Madison Square Garden

One of the funnest gigs I recently did was playing the musical saw during one of the breaks at a WNBA game at Madison Square Garden.

I had a sports themed day: in the morning I had a recording session in Brooklyn for an album celebrating the centanial of the song ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’.
In the afternoon, when I got to the Garden for my rehearsal the stadium was empty. It was an amazing sight to get to see this huge space so quiet (the Stadium seats 20,000 people).
After my rehearsal I got to watch a kids girl basketball game. I thought the kids were pretty good, but when the Liberty team showed up for their warm up it was highly impressive. These ladies are like amazons.

I was given a huge private dressing room with my own bathroom, across from the NY Liberty team’s dressing room. In the corridor there were posters of the people who have used these dressing rooms in the past: Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, etc.
Two nice girls were assigned to take care of me and see to all my needs.
My wardrobe was a Liberty t-shirt (which I got to keep 🙂 )

The game was Liberty Vs. Indiana Fever.
When I played during the break I could see the faces of the people in the audience sitting close to me, but when I looked at the horizon, the faces of the audience at the other side of the arena looked like dots. They could all see me clearly, though, on huge screens hanging from the center of the ceiling (where the score of the game is kept).
My performance was filmed for the MSG TV channel.

This was definitely the largest live audience I have ever played for. The atmosphere was very exciting, happy and energetic.
I stayed to watch the rest of the game afterwards. NY Liberty went on to win the game 102-96 in triple overtime.