This was my first time, and the band's first time, playing at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival. It was quite an experience, quite a hassle, but very fun. Since I played only one show Friday night I went home but half the band stayed behind to back Kelly girls in the "Songs About Dogs" show. Here's my Stagecoach story. Please bear with me, I took a ton of pictures.
The traffic heading out to the desert was heavier than usual. I guess when you have over 100K people going to a festival in Indio that tends to happen.
You've seen the big casinos along the way, as well as Mt. San Jacinto. But I think the windmills are cool.
A little over 95 miles and I arrive at the check-in station. Everyone checked in at the Indian Wells tennis club about 10 minutes away from the festival grounds. There was a big tent for the festival goers to check in. I arrived about noon.
I looked at this line and thought, "Wait a minute, do I have to wait in this line? Don't they know who I think I am?"
So I asked one of the attendants about artist check-in and he directed me to the East Box Office. No line! Woo hoo!
Five minutes later I had my wrist band and I was ready to head to the festival.
The "A" is for "Artist". There was a chip in the wristband which they would scan when I wanted access to all the special areas. Pretty cool.
I shared my peanut M&Ms with one of the security guards so she took my picture.
A quick ten minute drive and I was at the festival parking.
I was directed to the artist's parking area, not quite in the front row but pretty close.
This is Misha. She gave me a nice cool bottle of water while I waited for my cart to take me onto the grounds.
This is Cassandra. She provided a fun, safe, and enjoyable conveyance into the festival. You could tell she wasn't a rookie. She had a bandana to filter all the dust. I'm bringing one next year. They were quite popular among the staff who had to be outdoors a lot.
It was quite crowded on the backroads behind the festival. In front of us a couple of vehicles was a water truck spraying water to keep the dust down.
I arrived at the Honky Tonk to put my gear behind the stage and took a picture of the goings-on.
They had DJ music going most of the day along with line dance instruction. This is one of the lovely dancers who was helping to instruct.
Here are a couple of shots of the Honky Tonk and its 20,000 sq. ft. dance floor.
Here's a shot of the stage from the front. I'm standing about in the middle of the dance floor. They will move that DJ table just before we start our show.
I ran into a few friends from The Ranch. Here's Shelly, one of the dance instructors who was also working in the Honky Tonk this weekend.
This is my buddy Thom, one of the regulars at The Ranch. He won tickets to the festival that The Ranch was giving away.
This is the little compound behind the Honky Tonk. There were several Star Waggons used by the DJs, the bands, and the dance troupes who were performing this weekend.
This was our "green room".
Once I got settled I snapped a selfie with my artist wrist band.
Art is a little impressed with our accommodations.
Art, Mario, and I head out to find the artist's catering. We had heard that it's somewhere over by the main stage, called the "Mane Stage".
It's a bit of a walk to the main stage and VIP tent.
Our wristbands get us into the VIP tent. There is special food and drink in here, but it's VIP and not "artist" (i.e. FREE).
From here we are able to get pretty close to the "Mane Stage". If I read my program correctly, Drake White and The Big Fire are on stage right now. Being unknown and playing early in the day, it's a very light crowd for them. But at least they are on the big stage.
We ask around some more about the location of the artist's catering tent and finally find it. Now! That's what I'm talking about!
For lunch there is a soup bar, a sandwich bar, a salad bar, a taco bar, a pizza bar, a sausage bar, and more.
With a scan of our wristband we're in! I have a nice carne asada taco, a couple of brats, salad, and veggies.
They also have a desert bar and a drink bar.
In addition to water and sodas, they have a nice selection of specialty teas. I had the cinnamon fig tea. It was tasty!
After our late lunch (they close between 4pm and 5pm to switch over to dinner), we wander about checking out the smaller stages. This is the Palomino Stage.
We make our way back to our trailer and check out the sites. There were a couple of tractor displays.
Here's the entrance to the Honky Tonk. We'll slip backstage and exit to our trailer.
Now we're just chillin', waiting for the rest of the band to arrive. Jeff and Kelly both have RVs with their families. Daniel and Mario will stay in the provided hotel rooms.
The dance troupes are hanging out waiting to go on and show those whipper-snappers a thing or two about dancing.
This is the light guy, hanging out behind one of the main stacks.
I couldn't really tell what kind of gear they were running. All I know is that it was loud!
This is Sarah, our monitor person. She was great. We didn't get much of a sound check so she did what she could to dial in our mix according to our verbal instructions. She knew that board like the back of her hand. It was fun to watch her work.
After we found out that we are not getting a sound check until 8:00 pm (we start our show at 8:15) we decide to run over to the Mustang stage to see Marty Stewart. The festival grounds are starting to get pretty crowded.
Marty Stewart and The Fabulous Superlatives put on a great rockin' honky tonk musical performance that is a lot of fun.
Kenny Vaughan on guitar and Chris Scruggs on bass. Sorry, I forgot the drummer. They sounded bigger than just the four of them.
Kenny sang a couple and Chris played his upright.
Then they went all acoustic and performed Marty Robbins' "El Paso". They really killed it.
Then the bass player sang a song! That's his 2 year old son behind them banging on the acoustic guitar.
I had to leave before they were done. Marty Stewart is still great. I hated to leave but had to get ready for our show. Here's Kelly and I all dolled up.
Here's my backline rig. It sounded pretty dang good, a Harke 4x10 and a 1000w head.
My amp-selfie while we have a quick 15 minute sound check.
Mario and his backline kit.
Our crowd starts to gather.
Jeff had a problem with his big keyboard, it was making noise. So he decided to do the whole show on his key-tar. That's Sean, the FOH guy beside him.
Here's the "stage right" part of the band, while we sound check.
You see Art and Daniel's backline rigs, a Twin and a Nashville 1000. Hey, look! I think the crowd is ready for us to get started.
And away we go!
The crowd was really off the chain.
I've never seen so many line dancers before.
These young ladies have a thing for bass players, I think.
They were having their fun!
Daniel WOWS them with his signature "Devil Went Down..."
Here are some action shots taken by Jeff's wife on her cell phone.
I think Art is really enjoying himself. You could tell by how loudly he was playing.
I think they were kind of digging the band.
Here's one Mario took from his kit.
We ended up playing a little over, a couple of encores, but our show went by in a flash. I packed up and headed over to the big stage to catch a little of Eric Church's show.
Then I left early to drive home and avoid the big crowds getting off the grounds. I stopped by the trailer for a quick pit stop.
And then I drove home, happy and tired. It was quite and experience. I hope we get to do it again next year. I'll make plans to bring the family and stay all weekend. It's easy to get used to this VIP "artist" treatment. For weekend warrior types like me, it's really a treat. It's just a taste of how the big stars are taken care of.
Thanks for looking. I appreciate you folks putting up with me hogging all this bandwidth.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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