You've seen this gig several times so I'll share just a few pictures this time.
This is the second of three gigs this first week of the new year. Me and the KRB played one of our regular haunts in North San Diego County, Valley View Casino. It's a band-behind-the-bar gig as is typical in so many casino lounges. But it's a really cushy gig. We're all wireless IEM, all direct, no gear to schlog, just plug-n-play. Our sound check took all of five minutes now that we've done this gig a few times.
I forgot about the Friday traffic around here. It's a good thing I left a little wiggle room in my travel time. My 90 mile drive took a little over two hours.
I pulled up the hill to the casino at 4:15. Our downbeat is 5pm.
But that was plenty of time to get set up. We had a full sound/stage crew tonight. That's Craig in the middle. We've worked with him several times. He had us up an running in minutes.
I brought my Guild as a backup. I plugged in my LB76, connected my ear buds to the IEM pack and I was ready to go.
I've even got time for a selfie before we sound check.
I was last to arrive this evening. Everyone else was having supper in the employee cafeteria. Now we're seconds away from our very quiet sound check.
Craig does a little last minute adjustment for Kelly's monitors. She couldn't hear my bass for some reason. It's all about that bass, you know.
The curtain parts, and we get on with the show. The crowd started out rather sparse but increased as the night progressed.
This is the bass player's view of the room.
Toward the end of the first set I got this warning on my iPhone mixer. I plugged it in on the breaks but it eventually turned itself off. That's OK. Once my monitor mix is set it won't change, even if the phone mixer app gets shut down.
Here's the mixer, the remote tablet mixer, and the charging station for all the phone mixers. Craig would hang out in the front during our sets to stay on top of the mix. He's a good guy to work with.
On the first break I had my supper. Along with the usual burgers and pizza, the cafeteria had shepard's pie and tilapia.
Since I've been eating so much and so badly lately, I decided to have a salad and the fish. It was light, tasty, and hit the spot.
Here's what the stage looks like from out front. It's a decent room.
Kelly give me a wry grin during the intro to "My Church".
Here's beauty and the beast.
On the second break I went back to have some dessert. This was a chocolate-dipped slice of cheesecake. Oh my!
Then we were back for our last set. The crowd was larger and quite into our brand of entertainment. We got requests that we could actually play, and a few people threw money at us. We each made $5 in tips tonight.
Mario is not a fan of this V-drum kit. It sounded really brittle in the IEMs. But he made it work.
We played 5-9pm, three one-hour sets with half-hour breaks. Art and I are now getting our gear checked out as we leave. The security checks all cases and bags going in and out. They're nice about it and it just take a couple minutes. I don't mind.
Tomorrow is a corporate event at Disneyland. Then next week I'll start playing dates with the Arnie Newman Band. After tomorrow I'll have just one more gig with the KRB on the books. I'm sure she'll call me for sub work if needed but Arnie likes to stay pretty busy. We'll see how much room I have in my calendar. I have to fit my day job in between my gigs somewhere.
Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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