I had the pleasure of subbing in for another terrific Orange Country country band, Smith. We played at Downtown Disney, a cool place to hang out and make music. I had a couple of "bass player moments" during the evening that you might appreciate. Nothing major, just a couple of little things that made me go "Doh!" and slap my forehead.
The evening started with a brain fart when I got in the wrong lane and ended up in the parking structure of Disneyland instead of proceeding past it on Disneyland Drive down to Downtown Disney. This kind of thing must happen all the time because the parking attendant gave me a pass and put a big red "EXIT" flyer in my windshield wiper. As I drove on through it seemed all the parking lot traffic directors would roll their eyes as they pointed me toward the exit. They must've known I was a bass player.
So I made it out of the parking structure, made a U-turn, took the right lane, pulled into the Disneyland Hotel by mistake, made another U-turn, and finally arrived at Downtown Disney to unload in the valet area. It's good the valet was closed tonight, less traffic to contend with.
I rolled my gear over to the stage to find the sound engineer just getting set up. He said I was early and he was running late.
While the sound guy was doing his thing I wandered around to take in the sights. Here's the little ice skating rink adorned with a large Christmas tree.
This is a shot from the stage. You can see the monorail track. This lends a "Jetsons" air to the venue.
Meet Eric, our sound engineer. He's also a musician and all around nice guy. He did an excellent job and had really good QSC gear.
Here's Eric's mains and my bass rig on stage. The rest of the band is nowhere to be seen.
I was here so early because it was the first time I've done this venue. I allowed for traffic, parking, getting lost, etc. It's a good thing since I had to turn around twice before I got here.
Yay! The band starts to arrive. This is my old friend Paul. I've known Paul for 20 years and played with him off and on in various other projects. He's a retired fire captain who now plays music full time, steel, fiddle, banjo, dobro, vocals, etc.
This is Jason, a very solid drummer who sings his tukus off, both lead and harmonies. I didn't have to sing at all tonight. It was fun just to concentrate on my playing.
This is Mike and Brandi. Brandi's got a great voice and excellent stage presence. She comes off as kind of a ditsy blonde but it's just an act. Mike is also a great singer and picker. The three of these guys have terrific harmonies.
Just after we finish a set I'm able to grab and amp-selfie with Brandi and Paul.
This is what our stage looked like after the sun went down. There was no fantastic light show, except for the fireworks, but at least you could see us.
Another gear picture, this is Mike's rig and pedal board.
Brandi indulges me with a picture.
The drummer was late getting back for the set so I snapped a picture from his vantage point.
It was a really fun night. I knew a lot of their set list but had to learn about 15 songs for their show. They were all fun tunes so I didn't mind. They'll call me again when they need a sub so it wasn't wasted effort. When it was all over, we played from 6-10pm, I left Eric to his work while I packed up and rolled back out to the parking lot.
Oops! Another "bass player moment". When I arrived to my van I realized that I had backed into my stall. I do this often because it's easier to leave a crowded parking lot. But it makes it terribly inconvenient when you have to load gear.
Doh! No biggie, though. I just pulled ahead to an empty space and loaded my gear. It's a good thing no one else in the band saw me.
The next weekend I'm back at Knott's Merry Farm to do the trio thing. I hope everyone has Happy and Joyous Holidays! God bless.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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