Friday, June 24th, we played at the Prescott Promenade in beautiful downtown El Cajon for their "Dinner and a Concert" series. (This just in! It seems Marty Stewart will be playing that very same stage on Oct. 7, at the end of the series. He's my hero!)
Anyway, It was quite a drive down there, a 240 mile round trip. And being a Friday the traffic was really thick at the beginning and the end of the drive.
But I arrived just at the prescribed load-in time. When you arrive early enough you can park in the lot just behind the stage to make for an easy carry.
If this looks familiar to you, we played here last year for a different event. I brought my normal rig since we had full sound.
Here's Kelly with our excellent soundman, Bill Noble.
He was using all EV gear, the mains being ELX series.
Here's Bill's nice compact Yamaha mixer.
Here's the big lunk with his gratuitous amp-selfie. Only this time I think he sat his camera on the subwoofer.
The Prescott Promenade is a nice area of downtown. There are quite a few restaurants and for this evening there were food booths/trucks and other vendors.
It's a nice covered stage but we were looking right into the sun for just about the whole show. But I remembered sunglasses this time.
Bill is getting Jeff hooked up. Jeff was so close that Bill plugged the keyboard right into the mixer, no DI, no XLR cable.
This was the band area, comfy chairs under an EZ-UP with plenty of drinks in the cooler.
Bill helps Mario get mic'd up.
Art is just all too happy to sound check.
Here's Frank, our emcee, to announce the band and get the party started.
Jeff is ready to put on the show.
So are Art, Daniel, and Kelly.
Mario seems a little stressed. But I think he's just joshing me.
You see that little drum in front of the kick drum? I've seen those before but never knew what they were for. (I don't get out much.)
It's basically a reverse speaker used as a microphone for the kick drum. They sound warm and thick as opposed to having a mic inside the kick drum that picks up the slap and click of the pedal.
I know they are usually used in conjunction with a regular kick drum mic, but Bill used this by itself and it sounded great. I learnt something new today. Maybe you can teach an old bass player new tricks.
It was a great crowd. We had lots of dancers, clappers, and folks singing along.
My dear friend and fellow musician Deanna showed up. This gal is a terrific talent and just as cute as she can be.
Daniel and I grabbed a quick picture with Deanna. She's only 4' 10" and feels like she has to stand on her tip toes when she takes a picture.
It's near the end of the evening and Frank asks the crowd if they'd like to hear one more. Of course they did!
Here's about a minute's worth of video that Deanna shared from her new phone.
And just about the time the sun went down and it started cooling off, it was time to go.
It was a good show and a fun time. I think they'll have us back. I hope so. Bill is great to work with and it's a nice stage in a beautiful part of town. Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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