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
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