Once again me and the ANB trek out to the Nevada desert to play at Gilley's Saloon on the strip in Las Vegas, where all the hookers are strong, the waitresses are good looking, and all the strippers are above average.
I started this trek by driving my trusty Bob van Astro through the robo-wash after I filled up. He looks pretty good and he's feeling pretty good since I topped off all the fluids and aired up the tires.
On my way out of town I stopped by to see my Dad so I didn't actually get on the interstate until after dark. There's not much to see during the drive. Here's a bad picture of Primm as I make my way to the border. I think that's UFO in the upper left.
When I checked into Treasure Island I found my room all the way at the end of the hallway. I thought this was going to be inconvenient.
And while it is just about as far from the elevator as you can go, I found out I get two windows in my room. That's pretty cool.
This is looking north along the Strip. Directly across the street is the Fashion Show Mall. You can also see The Stratosphere from here.
This is looking across the strip, The Palazzo and The Venetian.
Looking a little farther south you can see another wing of Treasure Island and the marquis.
Since I hadn't eaten all day and it was after midnight, I immediately made my way to the employee cafeteria for a midnight meal. I feasted on fish, grilled chicken, Cuban chicken, chili, black beans and rice, a couple of vegetables, and a bowl of fruit. It really hit the spot.
After a couple of beers with Johnny to celebrate his birthday I hit the sack. Now it's time to go downstairs to the saloon for soundcheck.
I went downstairs about 3pm the next day to soundcheck. I had just received a call from Arnie saying that he was stuck in traffic behind a wreck but he was in town and would arrive pretty soon. We'll try to entertain ourselves before he gets here.
The sound crew here is pretty terrific. Here's Daniel wiring up Johnny Fingers' keyboards. Every one of his keyboards gets its own channel in our monitor mix.
I put "all" of my gear on stage, two basses, and watch Bob wire up Jason's kit.
I was wondering why Jason looked so naked. Then I realized that Arnie was bringing up most of Jason's drums.
Daniel and Bob are ready to do some country rockin' tonight! These guys are really cool to work with.
Arnie arrives about 3:45 so we all run out to empty the gear from his truck. It seems there was also some kind of emergency right at the entrance to Treasure Island which further delayed Arnie.
We schlepped in the drums, guitars, amps, etc, and started soundchecking in earnest. This is my personal iPad monitor mixer. This is the stuff right here.
The system remembers all my settings from last time so there is actually very little tweaking for me to do in my mix. Arnie is plugging stuff in as we start our line checks.
"Gimme some kick drum. Now the hi-hat." You know the drill. Jason doesn't seem to mind the cage.
Daniel and Bob are at FOH right there beside the pillar at the corner of the dance floor. Soundcheck proceeds quickly and is very organized. These guys know their stuff.
Johnny Magic Fingers gives all of his keyboards a whirl for the sound man. I'm glad John is feeling better.
This is the view of the mechanical bull from my mic. It's usually pretty entertaining to watch the activity there.
Amanda arrives and starts tweaking her monitor mix. She's so adorable in her red baseball cap.
We cheese it up for my phone.
It takes me all of four minutes to set up.
I grab a selfie in front of our poster in front of the saloon. One of these days we'll get new pictures. Three of those people are not in the band any more.
This is the view from my room when the sun is out, looking across the strip to the Palazzo and the Venetian.
Looking a little more to the south to see part of TI and the marquis.
Looking north to see the Stratosphere on the other side of the new construction.
Before it's time to raise some heck in the honky tonk, have a beer, make some noise, etc, I'm hungry. So I head to the employee cafeteria again. The beer battered fish, the beef stroganoff, and a few other things looked great, so I helped myself. I got bacon just because, well, bacon!
This is what the employee cafeteria looks like from where I was taking my meal tonight. It looks like it could hold three hundred people but it was not that busy when I had my dinner.
We're supposed to be in the honky tonk by 9:30pm. When I made my way down to the saloon I noticed a line waiting to get into the place. My buddy Nathan let me in the exit. Thanks Nathan!
When I arrived the place was in full party mode already. It looks like it's going to be a great night.
This was the view of the room off of stage left.
And this was the view of the mechanical bull area. It was pretty busy tonight.
Just before we start the Gilley Girls put on a little line dance demonstration.
Randy, Amanda, and Johnny are walking onstage.
Jason is ready for the night.
Arnie and I sing a couple of songs and then let Amanda blow the roof off this dump.
John is in tune with his keyboards.
Yes, Amanda can sing! I just wonder why she stayed in those shoes instead of putting her boots on. She said they were hurting her feet. She's a trooper, style over comfort.
Jason is doing a good job behind his cage.
Arnie kicks off a song called "Freight Train" and Randy geeks the camera.
Amanda joins Arnie in a little something we like to call "music".
We had a good crowd in the honky tonk and they were having a good time.
This could be scary if we didn't have such a competent sound crew.
This kind of thing happens occasionally with all the wireless stuff going on these days. I just pressed the HOME button and restarted the app and all was well.
On the break the bass player, the guitar player, and the steel player make their way to the bar in order to partake.
Then we are back onstage watching the linedancers.
Just before we start the last set Amanda grabs the neck of my bass. I didn't mind.
On the next break Arnie buys me a drink from our favorite bartender, Elizabeth.
At the end of the night the curtain is drawn and we must bid everyone adieu.
Do you know what was really funny tonight? Well, let me tell you. Arnie used up much more than his share of the band tab at the bar. He had had three beers and two shots by the time I got my second beer. At the end of the night Arnie says, ''Let's give a big hand to DJ Chaddix!" (But tonight's was DJ 'Caffeine'.) So DJ Caffeine says, "Thank you! Let's show our appreciation and give a big hand to 'Bryan Lynn Jones'!!
I almost fell to the floor laughing because we all know Bryan Lynn Jones and his band, the Misfit Cowboys. DJ Caffeine was just playing along because, you know, Arnie messed up his name so DJ Caffeine thought he'd return the favor. Very few people in the room got the joke but I made a point to tell DJ Caffeine that I certainly appreciated the humor.
This is Mikaela. She was kind enough to take a picture with the old bass player.
We're not done yet. I'll be driving home tomorrow after visiting my friend Charles to watch him play on his worship team. This evening some of the band got together in Arnie's room to rehearse a couple of songs for Amanda that we want to try tonight.
Then I visited the employee cafeteria for some supper. I enjoyed some grilled chicken breast with turkey gravy, halibut and tarter sauce, salad, and vegetables. It was my only meal today so I made it a good one. I brought along some light reading too.
In about an hour and a half I'll put on my new Scully shirt (that's right, I bought a new shirt just for this weekend) and head to the honky tonk so we can paint it red and burn it down. I'm looking forward to having a beer with Tony and Andy.
Saturday night me and the ANB had a great time here at Gilley's. I got down to the honky tonk a little early so I could hang out with Tony. He was kind enough to buy me my first beer of the evening. Great to see you, pal.
Tony and I hung out with his ladyfriend Chris and imbibed. I think I play better when I start drinking before I walk onto the stage. Speaking of which, when I walked onto the stage I saw our pedal steel player, Randy.
John and I are actually wearing the same Scully shirt. Mine is black and John's is silver.
Amanda looked like a billion bucks tonight. When she saw my phone she asked, "Oh! Are we taking a picture?" She likes cheesin' with the old country bass player.
Here's a nice picture of Arnie and Amanda.
Even though this was before our actual downbeat, Jason wanted an action shot.
Amanda sings her first song of the evening. I'm so glad she puts up with all of us hairy legged boys.
Amanda had her crew of redneck women in the room tonight.
Then Arnie kicks off a really fun Merle Haggard medley.
It was great to see Andy and his wife in the house tonight. Andy's wife is a terrific singer. Maybe next time we can get them both up to sit in.
On a whim I took a picture of Arnie's arsenal. He's got a lot of pretty, pretty toys.
The night went really well. It wasn't quite as crowded as Friday night for some reason but it was still a good, fun crowd. This is a shot of the "wobble" dancers during our last break.
And here's our copilot, Bob, at the FOH. I guess it's time to get back to work. Our last set is only a half hour from 1:00am to 1:30am.
The ladies on the bull were quite entertaining tonight.
As were all of the line dancers. The room was having fun. I joked, "We put the 'fun' back in dysfunctional."
At 1:30am we said goodnight and started packing up our stuff.
Just to put a ribbon on this thread, and to post a picture of my friend Charles rockin' the House of the Lord, here's the last day of my weekend.
As I was waiting for the bellman to bring my luggage and the valet to bring my trusty Astro van, I noticed Arnie's white Ford truck being loaded with his gear, Randy's gear, and some of Jason's drums.
As I was waiting for the bellman to bring my luggage and the valet to bring my trusty Astro van, I noticed Arnie's white Ford truck being loaded with his gear, Randy's gear, and some of Jason's drums.
Am I a jerk for not helping? I don't know. They don't have to bring amps.
I tipped the bellman and the valet after they loaded my belongings and went off the strip to fill up at my usual Arco station on Spring Mountain Road, then headed back to the interstate.
I was at Life Springs Church before the early service let out. I had time to enjoy a large cup of coffee before the late service.
I met up with Charles between services and got caught up on all the latest bass happenings and stuff.
Then Charles let me check out his Dean acoustic bass guitar. It's a beautiful instrument and sounded great thought the house PA.
Here's my friend making a joyful noise. The worship team did an acoustic set with the drummer sitting on a cajon. It was terrific.
After church I hit the interstate headed south to So Cal. A lot of the drive looked like this.
Just the other side of the state line are the Bird Killers of Ivanpah. This "solar" plant does not have a very small carbon footprint, unfortunately.
And that was the last really interesting thing to look a for a while. I do enjoy the desert landscape.
Then the traffic got all bottled up for some reason. There was no wreck, just too many cars.
What should have been a three hour drive from Vegas to San Bernardino was actually five hours. At least there was no wreck. That would've really slowed me down. I finally made it to the Cajon Pass and knew I was in the home stretch.
Now this week I've got a couple of rehearsals, one with True Willie and one with Arnie, for our gigs this weekend. On Saturday Arnie has the Boots and Brews Festival in Ventura opening for Deana Carter and Montgomery Gentry. Right after that gig Johnny and I have to hightail it to LAX to catch a plane to Houston to play our True Willie gig on Sunday. It's going to be tight. Wish me luck. Thanks for putting up with me.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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