This event, The Michael Hoefflin Pediatric Cancer Foundation "An Evening Under The Stars", was held at the Mann Biomedial Park in Valencia CA. It was a very nice venue. They even made a promotional video and mentioned our name. We played this event last year but it was held at a different facility.
It was a bit of a drive on a Saturday afternoon, near the amusement park Six Flags Magic Mountain. The traffic wasn't too bad. It took me only two hours to make the normally hour and a half drive.
This venue was much easier to navigate to and much easier to park and unload. We were able to stay parked on the street right behind the stage area.
The event used the same sound and production company as last year. This was the view from the stage as I place my rig.
Mark was our monitor guy. He was good. I could hear everything. And his crew was very attentive and helpful. Here's the monitor console.
You can barely see the lighting console on the other side of the stage. Estevon was running lights. I didn't get a picture of him either.
It takes a lot of gear to put on a production like this. This was the view behind the scenes.
This generator was supplying part of the power. I'm sure some was coming from the facility itself.
Here's the view from out front. Those two huge screens were used to see the presenters and show off the live auction items.
I was the first to arrive. Here's my amp-selfie.
This is Brent at FOH. He ran the show last year too.
I did not get a chance to sample the Martini Bar.
Here's a small section of the silent auction tent full of donated items.
These were our luxurious accommodations, a StarWagon. It's actually not bad at all. It was air conditioned!
The rest of the band starts to arrive and set up. My old buddy Rick is playing drums with us today since Mario can't make it.
I brought my regular #1 rig (GK MB500 and GK Neo410) for this large outdoor gig. Rick has a pretty good monitor setup.
During our sound check, all of a sudden, the stage got really boomy. In addition to the four dual 18" JBL subs out front, there were two Meyer subs front and center under the stage. Somebody just figured out how to turn them on. They were pumping!
If you look closely at picture #7 above you'll see them. They really made the stage go BOOM!
You can see a curtain was put on the front of the stage. We must keep up appearances.
Here's another shot further back showing the guest dinner tables.
Now that we are all sound checked we relax in our StarWagon where it's cool.
We were fed supper, chicken and vegetables, but I didn't get a picture. We also had cheesecake and cookies for dessert. There was still a lot of time to kill so I wandered into the silent auction tent to listen to the acoustic duo there.
There were lots of speeches, heartwarming stories, and thank-you's going on.
After the sun went down it cooled off a little. But we were going a little stir crazy with four hours between sound check and downbeat.
I wandered around and checked out the live auction from backstage. Someone had donated a real Picasso to help raise money, about a 20x24 line drawing called "Head". I was surprised it went for only $2500.
Here we are backstage just about ready to go on.
Here's a little better picture. It shows off my new shirt better.
The Master of Ceremonies, Rick Garcia, a local LA TV station newscaster, gives away his last auction item just before we hit the stage.
Then the stage crew gets us set up as quickly as possible.
I handed my camera to Mark, the monitor guy, so he could take a few action shots. He takes pretty good pictures!
This is a photo from a friend that Kelly had posted to Facebook.
Since the live auction was over a little quicker than scheduled we actually went on early. But that was OK. We had a good hour and a half show planned and just ran it down. Originally we were scheduled to play only forty five minutes but the crowd stayed, danced, sang along, did the conga line, and generally enjoyed themselves. Then it was time to pack it in and drive an hour and a half home.
I didn't hear the final total about how much money was raised this year. Last year it was in the neighborhood of $150,000.
And that was my gig. Next weekend we have a double on Saturday, and I mean two long doubles, and another long gig on Sunday. Saturday will be the big benefit car show at the Orange County Fairgrounds, Cruisin' for a Cure. (Here's an article from last year.) Then the afternoon will be a private party at the Science Center in Santa Ana. Sunday we'll be playing for a housing development grand opening. I might have to call in sick on Monday so I can recover.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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