This was the first of two weekends at Gilley's that the KRB has on the calendar, the next being in June. For me this trip started on Thursday afternoon as I packed up my basses and drove off into the rain.
This was not a big storm and it cleared as soon as I got over the Cajon pass and started through the desert.
It was a beautiful drive this afternoon, very light traffic.
I made it to the state line just as the sun went below the mountains, casting long shadows across the landscape.
There was no traffic until I got off the freeway in Vegas, then gridlock. That's my hotel, Treasure Island, on the right. It took me more than 20 minutes to go two blocks.
Last time I was on the 14th floor and had a great view of the strip. This time I'm on the third floor and this is my view.
But I'm not complaining. Once I got settled I went to the (comp'd) employee cafeteria for some supper. They are remodeling the cafeteria so the buffet was set up in the main dining room.
It's a pretty standard, average buffet. But I'm not complaining. What looked best were the broiled fish fillets and the Italian sausage. I also had salad and cole slaw.
As I was leaving I noticed in the hallway were pictures of all the movers and shakers of the hotel/casino. I wonder if the owner, Phil Ruffin is related to Oleksandra Nikolayenko-Ruffin, the vice-president.
As I made my way back to my room I remembered that the spa is on my floor. Notice the name of the spa?
And now that you mention it, all of the soaps, shampoos, and lotions in the rooms are the Oleksandra line of products. I guess she's got a pretty good thing going. (Of course they are Mr. and Mrs. and from what I hear are good friends with the Trumps.)
Back in my room I chill while running though our new material. I'm able to plug my bass and headphones into my laptop and play along with very little lag.
Then Friday I met a friend, Charles, for lunch. He took me to his favorite sandwich shop in town, Capriotti's, where I met the lovely Mrs. Charles.
Charles and I arm wrestled to see who would pay for lunch. Charles won because he was wearing the ugly Christmas sweater.
We tried a couple of different sandwiches and then shared half for variety. On the right you see an Italian sausage sandwich and on the left is a specialty called "The Bobbie".
The Italian sausage with cheese and peppers was great. The Bobbie is turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing on a sandwich roll. It was terrific! Like Thanksgiving dinner on a bun. Thank you for lunch Charles! It was a pleasure meeting your fetching wife. I'm looking forward to seeing you play in church Sunday morning before I leave town.
I got back to Gilley's and thought I'd see if Jason, the sound guy, was in yet.
Jason wasn't here yet. He usually shows up around 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon but it looks like he has most of his stuff in place.
In just a little while the band will start rolling in. Jason will set us up with our wireless IEMs and individual iPad monitor mixers. The monitor system is pretty slick. The last time we were here the monitors were not in stereo. That would be a nice improvement. Hopefully it's been implemented. If not, we'll make our noise anyway. I'm not complaining. I didn't even bring an amp this time. It's a pretty cushy gig.
I'm headed downstairs now for load-in and sound check. Everyone is here except for Hal and Kelly. They got held up due to a closed freeway out of So. Cal. I'm glad I came out yesterday and avoided the weekend traffic.
I took a few setup/soundcheck pictures. There were just a few patrons in the place as we took the stage Friday afternoon.
This is my rig, or lack thereof. Two basses, two stands, three cables, two tuners. That's a wireless monitor and storage rack.
Mario says, "Hi Mom!"
Art was the only one to bring an amp this weekend. He uses his pedal board case as a shield. That's Daniel, the sound tech, securing cables and stuff.
Art and Hal look ready to sound check.
This is Jason, the FOH guy. He had just started this gig when we were here last April. He's got his gear all dialed in now.
Jason gets Mario's drums mic'd up.
My soundcheck amp-selfie.
Daniel helps Hal with his iPad monitor mixer.
"Mic check, one, two, three!" Kelly arrived an hour later than everyone else because of the freeway closure that afternoon.
I'm mix number 4.
I had stocked my fridge well after arriving. I like to relax after the gig and then get re-caffeinated the next day.
So let's have a look at Friday night. The Gilley Girls always start off the set with an exciting line dance.
Here's my "amp-selfie" just before we played our first tune.
At the end of our first set there were some adjustments to be made. Daniel makes one of them on his fiddle.
Art goes over his set list.
Kelly is having a ton of fun as we start the second set on a Friday night.
The Gilley's girls are more than happy to take a picture, even with the bass player and the keyboard player.
I asked Jack to take a few during our second set tonight. You guys know Art and his grin.
Daniel is really having fun tonight. He's also doing a great job making up for Jeff's lost vocals.
Mario loves to geek the camera.
I had to use my lyric stand because I was doing so many new (to me) songs tonight. Please don't hate me.
Hal really is an excellent keyboardist. And he sings pretty good too.
Hmmm. I guess I'm singing a song right now.
And the ladies just keep on line dancing.
I literally said, "I know I'm the just bass player, but do you mind if I play the tourist and get a picture with you?"
I took this picture only because I'm on the 3rd floor and my room is the next to last down this hallway.
While I was on my way to get a snack I ran across this guy near Señor Frog's, one of the venues in the TI complex.
And, of course, while I was typing, uploading pictures, and generally trying to legitimize my existance, here's the snack I enjoyed that evening.
Tonight's performance wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined in my head. Earlier tonight we had gotten together to have a vocal rehearsal so the new songs came off really well, and they'll only get better. I hope so, because the first time, at sound check, wasn't that great.
I slept until noon on Saturday and finally got cleaned up and went downstairs to eat about 3pm. I watched a bit of football behind the employee buffet.
I had another large salad and cole slaw along with some overcooked carrots, black beans and rice, split pea soup, and some mystery meatloaf. But I'm not complaining.
And since I had plenty of time to kill, and it is free to hotel guests, I visited Treasure Island's "Avengers" exhibit.
It was more of a large Avengers themed gift shop with an interactive museum full of Iron Man, Thor, Falcon, Capt. America, etc.
I'm Iron Man.
OK, that's enough touristy stuff. I'll head down to the honky tonk in a couple hours to put on the show. We play two 1-hour sets followed by a half-hour set, with half hour breaks in between sets, starting at 10pm until 1:30am. A two and a half our gig would be really great if it started earlier. I'm getting too old for these late nights. But I'm not complaining.
My friend Charles and his wive stopped by. I told Art to be on his best behavior.
I'm going to hear Charles play in the morning on his worship team. I'm pretty sure I can make the late service.
Here's my amp-selfie just before we start. Wait. Can I call it an "amp-selfie" if I didn't bring an amp?
Here's a close-up of my mic stand, complete with my lyric sheet holder and iPad mixer. This monitor system is pretty cool. It remembered all the settings and even our names from the last time we were here. Pretty slick.
It was a pretty lively crowd most of the night.
This is our friend, Elysa. She used to live in So Cal and follow us around but moved to Vegas a couple of years ago to teach second grade. We still keep in touch. For some reason she always looks drunk in pictures but she really wasn't. It was great to re-connect and get caught up a bit.
This was our DJ for the evening, DJ Chaddix. He has been friends with Kelly for 20+ years.
I think Kelly is happy that this is the last set. I also think the band sounded a little tired tonight (or was it just me? yeah, probably.) but we still got lots of compliments.
There was a bachelorette party in the house tonight. They were kind enough to give this old bass player a picture.
The tall redhead even gave me a high-five. I thanked them all for sharing their fun with us.
I just wanted to share a picture of the mechanical bull. It was kind of busy tonight. Even the bride-to-be took a ride.
Here's an action shot from Saturday night, thanks to Elysa.
At the end of the night I was packed up and ready to go rather quickly. Two basses in two cases and I was out the door, back to my room.
And that was my weekend in Las Vegas. All that's left is the long drive home tomorrow. Next weekend we will be back at The Ranch for more fun and frivolity.
As a small epilogue, here's a few pictures I took at my stop on the way out of town. I went to visit Charles' church to hear him play on their worship team. They have a lovely facility full of friendly people. I really enjoyed myself at Life Springs Christian Church.
The sanctuary (worship center) was configured like a small theater and looked to hold about 400. It had a nice sound system.
If I had known this picture turned out so fuzzy I would have taken a few just to make sure I got a good one. But I didn't want to worship my phone.
Today Charles' worship team had a complete rhythm section with two keyboard players, a trumpet player, and three vocalists out front who sang and harmonized really well. I liked the multilevel setup of the musicians. Charles is a solid player and looked like he was enjoying his worship offering. The whole team was terrific. It was a nice service, very similar in structure and content to my home church. I had played all but one of the songs they used today. I also play on the worship team at my church.
After church I drove home. Traffic wasn't bad so it took a little less than four hours. Then it was back to the day job on Monday. I guess that's why I'm called a "weekend warrior". Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
No comments:
Post a Comment