Old Crow Smokehouse, 3/9/18

Hello friends and neighbors!

Me and the ANB had a pretty good gig at the Old Crow Smokehouse in Huntington Beach. It's a regular haunt for the band. It's a small stage, great food, good looking crowd, loud music, and a pretty good time. Here's the flyer posted to the social medias.

Since I normally work on Fridays I began my day loading up the trusty old Astro van before my commute to the office.

After work I had surprisingly light traffic down to the beach area. To get to this place you just head to the southwest and when your wheels hit the ocean take a right.

Arnie and I arrived just about the same time, an hour before the official call time, and found Jason getting set up. Arnie is trying a different stage arrangement for us tonight. We'll see how it goes.

After we toss our gear on stage we decide to have some supper out front on the patio. Kaylynn is new here and took good care of us. Since it was her first day we were gentle with her.

You see Austin joining us for supper. That's because Amanda couldn't make this date due to a previous engagement. So tonight, as Arnie says, was the "boy's club".

For my supper tonight I had the "pick three" plate with sausage, brisket, and pulled pork. It was absolutely tasty.

Supper was made even better by Brandi asking me if I wanted another Stone IPA every time I walked by the bar. I told her I had to pace myself. She said, "No, you don't." I thought, "I'm going to anyway." It's a long drive home.

 Thanks for the photobomb Arnie!

Josh, our sound man, has the stage all wired up now so we can start doing a little sound check. Here's the rigs for Austin and Arnie. Austin has the pretty Gibson L200 acoustic and the Les Paul. Arnie used the Little Walter and a Tele.

Jason joins me in a soundcheck selfie.

Soundmand Josh works with Austin and Arnie setting the monitor mix so that everything is louder than everything else.

As you can see, Jason and I are on stage left in the corner. I had a bad feeling about this.

Johnny Fingers and Austin noodle around to make sure everything works.

Poor Josh had to crawl around on the floor to get the wiring worked out for Jason's equipment. He's a dedicated guy and we didn't make his job easy tonight, flipping the stage the way we did.

Now it's time to put on my cowboy clothes. I ran down to my van to put on my shirt and vest. Now that I look and feel like a cowboy it's time for a selfie in front of the crowd.

And who do I see? My friend and bass playing buddy, Grant, is out in the crowd. He threatened,...um, mentioned that he might show up this evening.

On the break we took a proper selfie, two bass brothers just hanging.

Grant joined us in a band selfie at the bar.

Then the ANB boy's club is back on stage for another set.

Jason was having a good time sitting in the corner.

 Here are a couple of pictures Grant took from out front.

Grant was very complimentary about the sound out front but I was really miserable on stage. Standing at that corner of the stage seemed to concentrate all the sound waves and when you get a pounding drummer, two loud guitarists, and a one-man-band keyboardist going all out, it was starting to hurt me. I had to put in ear plugs. I had to have a serious discussion about volume with the band. I don't mind playing a little loud sometimes. You just can not do it in that room. Then I had another beer and felt better.

Austin met some interesting friends on a break. He was quit the hit with the ladies this evening.

 

Here we are again, all the boys bringin' in da funk, bringin' in da noise.

This is one of the regulars, Niles, getting some love from his dance partners.

We had a pretty fun crowd this evening. Austin sang a few hip songs that the kids liked.

We were having fun that last set.

We had three seemingly quick sets and were done at 12:30. Arnie photobombs my gear as I take my load-out picture.

Here's the front of the joint as I roll my gear out to my trusty Astro van.

That's Arnie's truck next to Bob van Astro. I like to load/unload from the parking lot and use the elevator to roll my gear. Most of the guys unload in the valet area and then park.

That's my Friday night gig story and I'm sticking to it. I hope your Friday night was just as fun. Thanks for looking!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff