The day of the gig (November 13) was pretty laid back and cool. I headed over to the Manhattan Center at 34th and 8th Ave about 1 pm for the soundcheck which was supposed to start with McCoy Tyner and Paul Schaffer. Instead it started with the kick drum. Shocking news.
Paul was standing over by the horn section cutting up and telling stories. I said hello to Miles and sat down to the piano. It was a Steinway, and had been recently tuned. I played for a couple minutes and tested out the synth. When I knew everything was working, I walked over to Paul and said "Mr. Schaffer, nice to meet you, I am a fan." Paul looked at me and said "after hearing you play just now, I'm a fan of yours." Not a bad way to start a soundcheck.
Will was seeming to contain boundless energy and had really enjoyed the rehearsal at SIR the night before. He was passing out pins and stickers for his new band, The Fab Faux, and having way more fun than you are supposed to during the day.

Soundcheck had to be pretty short because most of the guys had to leave for the Letterman and Conan tapings, so we covered as much ground as we could, ending with the Michael Bolton version of Lean on Me which was 90 % acoustic piano, and pretty darn easy.

I took a cab back to the hotel with Lee and one of the other band members who I discovered is working for the State Dept undercover most of the time, so it was an interesting ride hearing about things on the Laos/Cambodian border. More on this later.

Gig time was fast approaching and we got stuck in the bottom of the venue next to a non working elevator, but we soon found our way up to the Hammerstein Ballroom on the 8th floor.

We got onstage at 7:30 and the gig began.

William Baldwin made a wonderful welcome speech which was followed by Harry Shearer hosting and making jokes.
Christopher Reeve presented Walter Cronkite with the 2000 Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award. Mr. Reeve looked very good  and spoke quite well from a lengthy prepared introduction. Walter Cronkite was on top of his game as he spoke about the future of broadcasting.

Richard Belzer presented Paul Schaffer his 2000 spotlight award. Paul had decided that his gift to the audience would be having McCoy Tyner perform, and it was great watching McCoy play.

Richard Robinson received a 2000 spotlight award as did Michael Bolton. It appeared the band was happy when Bolton was asked to cut his opera number due to time constraints.
The presidential election was the main topic for the jokes by the host.
It was cool that we got to play my version of Chamelion. Gavin came up and sang "Stars" the song he and Herbie Hancock wrote. Then we started running out of time. Sam from Sam & Dave did "Soul Man" and Bolton's "Lean on Me" was the end of the show.
Certainly more Monday fun than Monday night Football.