Oakland to Reno

Friday night's Oakland show got off to a rocky start. As it turns out, the concert was scheduled to start 30 minutes after an Oakland baseball game. That would have not been a problem had the two venues not shared the same parking lot! Most of the concert goers arrived to find the parking lot full. They had to turn around and drive against the traffic flow to a lot that was a long walk away.

As show time rolled around the arena was only half full, and the promoters new that while the show was not sold out, it was expected to be a nearly full house. It was a little disheartening to start the first song with so many empty seats, but we had to get going. For the next 45 minutes people continued to stream in and by the time we finished the first half, it was packed. It was easy to tell that the evening had not started out well for many people in the audience though.

It was a bit of a rough night for me personally as well. I broke a string during every solo I played. I've broken strings before, but never with such consistency and it meant I had to keep rethinking what I was going to play.

By the time the second set rolled around everyone seemed to forget the earlier difficulties and the audience really got into it.

Last night's San Jose concert was a blast - I was rested and everything went right. Just before the show started we noticed a fellow in the audience not wearing a shirt. I joked with Alfreda and Michelle that maybe he thought he'd attended a hockey game, but ended up at a Yanni concert instead - was he in for a surprise. I later found out that he had just had a large soda spilled onto him by accident by another concert goer who felt horrible about the incident. By chance, David Hudson saw it happen, and was kind enough to see that the shirtless guy was given a brand new Yanni T-shirt - just another example of why I think David is such a good guy. If you're thinking, hmmmm, maybe I could try the same thing and score a shirt for myself - please, don't.

I have a slow internet connection today here in Reno so rather than spend the next hour watching a spinning cursor while waiting for pictures to upload, I'm going to go out and get some sun. I should have time to get pictures posted on our day off in Salt Lake City tomorrow. It will, unfortunately, be preceded by a 9 hour overnight bus ride after the Reno show tonight.

One quick follow-up to my previous journal entry. Our Chattanooga home schooled Mock Trial team has done it again -congratulations to the returning National Mock Trial Champions ¶ 7:08 PM