It was another busy week playing Thursday through Saturday nights, so I'm just going to put these three performances in one nice, long blog post. OK? Lets' get started.
Our Thursday night gig was for Mariners Church in Irvine. They threw a kick-off party for their youth and singles ministries.
This is what you call a "mega-church" with several large buildings on a beautiful campus.
Above is the main worship center where the large Sunday services are held. This is the chapel where smaller services are held.
Here is Chase setting up the sound system. The church had good gear, QSC mains/monitors, Yamaha M7CL mixer, etc, and Chase knew how to use it well.
The FOH was set up in front of their community center, another large building where they have mid-week services and youth services.
Art didn't bring the right color shirt this evening. Since I usually bring four or five shirts, Kelly picked out this nice blue item for Art to wear.
I just thought it was kind of funny that we all stashed our cases and Rock-n-Roller carts behind the bushes behind us.
Kelly joins us for a little sound check.
And what country gig is complete without hay bales?
Here's Chase at the console. He did a really good job. I was impressed with his expertise for someone so young.
After we sound check the band relaxes while the attendees have an introduction/fellowship meeting in the community center.
There were about 300 in attendance. Here's a picture inside the community center as their meeting is getting started.
While the crowd is meeting the band gets to take part in the pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, and chips. This is Julie, our effervescent server.
Here's Kelly with our hostess, Alicia, who announces the band so we can get the party started.
Art and Daniel are up to their old tricks.
Mario can feel the love in the air.
Jeff looks like he's starring in a truck commercial.
Here is a shot of the crowd while Alicia and her assistant take a few minutes between songs to give away raffle prizes, gas cards, concert tickets, and such.
Another shot of the crowd, checking their ticket numbers. They were a fun crowd and really appreciated us being there.
We played less than two hours and at the end I realized that I forgot to take an "amp-selfie". Here ya go!
We call it a night and Chase packs up the PA.
The next morning I have to go into work but I get to take off a little early so I can make the LA Fair gig. I've played on some nice stages at the LA County Fair but this wasn't one of them. At least we had an easy load in.
We were literally in the north 40, far away from most of the foot traffic, in the middle of all the crop displays. Above you see Sean, our sound guy. He was a really nice guy who tried his best with mediocre equipment and other issues. It was a modest PA system.
All night the PA was giving us fits, distortion, drop-outs, noise, etc. As it turned out, the power feeding the stage was really sagging, like 90 volts. Even though Sean had called for help, and got it, there wasn't much to be done until the electrical was fixed. Unfortunately we ended up blowing two speakers and an amp before we quit early for the night.
The fair provided a green room for us. That's it behind the fence, the beige storage container with the blue top.
It almost reminded me of one of those micro-houses.
But it was air conditioned and secure enough that we could store our gear overnight. We even had a Sparkletts dispenser.
Actually, with this stage being way out in the north 40, it was a fairly easy load-in compared to other stages in the middle of the fair. We could pull our vehicles right up to the back of the stage. But since we had to park so far away I elected to store my gear overnight. It was fine.
Here Art and Daniel are getting their sound check in front of the lettuce.
Jeff is using his wireless mic in front of the tomatoes. (He didn't use it Saturday night. I'm sure the tomatoes appreciated it.)
Mario says, "Are YOU ready to sound check?"
Here's the stage with all our gear ready to go. You see the band schedule on the sign. I know a couple members of The Silverados, who play the last weekend of the fair.
This is the grandstand. There used to be horse racing here at the fair but now this is just a large concert venue. The track is gone in favor of more displays and food vendors.
Friday night Kool and the Gang played the grandstand. Saturday night it was ZZ Top.
It looks like we are about ready to start. Kelly checks her mic.
Kelly's daughters share the stage with us to sing and tell the folks about their CD, "Songs About Dogs". The girls were recently written up in the OC Register and other local papers for their work with their rescue animals.
It's just like playing at a farm. Well, we ARE in the Farm Area.
We have friends who are also playing at the fair this weekend. Mike Wallace stops by on a break and we get him up on stage to sit in.
On the breaks we retire to our little storage shed with the air conditioner. It was hot, dry, and dusty all weekend.
On one of my breaks I enjoy some 'Hotdog On A Stick'. Fair food is expensive! You're looking at $5 right here.
Despite all the trouble with the PA and the conditions, we still manage to have our fun.
When we come back on Saturday we find that the mains and one of the monitors have been replaced.
Here is Sean with Paul and another tech getting us started with another sound check. Paul had found the troubles with the electricity and replaced the damaged components. Saturday night went much better.
It was so dusty out there I didn't even bother to clean my boots pr basses before I came back to the gig.
The crowds were somewhat modest, being that we were so far away from the main drags of the fair. But every time we started playing they would come on over to see who was making all that noise. We got good response.
Kelly is in a good mood since the PA is almost trouble-free tonight.
Jeff decided not to use his wireless gear tonight since the stage is too small to move around on. And besides, it upset the tomatoes. It must've been the radio frequencies.
Art and Daniel can't decide who is going to pull who's finger. Ashley, another sound tech that we've worked with before in other venues, seems amused. It was good running into her, it's such a small world sometimes.
Here's my amp-selfie before we start the show.
This is Mr. Loop Rawlins, gun spinner and trick roper. He was terrific and often had bigger crowds than we did.
We took a little walk around while on break and found this White Mountain Giant Steer. If you look in this barn, above the 'one way' sign you will see the biggest steer on the planet looking back at you. That's about 10,000 hamburgers staring at you, over 3000 pounds!
Here's the parting shot. Sean bids me farewell as I roll my gear out toward the parking lot.
Here's the online media flyer we used.
Some friends of mine showed up this weekend. One of them took this picture while we were sound checking.
And here's ZZ on stage in the grandstand. We could hear them from our stage. They were rocking the joint. We tried to wander backstage on our break but the security ran us off. We even told them we were "with the band".
This is a panorama of the stage area. There was a restaurant on the left called "Pappas Artisanal". I didn't eat there because they had a 12" pizza for $13. Did I mention fair food is expensive?
This is the first time I've ever attempted a face-in-the-hole selfie.
Kelly and Jeff join me in a selfie on stage.
"She thinks my tractor's sexy...it really turns her on...."
OK, now I'm having way too much fun. I've got to catch up on a few more gigs. Of course, since blogs go in reverse order you'll see the latest gig first without ever knowing that I was four gigs behind! Anyway, thanks for looking and I'll be right back, continuing to get caught up. ;-)
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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