On a recent Wednesday evening me and the ANB were back at one of our regular haunts, the Downtown Disney District. I was able to leave work a couple hours early. I was meeting Johnny Magic Fingers (That's right! He's back!) at The Ranch parking lot so I could help haul his gear in from the employee lot. As I climb into Big Betsy you can see the stadium construction is moving right long. It should be open for the 2020 football season.
I called John when I was close to The Ranch. We were able to time it right so that he pulled out of the parking lot just as I was sitting at the light. I followed him to the employee lot where we found two open parking spaces next to each about where I normally park. I unloaded my gear onto my handy dandy Rock-n-Roller cart, unloaded Johnny's gear onto his Rock'n'Roller cart, and them pulled them both a half mile to the stage. Here's a picture of the bass player not smiling after putting all that gear on stage.
Since I slept in this morning and skipped my workout, it actually felt pretty good to do all that physical labor. Here's the hairy legged boys during setup. I guess we're mostly set up and are getting thing dialed in.
You might remember Gary (L) from a couple of our gigs. This is the first time I've worked with Richard (R). They work for Sean at MxxMaster Sound.
The crowd is pretty thin as we have a little sound check. It's a bit warm today. That's Richard out front mixing on the tablet.
OK! The talent arrives! Crystal is joining us because Amanda is still in Nashville recording her album.
We love working with Crystal too. She leans more classic country, and that's alright with me.
Just another action shot from the bass player's perspective. John was nice enough to bring only half of his rig since I had to load both of our gear.
Guess what? Magic Fingers Johnny had NOT forgotten how to play his big boogie woogie number.
During a long piano intro I managed to get most of the band in my selfie.
Now that it's starting to cool off a bit the crowds are sticking around longer as we play our set.
Here's the stage after dark.
Now that it's cooled off we had a great crowd for the last set. This group of kids took over the dance floor for a bit of mosh and general wacky-ness.
We ended our performance just before the fireworks. Ooooooooo! Ahhhhhhhhh!
I loaded up John's cart. I loaded up my cart. Then I pulled them both back out to the parking lot and loaded our vehicles. John did great on that long walk both ways to and from the stage.
I hope he got lots of rest on the two days we were off. On Saturday we have a double, a private event in Riverside from noon til 4pm followed by Knott's Berry Farm in the evening starting at 7:30. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.
When I got home I enjoyed a few of the Stone Delicious IPA, one of the few IPAs that I like. It was cold, refreshing, and at 7.7% it was quite relaxing.
The next day I ran an errand down to SKB Cases in Orange where they manufacture, warehouse, and ship their cases. Mine had been damaged by some inept baggage handlers on a couple of my fly dates. This was the first chance I had to get down there and get a free warranty replacement, no questions asked. My Fender JBS needs a new case. I'll pick up another SKB as soon as I get a chance.
That's my youngest daughter spending my day off with me. I don't usually have Thursdays off but I needed to burn some Floating Holiday time before I lost it. We picked up my case, had lunch at The Habit, got my truck washed, worked on one of my daughter's projects with her, then we saw a movie (I finally saw the Avengers "Endgame"), and it was home to take my turn to cook dinner.
I just found out that Arnie's truck has broken down and is in the shop. That means I'll have to go to his house to pick up his rig and the PA. Then we'll both help Johnny get his gear set up. Needless to say, I think I'll skip my workout in the morning because I'll get several workouts tomorrow, what with us working a double and all. Oh, then we have a concert in the park on Sunday. Wow! What a busy weekend. I'll see you guys on the other side. Thanks to all of you for checking out my little gigs.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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