This past Saturday I joined Arnie Newman's Country Club Band at the Imperial Market Days event in lovely downtown Imperial CA, a farming community of about 8000 in southeast San Diego county. This event is also called the Sweet Onion Festival but there were no onions this year. Strange.
Anyway, the day started when I met John at his place at noon to load my rig into his car so we could carpool the 175 miles to the gig.
As we made our way east through the desert toward Palm Springs I noticed that Mt. San Jacinto still had snow at the summit even though it's going to be 95 degrees today.
It was quite windy today. We drove thought a bit of a dust storm as we passed Palm Springs.
I was glad there was not much traffic as we drove past the Coachella festival in Indio. We turned south and drove past the Salton Sea.
We played this event last year so we knew where to park even though the streets were blocked. We had the same flatbed trailers set up just off the main highway. John and I begin our setup dance. Jason was here just ahead of us and is already unloaded.
Arnie arrives a few minutes later. The sound company is not here yet. It's the same outfit as last year and we are hoping we have fewer problems.
Like I said, it's 95 degrees out here so I went to the convenience store there on the corner to pick up some refreshment.
The sound company is here! This is Ishael and Kinko. They brought a nice system today and did a great job getting us wired up and dialed in. We had no equipment problems this year but there were a couple of electrical glitches which they took care of quickly.
One of the event coordinators, Priscilla, gave me the lowdown about our meals and set times. She also worked the booth where I needed to pick up something for Mrs. BassCliff.
Ishael's son, Ismael, was also on the crew today. Here he is setting up the lights.
Looking from the stage, the vendors are getting set up and starting to cook their wares. There were vendors up and down the streets in three directions.
The lovely Ms. Amanda Kate joins me for a windy selfie. The wind never quit today.
Amanda used my set list to get her tablet arranged. We've got three sets planned.
Check! Check! One, two! Amanda ended up using her IEM unit. Since it was a fairly big stage, and outdoors, I was far enough away from Bam Bam that I didn't have to wear earplugs today.
Ishmael was out front with his tablet getting our mixes in order and EQ'ing his rig. It was very comfortable, volume-wise, on stage today.
The wind is really ripping through here. Arnie had to turn his hat around and Amanda had to lean into it.
The bass player has that wind-blown look about him. What a handsome devil.
I sometimes bring my 410 cabinet for the outdoor gigs but my regular small rig was plenty. I knew my larger rig wouldn't fit in John's car. John had to bring only two keyboards instead of four so that all of our gear fit.
When Mrs. BassCliff found out that her favorite bakery had a booth she asked me to pick up a loaf of bread from Dudley's, a bakery in Julian. I also picked up a couple of pies from Julian Pie company. Good stuff.
We got the show started at 6pm. Our cheeks are already wind burned.
You know what Amanda is doing, right? She's singing one of her sassy girl songs.
You can see she is wearing her IEMs. She was standing closer to Jason. We left the monitor there just in case. But her IEMs worked great.
I think the wind caught Arnie off guard. He rocked back on his left foot but never missed a note. We had to lean into the wind all night. All of the stands, cymbal stands, keyboard stands, mic stands, had to have some kind of weight placed on them. Even my four string Fender blew off its tripod stand. Ishmael ran over and put it in its case. It can't fall out of the case.
In addition to the wind, we were looking right into the setting sun for a couple of hours. We were all glad that there was no blowing dust.
In spite of the heat and the wind we were having a good time. On the break Arnie, Mrs. Arnie, and Amanda join me for a selfie.
We were a bit parched so I visited Alexis in the corner store and picked up another sixer of St. Archer IPA. It's a very refreshing IPA with not too much of that citrus grapefruit taste.
We had a couple of tables behind the stage so we could relax, snack, and enjoy a cold one.
Then we were back at it. Now that the sun is setting I think Amanda is getting cold.
The mayor pro tem got up to say a few words. He's a nice fellow and loved the band.
Now that it's starting to cool off the crowd is really starting to show up.
Johnny bangs out his big boogie-woogie number.
Jason keeps time on the rim.
We did have quite a few line dancers but I couldn't get a picture.
On the break before our last set the coordinator, Ember, took us down the street to an Italian place for supper.
I'm glad I ordered this pizza. I hadn't eaten all day and this was terrific. John had a couple of pieces. I ate the rest.
Then we headed back to the stage for our last set. I was surprised that there were no onions this year. Last year the stage was decorated with hay bales and huge burlap sacks of onions. It looked really plain this year. But the sound was much better, no equipment failures. Yay!
Amanda opted to wear one of my Scully shirts. She also put her overalls on. It did cool off quite a bit.
I don't think I could pull off that look, overalls and a Scully shirt. But Amanda certainly can.
I wish I knew that song, "You Look Good In My Shirt".
We were done at 9:30pm and began the load-out hustle. We still have a three hour dive home.
It was almost a fourteen hour day in total. But John and I managed to stay awake for the drive home and even took our wives to church on Easter Sunday.
This week we have Downtown Disney on Wednesday then we are all driving up to Hanford for their city festival. That's about a four hour dive but they are giving us rooms. John and I will probably carpool again, or I might rent something. I'm not sure if I want to put my trusty Astro van through that torture going up over the Grapevine. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for checking out my little gig.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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