Me and the KRB had a grand time playing at the city of Brea's annual Brea Fest, A Taste of the Arts festival. There was even a write-up in the local OC paper, but we didn't get our name in print.
Traffic wasn't too bad getting down to north Orange county from work. But once I got off the freeway I had to wind my way around the street closures.
We got to pull into the circular driveway and unload. Unfortunately, the stage was blocking the collection box for residents' water bills. I saw a couple of people try to pull in but were directed away. They seemed a little inconvenienced to have to park at the curb and walk over the the drop box. But hey, I'm in the band. Sorry.
Here's our sign. I unload my gear an put it on stage before I go park in the below ground parking structure, a minor inconvenience.
It's a good sized stage, not overly large, so we'll have to keep our gymnastics to a minimum. Here's the view from the FOH mixer, a Yamaha QL5 IIRC.
Art arrives in his signature pickup. It's running well with the new transmission. Devon (FOH) and Peter (sound tech), are a little bored waiting for the band to arrive and are chillin' just checking their phones.
We have worked with Devon and Peter a few times. Trinity Sound Company has always treated us great and made us sound fantastic. We had so many compliments tonight. Shucks, we're just up there beating and banging on things and these guys make us sound wonderful.
Half the band is here now. Here's Jeff taking a picture of me while I take a picture of him.
I am thankful for these trees on the west side of us. We didn't have the sun beating down on us today.
Here's one side of the mains, JBL subs and NEXO tops. There were a bunch of JBL monitors on stage too. We had six mixes today. Good stuff.
Here's your sign, again. I know, I'm a goof.
OK, the rest of the band is here now. We're just waiting on the talent.
Just some of the sound company amps and power distribution in use today.
I'm sure you all are familiar with my "lazy rig", my Carvin RL210 cab with the GK MB500 on top. It's small, light, sounds great, and gets plenty loud.
These lovely ladies were very hospitable. This is Michelle and Ariel of La Paz Cocktail Mixers. This business is located in Brea and their company supports all of the civic events. They offered me a margarita and then kept refilling it all evening.
Here's Mario giving Devon all the kick drum he can take. I think the sound of Mario's kick drum brought a tear to Peter's eye, it sounds so good.
The Boss Lady is ready to sound check.
I guess Daniel and Art are really ready to sound check.
Jeff asks me if I'm ready to sound check.
I play my one note sound check and then Jeff snaps a picture of Kelly and me.
Never mind me. I was just practicing my cymbal choking.
Well, I guess we're not quite through with sound check. We're getting a level on Daniel's fiddle while Kelly keeps open the lines of communication.
I don't know if you noticed but our backs are to the street. We are blowing our sound right into the Civic Center, a building of concrete and glass. Devon did a terrific job mixing and EQ'ing the band so we didn't get too unruly in that environment.
We play our opening number and then the mayor of Brea gets up to make a few announcements. Yes, that's the mayor, Christine Marick.
Then on with the show!
Here's one action shot from Mrs. BassCliff's phone.
Woot! Woot! Special guest in the house! This is fellow TalkBass.com member, johnnyplaysbass (Jonathan), who came out with his lovely wife to spend an evening at Brea Fest. Johnathan and his wife hung out all three sets. I told him he was a glutton for punishment.
Johnathan plays bass in a Journey tribute band. We do a couple of Journey songs so I felt a little nervous playing them in front of him. But Johnathan was kind and very complimentary. It was great to meet up. Johnathan has not one, not two, but three Fender Jazz Bass Specials. Both of us also own a GK800RB. I had a blast talking gear, gigs, and other such musician stuff.
Now to the food! For another TalkBass.com friend, code named "dbase", Slater's 50/50 was there fixing burgers for everyone.
Mrs. BassCliff had a pork belly taco from the Tempo Urban Kitchen.
That taco looked so good, on the next break I had one too. I also has some jambalaya, some pizza, and an Ahi poke salad on basmati rice.
Jeff had some really good looking bruschetta.
And Kelly snagged a couple of tasty treats from a place called Cake On Top.
Here's the band finishing up their culinary delights before we go back on stage.
Then we had to get back to the show. Here's Daniel playing the intro to "My Church" on his Tele.
As the evening cooled off the crowds got bigger, and livelier.
I thought these projected images on the sides of the buildings added a nice touch.
These ladies were just hanging out, sitting on the stage during our break because there just weren't enough chairs around. They were more than happy to give this old bass player a smile.
During our last set the mayor got up and made another quick speech to thank everyone involved. It really was a nice event.
Here's another shot of Kelly in front of the crowd.
Toward the end of the night we let Daniel loose so he can thrill the crowd with "Devil Went Down To Georgia".
Right after we finished, since the pizza place had leftovers, they brought the band some goodies for the road. Yum!
I tried my best to eat my slice of pizza while packing up. We all had more fun that we expected to. I hope we get to play this event again next year. It's a blast!
That's my gig and I'm sticking to it. If you enjoyed it half as much as I did, then I enjoyed it twice as much as you. Thanks for looking!
I think we had a wedding the following Saturday. I'll post that one up soon. Until then, all the best to you and yours.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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