This was kind of an odd evening at the second happiest place on earth, Knott's Berry Farm. Arnie's Country Club Band and I played another Saturday night on the Calico Stage. It started off in its normal fashion with a typical Saturday afternoon commute down to Buena Park where Knott's is located.
I usually take a picture of the entertainment board as I make my way to the stage. I can never remember our set times.
I made my way to the green room and had a cold drink of water.
I had arrived early so that I could stop by the lost-and-found where they had my boot bag. It had dropped off my handy-dandy Rock-n-Roller cart the last time we were here. I was so glad someone had found my boots and turned them in. After I picked them up I stopped by the Wagon Camp Stage to catch a couple of numbers by Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies.
These guys used to be known as Billy Hill and the Hillbilles before they left Disneyland. The Mouse made them change their name because Mickey owns the name "Billy Hill". These guys may look old but they are very talented and entertaining.
I'm as old as these guys are. I wish I was as entertaining.
I hung around for a couple of tunes then went back to my stage to sound check. We found out that there was trouble with our sound system and the techs were working on it. We hung out in the green room where it was cool and listened to a few of Amanda's rough mixes from her new album.
About 7:10 they told us to get our stuff on stage so we hustled. We were trying to make our 7:30 downbeat for our first set. It was a cluster but we were ready.
Arnie checks his guitar and mic. We start to do a little sound check.
But then we were told that the sound system was not fully up yet. So we took a break and ended up missing our whole first set. The crowd was ready for us. We told them we'd be back as soon as the technical issues were resolved.
This is Danielle, our stage manager, on the phone trying to get someone out here to fix the PA. You also see the bass and drums backline. Johnny and Arnie bring their own rigs.
It's about dark now and we still haven't started. Be we will start at 8:45. We ended up doing only two sets tonight.
Here we are backstage, just about ready to go on.
Johnny always tears it up on "Mama Screw Your Wig On Tight".
The first set was a little rough. My vocal went out of my monitor and was replaced with lots of guitar. I smiled and muscled through it.
Dave did a great job tonight. He'd done his homework, plus he had just worked with us at Swallows Inn the night before last.
We are just about ready to start our last set at 10pm. Here's our normal "Beauty and the Beast and the Bass Player" picture. John has the unintentional photobomb.
At the end of the night the stage crew strikes the stage. I helped Johnny get packed up and the crew loads up the cart to take out to the security gate. I always roll in with my handy-dandy Rock-n-Roller cart so that I can take my gear directly to my truck and get out of here a bit quicker.
I stopped at the store across the street and found they were out of the Stone Imperial Russian Stout. But I did find a six pack of North Coast Brewery's Old 38. This is the stout they have on draught at Buckle & Boots in Lancaster, a room we play occasionally. It's a good one, roasted, malty, coffee, full bodied goodness but not a high-gravity beer at only 5.4%.
I'm going to pour myself another and call it a night. I'll be off on vacation for the next week, missing three gigs with Arnie and the gang. But I will be back for my True Willie gig at the Laguna Festival of Arts on the 30th of July. Everybody take care and thanks for following along!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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