Tour Diary: Yacht Rock Revue’s Nicholas Niespodziani Takes Us Through Their Latest tour

The sun is shining; the heat is blistering, so it must mean that it’s the season of Yacht Rock Revue. The ten-piece ensemble is in its element in the midst of a lengthy summer tour called the “Summer Road Trip Tour.” The tour began last month on July 8th and features 44 cities, with support from REO Speedwagon and Train. The premiere summer band, few acts can bring the breezy vibes quite like Yacht Rock Revue can. If you can’t make it out to a show, you can still experience the band’s feel-good grooves with their PBS concert special they recently filmed at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City.

The band arrived in style at the beginning of the summer with two new tracks. At the end of May, they released “Tropical Illusion” and “Passengers.” The former features an appearance from Elliot Lurie of the legendary band Looking Glass. Led by Nicholas Niespodziani, both singer and co-manager of the band, Yacht Rock Revue first emerged in 2007. Since then, they have developed into one of America’s premiere live summer acts. Fun and dancing are two certainties when you attend one of their shows. The summer tour is all a leadup to the release of Yacht Rock Revue’s latest release, a double album named Escape Artist, scheduled for release on November 29th.

With the tour still going strong, we are joined by Niespodziani for an exclusive tour diary that takes you behind the scenes of the band’s travels, featuring all the behind-the-scenes information you won’t get anywhere else.

July 7th, Travel Day, Atlanta, GA to Minneapolis, MN

“There were tears all around saying goodbye to my family today. We had a ‘last supper’ last night with family and friends. It felt a little like I was going away to prison.

“We’re about to kick off our first ‘tour bus tour,’ opening for Train and REO Speedwagon on 45 shows over 66 days zig-zagging across the country in a nine bus, eight tractor-trailer production. Our band has two buses that are both pulling trailers, carrying eight band members and six crew. We’ve got a pretty spacious and luxurious setup, compared to most first-timers. And I don’t take that for granted. But it still feels tight.

“As we packed the tour bus, it was fun to see the little pieces everyone brings to make them feel at home – the pillowcases and trinkets and instruments and workout gear and toys. I’ve got my Empire Strikes Back sheets, an Omnichord and a doomsday prepper’s supply of cannabis drinks.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

July 8th, Somerset, WI

“This venue was gigantic by our standards, 40,000 capacity. Last summer we headlined 2,000 to 6,000-capacity venues, in between dates opening for Kenny Loggins on his final tour. Our show went well when graded on the first show curve. The tech snafus and mental errors didn’t keep us from connecting with the crowd, the vast majority of which had never seen us before.

“Hitting the stage at 6:30 pm in the summer will take some getting used to, the sun was setting in our faces and it dried out my voice. It was a good reminder to manage my hydration. I find that to consistently perform at my best, I have to maintain good habits: hydration, nutrition, daily exercise, stretching, vocal warm-ups, etc. I’ll need to be even more diligent given the marathon aspect of this tour.

“Our new single ‘Tropical Illusion’ went over great and (singer, guitarist) Peter (Olson) and I went out into the crowd to take pictures and meet fans.

“‘Members Of Opening Band Walking Among Crowd During Intermission Like Gods Among Men’ – The Onion.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

July 9th, Day Off/Press Hit, Indianapolis, IN

“The first night sleeping on the bus was challenging for everyone. Learning how to manage the climate control, acclimating to the smaller space of the bunk, and and trying to tune out the squeaks of the bus left me feeling exhausted. When I got out of bed (I wouldn’t call it ‘woke up’ because I never really slept) we were still on the road. It was 600 miles from Somerset to Indianapolis, where we had an acoustic performance on local TV at 3 pm.

“We finally got into our hotel at 2 pm and had to be at the TV station by 2:45 pm. Local TV is always pretty fun, low low-pressure. We did ‘Tropical Illusion.’

“Most of the guys went to bed early. I went out for tacos with my family (back home again in Indiana!) and then we went out drinking with a few of the Train guys. It’s always good when the second location is a Tiki bar, and Indianapolis comported itself well in that department.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

July 10th, Noblesville, IN

“Tonight we played Ruoff Music Center, formerly Deer Creek, where I grew up going to see bands like Radiohead, Phish, Lenny Kravitz, Steve Miller Band, Dave Matthews Band… I formed some core memories on the lawn of this venue. This afternoon I spent some time just sitting on the lawn and soaking it in. Of all the shows on the tour, I’ve probably been looking forward to this one the most. It’s a ‘boyhood dreams come true’ scenario.

“We could feel the energy of the crowd and it was clear we had a lot of people there to see us. When we went out to meet the fans, it felt like we were legit famous which is fun and a little weird and emotionally draining. It was just as epic as I’d hoped, and getting to hang with the homies on the lawn afterwards was special. My parents and sister and her husband were there, cousins and extended family, college roommates, elementary school best friends… With all the adrenaline pumping and good vibes flowing, it was tough to fall asleep on the bus.

“Our sax player Dave (Freeman) got in trouble tonight for practicing his clarinet at midnight somewhere he shouldn’t. Which is so NOT rock n’ roll and also 100 percent on-brand for us.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

July 11th, Pittsburgh, PA

“Today was our first day waking up with the bus already parked at the venue, and that’s going to become the norm for my existence over the next two months. I slept in and missed breakfast.

“It was just us opening for Train tonight (no REO on this show) so the schedule was looser. Zooms with a DC newspaper for an interview and the bi-weekly meeting with our publicist kicked off my afternoon. I also had time for a bus-side workout (always good to work out near cigarette butts) and a walk along the river Facetiming with my kids.

“Tonight was our first time playing in Pittsburgh. We’ve played most major American cities on previous tours, and this tour is going to fill in any we were missing. The crowd was general admission so they were crowded up to the stage and which created a cool intimate energy. It was a good first showing in the Steel City with a late-night band bus hang to close it out.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

July 12th, Cincinnati, OH

“We could have floated down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh straight to the venue in Cincy. Riverbend has a great view from the backstage beach, barges float by and geese land on the water. Before the show, we spent some time with the tour video director, who coordinated with us on the setlist and gave us some pointers on how to play to the cameras.

“On this scale, a lot of the audience’s main visual experience with you is up on the big screens. You’re a dot on the stage from the top of the lawn. The venues we’re used to playing require big physical movements to connect; on these shows, you sometimes have to dial that back to stay in the frame to connect with people in the way back.

“Overall this kind of tour is a lot of being around people. Like all the time. Even with my three-hour hike today I still felt boxed in by the end of the night. It’s a big adjustment not operating on our own terms, not setting the rules of engagement and the boundaries and the schedules. As the opener you’re always deferring and somehow that makes the social aspect more stressful. Luckily the new Star Wars TV series puts me to sleep on the rough Indiana roads.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

July 12th, Tinley Park, IL

“This morning I watched the riggers hang the lighting and sound systems, starting a production process that starts at 8 am and finishes when the buses pull out of the venue at 1 am. These guys climb up several flights of ladders and attach themselves to safety wires to hang the cables and chains that hold everything up. I sipped my coffee and appreciated viscerally how many people it takes to pull this tour off. Add on a significant number of local crew, security, catering, hospitality, the machine is massive.

“Unfortunately, this evening there was lightning and the threat of severe weather. This kept us in a holding pattern. The time for opening doors kept getting pushed back. Our set was cut from 45 to 30 minutes and finally cut altogether. Just Train and REO tonight, we’re collateral damage out of an abundance of caution. It never rained a drop.

“It was weird to visit with family and friends on a night when your biggest show ever in their town has been cancelled. They want to congratulate you on your success, in achieving a tour billing like this. But the show and the musicianship and the memorable moments and the applause never happened. It felt like a congrats for making it to the rained-out championship game…

“But as I type this at 1 am, the storm has finally hit. Everyone else is crashed out but I’m drinking vodka in the front lounge. The satellite signal is intermittent and the Tarantino movie flickers in and out. This is my first night watching the whole tour move out, a giant caravan rolling slowly into the night under this biblical storm. In the neon light of the tour bus lounge, with rain pounding against the roof and the bus driver asking about mayo for his deli sandwich before we set out across the country in the middle of the night… I wish I had some mayo.”

July 13th, Day Off, Cleveland, OH

“Very little to report. It’s not the Groundhog’s day of the show and the bus but it’s still the same in a weird way. Downtown Cleveland is a ghost town on a summer Sunday. I did my laundry and watched a lot of soccer. England lost to Spain and I fell asleep to Argentina beating Colombia. That was a sign I was really tired. I never fall asleep watching sports.”

July 14th, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

“This morning I lost my wedding ring somewhere between the Embassy Suites elliptical machine and the bus. Luckily this time my wife’s reaction was, ‘Well I wanted you to get a cooler ring anyway!.’ So I’m in the clear. Hopefully, I’ll find it like I found my slides.

“The venue in Cleveland reminds me of the Wolf Trap in DC, a mid-century modernish structure with great angles using stark concrete and wood. It also reminds me of some of the architecture in my hometown of Columbus, Indiana. The venue brought in baby goats and chickens for us to pet and hang out with, a great amenity to encourage touring sanity.

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary

“Tonight I drove the entire band off a cliff when I started singing the end of ‘Africa’ way too soon. It was the biggest and most obvious-to-the-audience mistake anyone in our band has made in the last five years. What’s more, I had no idea I was the one who messed up until after the show. I was confidently laying into the wrong part of the song while everyone else fell apart around me. It was awful.

“But as I used to tell my Camp Jam students, it’s not about the mistake, it’s about how you react to that mistake. And the whole band took it in stride, we crushed the last two songs (‘Heart to Heart’ and ‘She’s Gone’) and won over a big Cleveland audience. It was the most enthusiastic applause at the end of our set on the tour so far. I confessed my sins to the bus driver and the whole band had a big laugh about it.”

Post Script

“I found my wedding ring in my duffel bag a week later.”

Yacht Rock Revue tour diary