Segerstrom Center, 6/26/18

Hey howdy hey!

This past Tuesday me and the ANB played a nice little outdoor gig in the late afternoon at the Segerstrom Center. It was the last event of their Line Dance Party evenings in June. It was going to be a bit of an inconvenience loading in because of location, parking, etc, so I left work early enough to allow for the extra hassle. There was surprisingly little traffic on my journey into the OC.

I arrived an hour before call time. We played in the plaza in the middle of the Segerstrom center between the larger venues.

I unloaded from the street and rolled my gear to the stage. John arrived shortly after I did and enlisted the lovely Amber to help with his gear while I parked a couple of blocks away in the CVS parking lot. (I didn't want to pay $10 to park in the structure. Thanks for the tip Amber!)

Amber is a hard-working member of the crew. We'll see a lot of her today. Here's a shot of the stage. Amber talks to John about his needs while Rachael puts down the dance floor.

From the stage you can see the beautiful new concert hall.

With John you see Jeremy, our crew leader, and Amber, ready to take care of our every need. These guys really worked hard for us today in the warm sunlight.

After I set up my gear and plugged in the XLR cable to my direct out, I wandered about to take pictures of the arts center. This is the fountain in front.

I walked up the large spiral staircase and took in the concert hall.

Here's a view of the plaza, stage, dance floor, etc.

This is the front of Segerstrom Hall (not to be confused with Segerstrom Concert Hall) where I remember seeing the Blue Man Group a few years ago.

Segerstrom Hall is more for stage productions while Seagerstrom Concert Hall is more for orchestral performances and other musical acts. There are one or two small theaters in the complex too.

Here is Sarah, running FOH for us today.

Amber joins Sara in the sound booth-tent-thingy.

As Jason sets up his drums Amber is back on stage to lend a hand.

Here's most of the crew, Sarah, Amber, and Carly (the stage manager), ready to help us all have fun.

This sculpture, or is it a "structure", was interesting. You could walk inside. It had some very strange acoustical properties.

It looks like Randy is here now. Arnie and Jason are talking about putting together a hamster dance tribute band. 

The crew set up a nice green-room-tent thingy for us. It was nice to sit out of the sun and enjoy some cold water.

Here's a view of our stage from the green-room-tent thingy. It's a lovely area.

I had to check the sign. I needed to use the little bass player's room and change into my cowboy clothes.

Amanda is here and it's time to sound check. Amber and Jeremy work hard to make it sound right.

As we continue our sound check, John goes into a trance, dreaming of playing in the concert hall. 

After sound check we have a few minutes to enjoy the shade of our green-room-tent thingy. 

It looks like there's going to be a pretty good line dancing crowd this evening. 

John readies his tablet. He keeps the set order on his tablet along with his charts and notes. Arnie forgot the set lists tonight so we are all relying on each other to verbally communicate the next song. 

And we're off! We played two sets worth of line dances and the crowd knew them all. 

Jason and Arnie sing on a long intro so I'm able to grab a couple of pictures. You see Carly on the far side of the stage, ready for anything. 

John plays the intro to another line dance. 

This looks like the Black Velvet dance we call to the Shania song.

Amanda belts out "I Feel Like A Woman". 

Yep, this crowd came to line dance!

 

Randy saw me taking a picture of him. He likes to geek the camera.

Here's Amber, ready to take care of any catastrophe that may occur on stage. She even tried to pick up all the notes that I dropped. 

Amber springs into action when the battery failed on Amanda's mic. 

Amanda and Arnie harmonize on another, you guessed it, line dance song. 

It was a really pleasant evening once the sun went behind the buildings and everyone was in the shade. 

I have a few seconds so I grab another picture of John working hard, making all the sounds. 

After two quick sets of line dances we turn into roadies. The crew sprung into action and helped the band with their gear as they struck their own gear. It was a great crew tonight full of young, energetic people. Good stuff. 

After I loaded up my cart I walked back to the CVS to get my trusty Astro van. I took this picture of the almost full moon between Segerstrom Hall and Segerstrom Concert Hall. 

It was a nice event and everyone enjoyed themselves. We had quite a few friends from The Ranch in the audience. Arnie picked up another corporate event while schmoozing with the crowd. That's always a good thing. To top it off I was home by 10pm. You can't hardly beat that.

I have no gigs this weekend so I'll be enjoying time with my family. We'll be back at The Ranch in two weeks. So you'll get to see more of my ugly mug then. Thanks for stopping by!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff 

Gilley's Las Vegas, 6/22-23/18

Hey gang!

Yes, I know. The gig reports are coming fast and furious because I got a little behind. If you don't mind I'll go ahead and get started on me and the ANB playing at Gilley's this weekend.

After work I left to drive up to Vegas at night in order to take is easy on the trusty old Astro van. Here we are going over the Cajon pass at sunset.

Here we are passing over the state line at Primm. There's not much to see out here at night in the desert.

I left my house at 8pm and rolled into the valet at Treasure Island at 11:30pm. I made good time just setting the cruise control on 70mph and staying in the right lane. Here you see Robert, one of the bellmen, rolling my gear and luggage up to my room. He recognized me and I remembered him. I guess I've done this a few times.

I had to take a detour on the way to the elevators. It looks like TI is renovating the coffee shop. There's another sports bar going in on the other side of the casino. The times they are a'changing.

I got a room on the 7th floor. I'm usually up a little higher but the view is not bad at all.

 

Once the bellman got my stuff to my room I went down to the honky tonk and got there just after the band was done. I asked the bass player if that was a Phil Jones. His face lit up and he said, "Come on up here and check it out!" His name is Collin and he works with the Scotty Alexander Band. His amp sounded pretty dang good. It's amazing how 5" speakers can sound for bass. I'd never seen a Phil Jones in the wild. I was impressed but I don't think I could ever justify the money.

After chatting with Collin and Scotty I realized I was hungry. It was about 12:30am and I hadn't eaten all day. I made my way to the employee cafeteria. I'm glad I called ahead for a reservation.

I helped myself to a pretty good slice of pizza, a couple of meatballs, a piece of fish, a pork schnitzel, and some salad. It was a good midnight snack.

After my late supper I picked up some refreshment and checked in with my friends at TalkBass.

This morning I arose at the crack of noon and took on the day.

We were scheduled to load-in and soundcheck at 2:30 this afternoon. I thought I would bring Whiskey Karma along to Vegas with me. What do you think, Jordy? (Jordy is my fellow bass player in the Whiskey Karma band.) Here we are in front of our poster.

In the honky tonk in front of the bar.

We begin our setup dance. Both Randy and Arnie drove up from San Diego. Randy came up yesterday, Arnie had just now arrived after driving up from another engagement in San Diego.

Our soundman, Daniel, is a good sort and got us all wired up. 

Bob is mic'ing up Jason drums.

Here are my regular working basses. Amanda is dialing in her monitor mix on her iPad.

Besides my two basses, this is all the setup I had to do. I love being the bass player.

John brought his full rig. We get a separate channel for each keyboard on our IEM mix.

Here is the view from my mic with my iPad mixer and my sheet holder.

Here is Amanda and me with our soundcheck selfie.

Arnie and Randy continue with soundcheck. Amanda has the cutest smile.

Jason gives the soundman some kick drum from behind his cage.

After soundcheck it was time for an early supper. I made my way back to the cafeteria behind the secret door off the casino.

I helped myself to more fish, a mystery meat with mushroom sauce, a really nice ham steak, salad, and chocolate cake for dessert.

Now I'm just waiting around for downbeat. I'll listen to a couple of tunes and then start my caffeination protocol to get ready for the show.

<Continuing after the show....>

It was a really fun time tonight here on the strip in Fabulous Las Vegas. Not only did we make a lot of noise but I also met a couple of TalkBass.com members whom I'm proud to call my friends. Unfortunately Charles is unavailable this weekend but I had the pleasure of meeting Tony and Andy. You guys are top notch, all around good eggs, and I wish we had more time to hang out. I'll let you know when I'm back in town. Please let me know when you are in my neighborhood.

It seems tonight was photobomb night. Here is Tony with Arnie and I.
 

OK, here's a better picture of us without the cute photobomb.

After a nice conversation with Tony it was time to go to work. Here's my "we're just about to get started" selfie.

OK, here's my "John and I are just about to get started" selfie.

We've got time for one more "Amanda and I are just about to get started" selfie.

Randy looks sharp tonight. Yes, he borrowed one of my shirts again.

Ha! Earlier today Randy texted me, "Being the boy scout that you are, did you bring an extra shirt?" Randy had been away for a week, rushed up here from the San Diego area, and left behind most of his clothes. What's a bass player to do? Since I had brought five shirts, just in case, I had one to spare.

It looks like Arnie and Jason are ready to country rock the house.

The dancers enjoy the last song before we start.

OK, I guess we have time for one more picture before we actually get started. I sat my point-n-shoot on John's keyboard, set the timer, and FLASH! here is 3/4 of the band.

I don't have a chance to take another picture until Amanda sings her first song with a long guitar intro.

I take two, just because.

I tried to take this picture to show how large of a crowd we had but by the time I got my phone out of my pocket most of the dancers had walked off the floor. Oh well.

Arnie starts of the next set with, you guessed it, a Merle song.

Jason was playing rather lightly even though he was behind the screen. I actually had to turn his drums up in my IEM mix.

There was a pretty good crowd in Gilley's tonight.

On this break I met Andy. He's just moved here from Guam. When I tried to take a picture we got another photobomber.

Anyway, here are three TalkBass forum members in the same honky tonk, BassCliff, Tony, Andy.

Just before we went back after the break, DJ Chaddix played a popular line dance and filled the dance floor.

Towards the end of the night, Amanda and I take an old fashioned "amp-selfie" with my point-n-shoot.

We had another Saturday night here at Gilley's on the strip in Fabulous Las Vegas. I slept late again and began my day in the employee cafeteria. I had some mystery fish in a red sauce (it was very good), some baked beans and black beans over rice (I love rice and beans), some stir-fry chicken (it was just OK) and a salad with beets. Breakfast of Champions!

Then I went back up to my room and took a nap. I just goofed around all day in my room until it was time to get cleaned up for the show. Me and my two basses took the short commute in the elevator.

Here's an amp-selfie with Amanda and Arnie before we get started.

John makes sure his rig is working.

Oops, it seems I caught Arnie at an inopportune moment.

Jason is ready rock.

It's a good crowd here at Gilley's, lots of two-steppers tonight.

Arnie and I start the set with a couple of two steps and then Amanda calls the first line dance.

The lady in white on the dance floor is getting married. There were a couple of bridal parties in the house tonight.

Amanda sings "I Feel Like A Woman" by Shania Twain. It has a long guitar intro which gives me time to snap a few.

Yes, we're really having fun!

Jason is maintaining his cool there in the cage.

John would not look up when I tried to take his picture so here's the top of his head.

I have another chance to take Amanda's picture so, why not?

Here's John again playing his big boogie-woogie feature number.

I thought the lights were pretty so I took a picture.

Randy went shopping for a new shirt today. He found one just like the one I lent him last night. Only this one was slightly used and he bought it for a third the price of new. It was a great deal. He looks sharp.

We played two one-hour sets and one half-hour set and we were done. There's nothing left but the long drive home. John asked me to help him load out in the morning. One of these days I'll actually get to enjoy not bringing any gear to the gig.

Before I left on Sunday I grabbed a snack in the employee cafeteria. I always follow the advice on the sign next to the big mirror in the hallway. 
 

Lookin' good! 

Thanks for coming along with me. I have no gigs next weekend. (I do have one on Tuesday evening.) I'm not going to take any weekend gigs either. I need to spend time with my family. It's been hectic lately. I'm looking forward to a weekend off. I appreciate all you guys stopping by to share my fun.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff