C'mon in and sit a spell and let me tell you about my Friday night at a new place for us. It's a new room that just opened in January after being remodeled by the new owners. Me and the ANB played at The Canyon Cowboy Saloon in Canyon Lake near Lake Elsinore.
My weekend began after a busy Friday at the day job followed by a two hour commute to the gig. It normally takes an hour to get there but with Friday rush hour traffic all bets were off. This is the southbound freeway through Corona. This is why the city's nickname is "Slow-rona".
But I made call time with no problem to find a pretty full parking lot. I parked as close as I could and wheeled my cart full of gear past the new sign out front.
The venue's front door is there off the patio. It was a lovely day and many guests had their supper on the patio.
We loaded in at the side door near the ramp to the stage. Here's Arnie muscling his Little Walter tweed amp like a boss. The lady in the window gives me a strange look.
I walk into the room to find it quite lovely, well done with all the wood and stuff.
It was a good sized stage for a moderately sized room, well laid out. We begin our setup dance.
While the lads enjoy their dance I visit the little bass player's room, our green room, my dressing room. It's a first-class restroom.
The faucets look like little manual hand (pitcher) pumps. Very country.
This is our soundman, Scott. He was very methodical with us and did a good job. A couple of patrons told me that this guy makes the bands sound the best. I guess they have other sound guys who don't do so well. We lucked out that Scott was on the schedule for tonight.
Scott uses the iPad to mix. The sound gear is in the closet behind the stage.
The iPad talks to this rack of Yamaha and Crown gear. The mains were QSC and our floor wedges were Behringer. All the speakers were powered so I'm not sure what the Crown was for. I'm just the bass player.
The room has a large and lively supper crowd. The food here looks great. Here's my view from the stage.
As the supper crowd finishes up some tables are moved to make room for dancing. We did a quick line check but got no real sound check. Scott is still wiring the stage. There are snakes built into the floor at various spots around the stage, very convenient.
Here's my usual "small" rig for this gig. I actually played my JBS for the first half of the fist set since it was heavy with traditional and classic country music.
I think Randy is hungry, waiting for his supper. We've all heard great things about the food here.
I decided to try the house "Saloon Burger", a half pound burger with Swiss cheese and bacon. John and I shared our side of beans and salad. Randy got a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of brussel sprouts which he said were out of this world.
The bar had quite a selection of draft beer with a couple that they brew locally right there at Canyon Cowboy. I enjoyed a stout brew called The Patsy from a local brewery in Costa Mesa, Barley Forge. The owner was hospitable enough to comp our beer too.
We're about to get started. I snap a picture of Scott as he mixes from out front. He also works double duty as the DJ on our breaks. There's a booth at the back of the room. There's someone else standing in it right now. I guess he's working the lights from there.
Here's my "just about to get started" round of pictures.
Randy and Arnie. Sorry about the mic stand there, Randy.
Jason brought is small blue Breakbeats kit.
Here's a fuzzy blue picture of John.
On a break the soundman-turned-DJ Scott keeps some people on the dance floor.
And we're back for our last set. The night went by quickly. Seems we played three sets between the 9:30pm downbeat and the 1am quitting time.
Jason's kit sounds great but it was pretty loud on stage, as were Arnie and Randy. I wore my ear plugs all night. It might help if a thick curtain was behind the band instead of that wood paneling.
Usually John likes to play pretty loud too but even he was complaining about the volume.
Here's the view from my mic during the last set. Sometimes you couldn't see anything.
We still had the patrons on the floor for the last set. They were having fun.
Then we played "Sweet Home Alabama" and brought the house down. It was time to leave. Here we are doing the tear-down dance.
Even though I thought we were pretty loud I got great feedback from strangers in the crowd. The staff and management were all great and took really good care of us. We've got more dates booked here so I'm looking forward to them.
My next gig scheduled is a Saturday when we play the Sweet Onion Festival in Imperial CA, right down near the border just north of El Centro. That's going to be a long drive/long day. John and I will carpool.
Until then, thanks for looking in on my gig. I appreciate it.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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