Afternoon on the Deck

After a great (and rocking) time at Eric's wedding on Friday night, we made our way home Saturday morning with the rest of the weekend in front of us. For me, that meant band practice on Saturday night - our final rehearsal before Sunday's gig.

Practice actually went well - our pattern to this point has been rocky final practices (followed by gigs that go wonderfully.) We were a little stressed with the realization sinking in that 30 songs (which is what we were planning to play for a 2:00-6:00 gig) is a lot of material. We had considered dropping a few songs from the set, depending on how Saturday's practice went - but they all went well and stayed in the set.

I decided, and all agreed, that my mandolin playing had to be dropped for this gig. We were scrambling to get 30 songs ready to play, and didn't need the additional work of figuring out new arrangements for anything. But that's something we'll do after this gig.

We left the rehearsal feeling ready, so the only remaining question was the weather. The forecast called for a cloudy day with a 20% chance of rain. Even though we were playing under a canopy, a heavy rain would force us to cancel - the canopy wasn't enclosed on all sides, and we have all those electrical cords running around (mics, amps, PA, etc.)

Sunday dawned cloudy/foggy, but the weather gods smiled on us. By noon it was sunny with blue skies - a gorgeous early fall day - and it stayed that way for the rest of the day. I arrived at the Inn around 1:30, with Darling Wife and brother Chris. We had a niche at the corner of the deck to set up, and we were ready to go shortly after 2:00.

The playing itself went by in a blur. I think we sounded good, and we got a number of nice compliments, not only from people on the deck at the Inn, but also from people walking by on the street. There were no major malfunctions in any of the songs - not even the ones we felt shaky on right up until the last practice. We didn't have any of the tempo issues that we've had occasionally at other gigs (with the adrenaline flowing, it's easy to play songs faster than they should be played!)

My set list, with annotations from Saturday's practice, is at right. We didn't do things exactly in this order, and we skipped a few songs in the interest of time. But it's a rough approximation of what we played.

I probably say this on every post about the acoustic band, but I can't help saying it again. It is *such* a pleasure to be playing with such professional-sounding people. I can hardly believe my good fortune. And to actually be out and playing gigs? Just wow....

We finished up around 5:30, and Darling Wife had a bottle of wine waiting for us. We toasted a very fun and successful day, and then Sandy shocked me by putting actual green money in my hand. I didn't know it was a paying gig! Not that it really matters...I won't be quitting my day job (sadly.) But it's very cool to walk away with enough cash to take a supportive spouse to dinner - or think about new gear. :-)

All in all, pretty much a perfect day.

Brother Eric's take on the day is here. I'm also stealing his pics from that post. He's become pretty much the official band photographer - his shots from the polo club gig are fantastic, and we're all looking forward to seeing his pics from this gig. Keep an eye on the band's FB page for more pics.