Last night was one of our regular Wednesday country night gigs at the happiest place on earth. It didn't start out too happy for me because work is kicking my butt and I got a late start to the gig. At least I get a nice view of the foothills as I pull out of the parking lot. A month ago those hills were all green from the above average rainy season we had. Now the heat and dryness has turned everything brown again.
In addition to my late start, the traffic was a real bear getting down the 57. It's always extra think at this curve by Brea Mall. Looks like I won't catch a break today.
Well, hey! Look at that! Despite part of the Simba lot being blocked off for recovering and re-striping, I managed to park closer than I ever have before! I guess I did catch a little break today. Now I have only 3/8ths of a mile to schlep my gear instead of 1/2 mile.
The security guy was polite and helpful but he still wanted to look in all my gear. I guess you can't be too careful these days. I must've looked like a bass player.
By the time I arrived the setup dance was near its end. I just had to do my little solo step and toss my gear on stage. Johnny Magic Fingers was "Johnny Lite" for this gig. He brought only two keyboards. Eric is running sound today using Arnie's PA.
It's a pretty wide open stage now with no floor wedges, one sub, and two speakers on sticks. Setup is complete and since we're mixing our own IEMs now there isn't much of a sound check.
Since Vivi Rama is subbing for me and using my #1 rig at this weekend's festival gig, I brought out what you could call my #3 rig. It's a Randall RB2000 with my Carvin RL115 cab.
This is Arnie's new toy, the band's IEM rack. It worked pretty good today. Everyone is still getting used to it but it's gonna be great.
We all have our wireless packs and an iPad mixer. My wireless pack gave me a little trouble tonight. It seemed the batteries would not stay in contact with the springy points and would lose power. I muddled through.
It was just us hairy-legged boys tonight. Amanda is taking it easy between now and her CD release party on Oct. 9.
Jason had called Arnie at 2am to say he had the flu really bad, you know what I mean. No, really, the flu, running at both ends, etc. So Arnie called Dave to help us out. We love Dave. You remember him from the True Willie Band.
Jed was with us playing his Taylor and his Strat and singing a few.
On a break John and I walked down the street to find my ex-bandwife and her trio playing in the square. It was nice to see Kelly Rae again. We didn't really get a chance to talk, we just watched each other on the break.
I think gear looks better after dark. Don't you? (I think I do too.) That's Jed's Kemper unit and other such tech that this old country bass player doesn't understand.
My rig sounded really good tonight. I think this is the first time I've ever used this combination of amp and cab. My EQ was pretty simple. Eric, our sound guy, is a bass player and he said it sounded great. I'll take his word for it. I don't know how much of my sound was making it off the stage since I was also going direct. But as long as I didn't suck, I'm happy.
No Contour, no compression, roll off 50Hz and 4KHz a little, boost 400Hz and 2KHz a little, and it sounded like a bass. I was running the low end amp full range, 375w. The high end amp (it's a bi-amp head) is 150w but I wasn't using it.
There was no pretty girl to take a selfie with. You'll just have to put up with this old country bass player's ugly mug.
The crowd this evening was kind of light. We had a few dancers and once in a while several dozen folks would mill around and watch us play for a while.
Our friend Meghan from The Ranch stopped by to say "Hi". She's a sweet gal.
And then Mickey set off his fireworks signaling that we were done for the evening. Ohhhhh! Ahhhh!
I rolled out to the truck and started my way home before 10:30pm. Not bad for a school night. When I got there I found the last Lagunitas Little Sumpin' in the fridge. My cat approves.
It was a pleasant evening at Downtown Disney. We kept the set list pretty old school. We were in that kind of mood. I met another bass player from out of town who was visiting the park with his family. Tom also plays a Carvin bass. We had a nice chat. Dang! I should've told him about my blog.
Anyway, this Saturday we have our last summer fling at Knott's Berry Farm. I'm hoping Amanda will be with us, or at least one of her subs. Then September is going to be fairly busy with a Ranch weekend, a Gilley's weekend, another Downtown Disney, etc, nine dates altogether for the band of which I'll be playing eight. After fifteen dates in July and twelve dates in August next month will seem like a vacation.
Hey! Thanks for looking.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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