Last night (Saturday) I had the pleasure of subbing in with some friends in their band, Smith, and play at the clubhouse of the Fairbanks Ranch community. It's in North San Diego County, a large gated community built around a man-made lake. It's a nice part of town.
I did not have a relaxing, pleasant commute on wide open country roads when driving to my gig. Usually I will take the 15 freeway when heading down to the San Diego area. But due to a family event at BIOLA I had to take the 5 freeway from the OC. Besides the usual sticky spots, it was jam packed practically all the way from San Onofre to Solana Beach. It tuned an 89 mile drive into a three hour ordeal.
At least I got to drive next to the Pacific. It calms the nerves, somewhat.
I got to see the Marines working out as we crawled through the Camp Pendleton area.
We had a 1:00pm call time for a 3 o'clock downbeat. The whole band arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 so we did the setup dance very quickly. We had a covered stage area behind the clubhouse on the lake.
It was a nice deck area with just about enough room for all of us.
After I unloaded and parked I snapped this picture of the front of the clubhouse.
You've met Hilary before when she and I worked with the Arnie Newman Band. She is a terrific singer. You also see Mike on guitar and Tom on the drums. I think we are doing a very quick sound check here.
Tom is a class act, very tasty and solid, a bass player's dream. We just locked in and had fun.
This is Hal on keys. He's one of these "less is more" players that always plays to the tune and doesn't overplay, although you know he could if he wanted to because he's such a monster player.
The band usually has a utility player too but he was booked on another gig so they went as a five piece. Another note of interest is that Mike took this gig knowing that he would have to use three subs in his band (drummer, bass, singer). That's kind of a scary proposition but everyone did their homework and there were very few clams. I love it when good players let me hang out with them.
This is Anthony, our sound man for today. He brought out a nice little QSC rig which sounded good.
This is Anthony's little Mackie mixer and tablet. All the speakers and monitors were powered.
After our first set it was time to belly up to the buffet. It was quite a spread.
The band got to hang out in the cool clubhouse while we supped.
I helped myself to the BBQ beef sliders, brisket, beans, cole slaw, and mac-n-cheese. I did not sample the hot dogs or BBQ chicken but it looked great too.
Then we were back for another set of music, after Tom and Mike take some selfies.
Anthony hung out on a bench in the shade to run sound out front on his tablet.
Right in front of us was the bar. They had a nice IPA which the band enjoyed very much.
Mike brought out his Dan Electro baritone guitar for a couple of tunes. It sounded killer.
Here's Hilary sounding fabulous doing Miranda, Jo dee Messina, Dixie Chicks, or whoever. Mike gets serious with his Tele.
I didn't take a picture of Mike's Top Hat amp. Maybe it's in one of the other pictures. It's a nice sounding little amp, and he's a great player and singer.
Here are a couple of my bass necks looking out over the kids' obstacle course set up next to the lake. The event was very kid-friendly.
There was a bouncy house, pony rides, and a mechanical bull.
I thought about taking a ride but I didn't want to hurt myself at the gig.
Like I've been doing lately, I brought my little rig. Hal uses a couple of wedge speakers and a Crown power amp in a small rack under his stool.
These little QSC 10" speakers are the bomb.
NOT a kid, this is our hostess, Ashley, making sure we were fed, well hydrated, and otherwise taken care of.
From the back stairs of the clubhouse, here's a shot of the stage area. The cloud cover moved in just when it would have been very warm in the sunshine. It was a very pleasant afternoon playing from 3-7pm.
We are just about to start the last set so I find a place to set my camera for a selfie.
For our finale at the end of the last set these two beautiful little singers sat in with the band and performed a rousing country rockin' rendition of "The Wheels On The Bus Go 'Round And 'Round". Everyone was taking pictures. It was very cute.
We quit at 7pm and did the teardown/loadout dance. Everyone had fun and our clients and guests were very pleased.
It took a little less than two hours to get home. Even with this gig being so far away I was home by 9:30. It was a good day. Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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