Me and the ANB played at my favorite dive bar this past Sunday afternoon, the Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano. It's a funky little place with a friendly atmosphere. I headed down to South OC right after church. Traffic was light.
The parking lot was full so I pulled up to the loading ramp in back, put my gear on my trusty Rock-n-Roller cart, and wheeled it around front to the stage door. That was easier than trying to load in the back door.
Arnie, Jason, and John were well into the setup dance when I arrived.
I tossed my gear on stage just before Randy joined the fray.
Then I went to find a parking spot. I drove for blocks around the place until I ended up back in the street right next to the parking lot behind the venue. I got lucky being able to park so close. Whew!
Here are a couple of shots of the atmosphere while we run cables and plug them in. We run our own PA here.
A few people have asked me what all those fans are for. Well, if nobody shows up we turn them all on so it sounds like applause.
We finished up right at our start time. Well, we actually started a couple of minutes late but it's a dive bar. Nobody cared. We hit it hard.
It was a very cozy stage with the five of us hairy legged boys up there. Poor Randy had to look at the backside of my jeans all night. Maybe that explains the look on his face.
Johnny Magic Fingers wails away on his big boogie woogie number. You might notice Drummer Dave from the True Willie Band there in the audience. He lives close and likes to hang out with us. Sometimes we let him sit in but today we were running a lot of new material. Arnie takes some refreshment while Johnny plays the intro.
His fingers never leave his hand!
Arnie says, "It's about time for a Haggard song." This crowd loves Haggard.
They love to two-step here. This is not a line dancing crowd
Arnie asked me to tell a joke while he was tuning. I said "Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "Olive!" "Olive who?" "Olive, the other reindeer!" I'm not sure if he got it.
I took a picture with the Birthday Girl, Gladys, and her friend Beth. They are real sweethearts.
Gladys invited us to partake in the birthday treats, sandwiches and chips and stuff. That was nice.
The the band and the whole room sang "Happy Birthday" to Gladys.
Our good friends Jackolynn and Tammi came out to support the band. Tammi works for one of the local cities and has thrown some work our way on occasion.
We were having so much fun it seemed like four sets went by very quickly. Soon it was time to get our roadie on. I guess Jason was in a hurry. He's a blur.
And a parting shot of the sign out front.
A good time was had by all. We played 2pm to 6pm so everyone was home nice and early, on time for work on Monday morning. Yay band!
Thanks for looking and thanks to all of you comment and share. Fun stuff!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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