Yeah, so me and the ANB played another dive down in the OC, the Montage. It was a corporate event for First Financial Resources, their annual Spring Symposium. We played this event last year.
I had a pleasant drive down to Laguna Beach enjoying all the "super bloom" along the way. There are lots more flowers and green stuff covering the landscape these days after all the rain.
I drove toward the coast until my tires got wet and then I turned left. The resort is on Pacific Coast Highway.
I arrived at the venue and dutifully went in the back door through the kitchen.
Outside the Grand Ballroom where we were performing I found the banquet orders hanging on the wall. the resort charges the client some pretty good scratch for their services. The client actually gave us a raise over last year too.
We had to wait until a session was over at 4:30 to load in and set up.
Here we are mid-setup dance. There were huge LED screens behind us. The big sunsets were nice but the gyroscopic animations gave me a little bit of vertigo.
We are just about done with setup.
This was kind of a weird arrangement with the production company. We had to supply all our own mics, stands, and cables and run them to their snake on the left side of the stage under the wall of LED screens. We used every cable we had for that long run because most had to use two 25' cables.
John's cables for his rig look a mess. I guess he thinks this really is a dive.
Jason's nice purple milk crate looks classy in the ballroom.
The room is just about ready. I took a couple of pictures before we headed to the green room to stash our cases and junk.
Paul was on this gig. He and I toured the grounds a bit after we got changed. It's really nice here, for a dive.
Right outside the door is a huge pool and jacuzzi area.
We took the walkway down to the beach view. Paul, Arnie, and I all have a Scully shirt like this one. We take turns wearing them.
Here's the ocean side of the resort. Not to shabby.
Here's another nice view down the Laguna shoreline with a big bass head in the way.
Paul and I wander back inside. This is the foyer where the guests were enjoying their cocktail hour.
Johnny Magic Fingers was supplying cocktail music for the guests from 6pm-7pm. He got to play an hour more than we did, lucky guy.
The crowd had a great time thoroughly ignoring Johnny's renditions of "Girl From Impanema" and "Fool On The Hill" as they sipped their adult beverages and talked shop.
While Johnny Magic Fingers was entertaining himself, we got word that the band could hit the buffet first. You don't have to ask us twice.
On our way back to the green room we made sure to walk by John as he was playing while we would be eating. We're so mean. Our green room came complete with fancy water and sodas. (Note: John was able to take his meal before the full band played. We started about twenty minutes behind schedule so Johnny had time to eat quickly.)
The band enjoys breaking bread together. Yes, Crystal is on this gig while Amanda continues to rest.
We broke more than bread. It was quite a spread, lamb chop, mac-n-cheese, salad, asparagus, grilled chicken, Morro Bay cod, a selection of artisan cheeses, etc.
Then it was time for our dinner set while the clients enjoyed their meal. Crystal was amazing.
It's even more amazing that she puts up with me.
Arnie passes out the set lists just before we start. I should have looked sooner because I needed lyric sheets for a couple of songs. Oh well, I can fake it.
Johnny gets in at the last minute. He finished at 7pm and then got right on stage after his quick bite to play the dinner set with us.
Here's the view of the room from my mic toward the FOH, which also contained the lighting and AV presentation controller people.
These folks loved Crystal this evening. We sang "Shallow" and brought the house down.
Once they had a few cocktails they were in a dancing mood. It was a friendly crowd and our contacts at FFR were impressed enough to hire us again for next year.
We were done at 10pm but because of the weird setup I didn't get on the road home until 11pm. We had a lot of cables to wind. But our sound guy was very good. We were all pleased. This is my view as I back out of my parking space to head home.
I have another private event gig with the ANB on Saturday, no details yet. I'm also taking part in the annual talent show at work here on Friday. That should be a hoot. You wouldn't want to see a gig report about that, would you?
You guys are great.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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