Arnie Newman's Country Club Band had to perform under an alias for this gig since it was booked through an agent. For this gig we were called "Kingdom Country". That's to avoid anyone contacting the band directly without going through the agent. The agent would want his cut. I know, it's weird. But this agent books nice private events and we want to keep him working for us.
This past Sunday we played a company picnic. The client was Vitu, a software company dealing with all things vehicle related. I do believe the California DMV uses Vitu as does other government agencies, dealerships, salvage yards, insurance companies, etc. They had the party at the Calamigos Ranch in Mailbu. Driving out there on a Sunday morning was a breeze. Here's some of the Malibu scenery on Kanan Dume Road.
This ranch has several event venues on the property. I got lucky and pulled up to the front of the party. Of course, I needed to find the back entrance so I could unload my truck.
I walked through the lovely venue to find someone to point me in the right direction.
There is even a small lake on the property.
I didn't want to roll all the gear over the path so I finally found someone to point me to the service entrance. After I unloaded my truck Arnie got there and unloaded his.
John wasn't here yet but I still had all of his gear in my truck, which I unloaded. John drove separately and brought a couple of extra powered monitors and a subwoofer. When we arrived the stage wan't set up yet. Actually, half the stage was set up but in the wrong place, and in the wrong configuration. We hammered it out with the stage crew and, because the stage crew was running late, I ended up helping build the stage. I got a workout this morning.
We also had a DJ to play between our sets and organize the picnic games. DJ Kyle took up a little corner of the stage right in front of John's keyboards.
While I was wiring the stage, pulling electrical cables and mic cables, I grabbed a shot of our elaborate setup dance. John was doing extra duty too, running the sound today.
I think we're about ready to do a little sound check. We got the DJ wired up and making noise just a few minutes later than the contract specified. Of course, the contract specified our stage would be ready at 9:30am AND we'd be supplied two 20amp circuits. We had to find our own electricity and ran a couple of 100' extension cables from a sketchy looking box behind a barn. Luckily we didn't blow any circuits.
Despite all of the setbacks and delays, we hustled our cans and were able to start at noon, our contracted time. Since Amanda is still in Nashville the lovely and talented Carmel Helene joined us to sing the pretty parts. Carmel was one of the atrists with us last December for the Christmas 90s Country show at the House of Blues.
Carmel is a lot of fun to work with, tall and talented.
Jason, Arnie, and Randy never unloaded the truck from the gig last night. I didn't unload mine either.
John is checking his tablet, tweaking the sound. It was a little rough to start since we were so rushed. But he got it ironed out after a few numbers.
It was a pleasant day even though we were not covered. Our friend "Coastal Eddy" was in town keeping the cloud cover over us and the temperature cool. Carmel sounded great. I hope we get to work with her some more. In fact, we will. There's a show at The Ranch next month with a lot of the same folks from the House of Blues show.
On a break I took a shot of the stage with DJ Kyle spinning the, um, whatever the digital DJs spin these days. Kyle was great to work with, very flexible and upbeat. This gig could have been a real disaster if it were not for cool heads and hard work.
There were all kinds of attractions for the families here, a bull, games, rides, etc. It was a heck of a party.
That big line is in front of the ice cream vendor. Behind you see a couple of the big mechanical rides.
We pretty much got to eat on every break. We had fried chicken, BBQ chicken, hot dogs, vegetables, salads, watermelon, desserts, etc. But no beer.
Oh yeah, dessert!
Coral was our dance instructor. But she did double duty as the DJ when Kyle was running the picnic games.
Here's Coral in her natural habitat, teaching the Electric Slide and Slappin' Leather.
Coral would teach a dance, then we would play a song for the dance. It was fun. Then it was time for the lovely singer babe to take a selfie with the old country bass player.
Here's the whole troupe for a picture back stage. We actually look like a band today.
We got to finish a little early that afternoon so a few of us made our way to the ice cream vendor. It was fun to watch them make the ice cream right there in front of you using the liquid nitrogen.
After our ice cream it was time to unplug, wrap, disassemble, pack, and otherwise load up our gear. This is kind of a lot of work. Arnie bid this a little close. We made pretty good money but had to haul and run our own sound system. Such is the life of a small time rock star, part performer, part roadie.
You can tell we're near the beach. I walked out to the street to get my gear hauler and found that Mr. Johathan Livingston Seagull made a deposit on my freshly washed 2017 Dodge Ram Crew Cab pickup truck, a.k.a. Big Betsy. Ewww. I'll wash that off when I get home.
The rest of the band pulls in to get their gear. That little red car is the DJ's.
As I pull out I notice the ride vendors are just about out of here too.
It was a nice scenic drive back to the Ventura Freeway.
I gotta tell you, I'm so happy with my new gear hauler. So far I've been averaging 23-25mpg, combined city/freeway/hauling-gear-to-the-gig driving. Anyway, we've got a busy week with four performances Wed-Sat. We start our summer run at Knott's Berry Farm on Wednesday, a private party on Thursday, and a regular weekend at The Ranch. Thanks to all of you for sharing my fun and leaving comments.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
No comments:
Post a Comment