlock them for us when our break came around.  Not even the front desk.  We lounged on the floor in front of the room for the first break.  Eventually, Virginia got it worked out so that we could get in the room and bring our stuff back to the stage area.  As luck would have it, we were asked to play some overtime.  This was a Monday night, so the late gig went past midnight and we all had a good time.  The packing up was swift, rolling my cart down the passenger elevator to the lobby saved some time, but getting our cars from the valet service slowed us all down accordingly.  Yawn.