This particular weekend was quite busy for me, three nights at The Brandin' Iron and two days at Knott's Merry Farm (5 gigs in 4 days!). Here's my three night run with Rodeo Revival at the Brandin' Iron. This is a pretty easy gig, only half hour sets but there are five of them. Except for Thursday night when you can usually go home after the fourth set because the crowd really thins out, as it did this time. That was good for me since I had to be at work Friday morning. I'll step you through the whole experience.
It's kind of tricky getting into the place if you're driving on the wrong side of the street. You see the bus lanes in the middle separated by the reflective poles.
It's in a nice part of town, right next door to this fine establishment.
As you walk in the back door you see the band room to your left. The black light paint is just classic.
Inside the band room a couple of the walls are covered with pictures of previous performers.
There are some recognizable names there, Eddie Rabbit, Johnny Lee, etc, but I think the real stars are a little farther up the wall.
This is Mark, the stage tech/lighting guy. He helps DJ Dave with the sound.
Here's a view from the FOH.
My rig takes its place proudly in front of the polar bear.
Drummer Jim gets set up. He's such a solid and steady drummer. I love working with him.
Justin is looking forward to making some country-rockin' noise tonight. He brought his tube head tonight instead of the lightweight solid state amp.
Here's my old friend Jesse and his daughter Chelsea. Chelsea and her husband are expecting their first child. I called Jesse "Grandpa" all night.
My buddy Chad, from Disneyland, is with us this weekend on keyboards.
Jim concentrates on his audiovisual click. He uses in-ears for his mix, click, and also has a metronome on his tablet that he watches. Talk about steady.
Justin shreds!
The lovely Chelsea and the dorky bass player.
The ever-present amp-selfie.
My cord is just long enough to get to the side of the stage for this shot.
For the fourth set on a Thursday nightand the crowd usually gets pretty thin. But it'll be much better Friday and Saturday night.
Here's a staff picture from the night.
When I arrived Friday night the dance lessons were going full swing. Here's the view from the FOH.
This is Dennis, one of the staff there, who does some bouncing and runs the mechanical bull. I'm not quite sure what he's doing to the bull but I guess it needed some lubrication. Perhaps this is some kind of mechanical bull "animal husbandry""?
Dennis is a nice guy and a connoisseur of moonshine whiskey. That's all he drinks, and he knows the good stuff from the bad stuff.
Since Chelsea is "with child" she did not want to work all weekend so Michelle joined us to cover the lady songs. Here we are with Justin and I showing off our $2 beers. (The band gets beer for $2 all night long.)
Jesse and Michelle have known each other for a very long time. Michelle did a good job and was fun to work with.
Friday night was a blast and so was Saturday night. We had an additional guitarist Saturday night. Seth and Chelsea smile for the camera.
We also had a different drummer Saturday night. His name is Jim too and he was very solid and you could tell he had done his homework for this gig. I even got his number because bass players like good drummers. Justin was coaching Jim on a few of the tunes he was unfamiliar with. He did a great job.
You can't really tell yet but Chelsea is due in June and will be taking some time off from the band starting around the end of February. I guess that means I'll have to sing more in this band when I sub in. Heaven help us.
I just had to get in one shot of the line dancers. This crowd must know a hundred different line dances.
I got a kick out of Chad's reflective beanie. He's such a hipster. He's a terrific piano player. I guess he can't find enough jazz gigs so he slums around with us in our little country band. Jesse does his best George Strait impersonation.
My friend Luke showed up Saturday night. He plays bass with the band "Brad Johnson and Killin' Time" who are also in the rotation at The Ranch. Luke graciously agreed to sit in on a couple of numbers. He wasn't afraid of my 6-string Carvin. Although I did have to use a different strap to make it low enough for him.
While I was off stage I took a few action shots of the band.
I guess you can just start to tell that Chelsea is showing.
We finally finished our five sets. I tried to make a hasty getaway because I was playing at Knott's the next afternoon.
I've got just last weekend at Knott's to post up and then I'm all caught up. That is, until I play this weekend at Knott's. I hope my schedule will slow down just a little after the first of the year.
Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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