It was the third adventure this week with the Arnie Newman Band playing a new club (for me) on Pacific Coast Highway. This time is was Skyloft in Laguna Beach. John said he would drive today so I got my stuff ready. I didn't need to bring much because this place has full sound and is backlined. I brought a couple of basses and a couple of bags.
And here's a couple of old guys cruising down to the beach on a Sunday afternoon.
We hit Laguna Canyon right on time. There wasn't much traffic today.
This is the corner building with Skyloft. The parking is atrocious around here. That van was blocking where we needed to unload.
The van moved after a few minutes, thankfully, and we were able to pull in and unload John's new car by the back door. I had just brought a couple of basses. John brought all of his gear, four keyboards, two powered speakers, mixer, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia.
It was a lot of junk to haul up these stairs. By the time Johnny had found a parking space I had all of his gear and mine upstairs by the stage. Talk about a workout.
It is a pretty good sized stage here. But the two keyboards on stage take up a lot of room. John moved that Fender Rhodes out of the way so he can set up his keyboards.
On the other side of the stage is a B3 and a Leslie. That stayed where it was. Nobody was going to move that!
I had a nice little Ampeg 4x10 and my choice of tubes or solid state. I chose the tubes.
Here's a shot of the small dance floor and the bar from the stage.
There's a large dining room off to the left and I think I saw dining downstairs too. It looks like Arnie is ready to sound check.
John is letting our soundman, Anthony, exactly what he expects to hear.
Francelle is definitely ready to soundcheck.
Now that I have my selfie out of the way, I'm ready to soundcheck too.
The backline drum kit is not in the best of shape but Jason pounded the heck out of it tonight. You see Francelle's Fishmen, Tele, and mando next to my rig.
Anthony sits out front to get us dialed in. Those three ladies at the table requested "Chicken Fried" but I didn't have the lyrics with me. I do now!
Some friends show up and we have a terrific first set.
Then we retire to the employee dining area for our supper. I had a really tasty grilled turkey and bacon sandwich with a side salad.
Here's a shot of our setup. You see the Rhodes was moved to the side of the stage to make room for all of John's gear. We could not set the Rhodes off the stage. The PA subwoofer was on that side of the stage too, behind John. He says it kicks his butt all night.
The sound booth is behind John. Here's Anthony hanging out between sets. They have full-on recording capability here with ProTools and everything.
That's Sharon, the lady who seems really glad to see me. She was surprised to see me here tonight with Arnie because she knows I usually work with Kelly.
On a break I wander downstairs to the front of the venue.
This is Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach on a Sunday night.
Then we're back at it, playing that country music, and other stuff, for the dancers.
Arnie was tearing it up tonight. He does a great job with his B-bender Tele.
Jason was wailing tonight. In fact, the whole band was too loud for me tonight. I had to put in my earplugs.
Yeah, yeah. The bass player is such a big show-off.
Francelle sang her little tuchus off tonight.
John has all the sounds and knows all the chords.
Toward the end of the night I noticed that there are a few house instruments here, a Taylor acoustic, a Tele, and a J-bass. I didn't try it.
We were done at 10:30pm after starting at 6pm. We played four sets. Then loading out was just as tough as loading in.
John and I packed all of our stuff into the back of his new Rav4 and made our way home.
It was a long day but I've got tomorrow off. I'll need it to rest up for our big private event on Tuesday out in La Quinta. I'll drive for that one. If I bring an amp John can't fit all of our gear in his Rav4. Trusty Astro van to the rescue! Hey, thanks for looking. See you again soon.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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