(FYI: This is the third year we've played this event. You gotta love that repeat business.)
Saturday evening me and the KRB played a benefit at the Mann Biomedical Park in Valencia CA. This benefit was for the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Pediatric Cancer. There was even a little blip on the 11 o'clock news tonight because one of the station's news anchors, Rick Garcia, is the emcee at this event. Rick has been volunteering his time for this event for years.
Hmm, too bad they didn't get a shot of the band for the 11 o'clock news.
My seventy five mile commute to this gig was fairly uneventful. The freeway was sticky in the usual places but there were no unforeseen delays. Last week there was a fire along this Foothill Freeway. Many thousands of acres were burned and several homes were lost in the area.
I drove up toward Tejon pass, just past the Magic Mountain exit. (Note: Magic Mountain is one amusement park at which I have never played.)
I pulled into the facility and found the stage in the same place as it was last year. I schlepped my gear over to the generous stage.
I was way early, arriving almost an hour before the 3pm call time. I always allow time for traffic, getting lost, earthquakes, etc, but none of that happened. So I wandered out front to have a look.
Art arrived next so I said "Hi".
Then I wandered around the facility some more. Inside the big silent auction tent were all kinds of donated items, jewelry, gift baskets, trips, memorabilia, sports gear, power tools, all kinds of stuff. There would be a live auction later too.
There was even a Deering Goodtime banjo. (When I checked later the bid was up to $520.)
I made my way to our green room. We got a StarWagon again. The air conditioner in there worked great. But it wasn't nearly as hot this year as it was last year.
One half of the wagon was for the band the other half was for Rick Garcia and his entourage.
Inside the nice, cool StarWagon were pretty good munchies, a selection of fruit, trail mix, snack mixes, cookies, etc.
The fridge was full of water and had a cheesecake in there for desert.
The rest of the band arrives. It looks like Daniel got to give Art some rabbit ears today.
Mario has his kit set up and is giving the sound man some kick drum. You see Sean on the iPad taking care of monitors and Gabriel behind taking care of stage crew duties.
Hal is on the gig today. I guess Skip was otherwise engaged elsewhere.
Yes, there is a bass player on the gig too. Maybe he should have shaved today.
I felt like bringing my "large" rig today because I knew we'd be outside on a good sized stage. Scott, the FOH guy, took my DI and mic'd the cab. I kinda like it when they do that.
Here's the view from FOH.
We were done with sound check at 4:20pm and the guests started arriving at 5pm.
We were served our supper just before 6:30pm. We had a lot of downtime for this gig.
We had some excellent chicken, green beans, walnut/pear salad, and couscous.
After supper we still had over two hours before we could take the stage. We had to wait until all thirty three live auction items were done. Mario had time for a little nap.
Kelly and I stepped out to the bar to enjoy an adult beverage. The guests were being served their supper.
Kelly enjoyed her wine spritzer and I enjoyed the nice amber that was being served. In fact, we enjoyed two of them. Can you tell?
I had to get a picture of this. The auction item is one of Michael Jordan's jerseys. It's right there on the screen next to Mario's drum kit. This item went for over $5000.
Last year someone had donated a 20"x24" Picasso sketch. It went for over $20,000. They raise a lot of money at this function. When Kelly and I went back to our wagon we found these guys hanging around somebody's car. I'll bet they're up to no good.
Actually, the local BMW dealership was one of the sponsors so they were allowed a few vehicles on display. We decided to use it for a band photo background just before we took the stage, a little after 9pm.
As we walked toward the stage I was reminded that our power came from these generators, one of which had failed so a backup was brought in. It delayed soundcheck just a little but we had no power issues at all.
Here is Rick Garcia and the auctioneer taking care of the last item for bid. Then we can take the stage.
Then the band took the stage, tuned up, the crew placed the mics and put gear back in place. Rick Garcia takes a picture with Kelly and I.
Then I snap a picture of Kelly just before Rick announces us.
Our emcee is announcing us. Let's get this show on the road!
Kelly struts her stuff. And she's got stuff to strut.
We had a good crowd that stuck around to dance with us.
Kelly is having fun now!
My head is on fire!
There were almost six hundred in attendance tonight. A lot of them left right after the auction was done but we had a good crowd stay and dance.
Kelly and Hal put on the show.
The crowd stayed until we were told to quit at 10pm. We were able to play almost an hour.
Daniel floors them with his rendition of "Muskrat Love". Just kidding! You know it was "Devil Went Down To Georgia".
We ended the night with Journey's "Any Way You Want It". The crowd cheered. Rick Garcia said good night. Then the stage crew went to work.
My thanks go out to Scott, Sean, Gabriel, Steve, James and everyone else on the sound and stage crew. You guys were great. Thanks to Jon LaCroix for taking pictures with my old point-n-shoot. You were a big help.
I packed up my gear, rolled it out to my trusty Astro Van, and was home by midnight. We raised a lot of money for a great charity. It was a good day.
Me and the KRB will be at the Orange County Fairgrounds next Saturday playing another benefit called "Cruisin' for a Cure". We've done this benefit a few years in a row too. I also have a True Willie gig on Wednesday. September is still busy for me, the last week True Willie will be in Jacksonville FL for a week, but October and November and December are looking pretty slim. Hopefully a few gigs will pop up. Until next time, thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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