Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Newport Dunes Boots On The Beach 5/28/17

Hi gang,

Let me toss up this third gig report before I leave for my next gig, my fourth gig on this Memorial Day weekend. Me and the KRB played in Newport Beach at the Newport Dunes Boot On The Beach Festival. Here's your sign.


We played under this big tent. It sounded just like a big tent. But it wasn't bad once it got full of people.


We parked around back to unload. We had a nice view of the marina.
 

Pickleback Shine was on stage doing their sound check. There are a lot of people on stage (8). Their band has a big sound. Justin, Steve, Greg, and all these folks were friendly and easy to share the stage with.


Here's a view of the bridge going across the bay and the beach on the far side. It was a very nice day.


We'll revisit that bridge later. Here's Kyle running FOH. We've worked with him before. We had a quick, professional sound check. Tyler was the stage manager. He was a very helpful chap too.


Skip looks great in his new hat. He did a great job this weekend picking up Daniel's vocal parts.
 

Mario knows what to do when the sound guy says, "Gimme some kick drum."


Both bands fit all their stuff on stage. My buddy Greg was going to let me use his rig but he's on the wrong side.


Speaking of Greg, we got to chat a bit after sound check.


I thought this was really cute. Pickleback Shine has their own swag wagon.



We all got vouchers for food so we hit up the barbecue tent.


There was only the one food vendor at this gig. I'm glad we ate early. The line was outrageous later in the evening. I had the tri-tip plate with beans and corn. (Why are country gigs almost always beans and barbecue?)


The beer van was doing a great business. They had full bar service too.


The crowd has arrived! There was a total of about 3000 attendees.



The Kelly Boys and their wives got the crowd going with dance lessons.


That's Shane Kelly doing the DJ duties while his wife calls the steps.


The Kelly Boys teach the two-step just before we start our set.


Here's my amp-selfie just before we hit it.


Art, Paul, and Kelly are ready to rock this beach.


Skip tips his hat to all the ladies.


Mario is ready, willing, and able to kick some drum.


Kelly gets the show started.


The crowd loves their ten-step.


It certainly seems like there were three thousand people here, maybe more.


One of the Kelly wives teaches another line dance before we start our second set.


It was a lovely line dancing crowd.


Even Kelly helped out when teaching "The Wobble".


Yes, I really did play for a crowd this big. This is probably in the top five largest crowds we've ever played for.


We actually took this picture before downbeat. We all wore red, white, and blue to honor our fallen heroes this Memorial Day.



 Here are a few action shots provided by the event photographer.






After our second set we cleared the stage quickly so that Greg and Pickleback Shine could take the stage.


I really liked Greg's hoppy cowboy shirt and his Wilkens bass. Here's the whole band tearing it up.



One more parting shot of Greg holding down the fort.


Then it was time for me to roll my gear out to the parking lot. We couldn't stay parked behind the tent, unfortunately.


Here's a couple of little video clips from the staff photographer to give you an idea of some of the fun we had.



It was a fabulous event, perfect weather, great crowd, nice sound system, good food, lovely scenery, the whole nine yards. It was great to see Greg too. I hope our paths cross again soon.

Thanks for looking!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff




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