Arnie Newman's Country Club Band had a Carrie Underwood Tribute show featuring the lovely Ms. Amanda Kate this past Saturday afternoon. It was a one hour set in a small bar in downtown Fullerton, the Slidebar Rock-N-Roll Kitchen. This area of downtown Fullerton is chock full of bars, lounges, eateries, little performance venues, and the like. There must be quite a nightlife here on the weekends.
I ran into a bit more traffic than I was expecting on a Sunday afternoon, but nothing I can't handle. I always try to leave a little wiggle room in my travel plans. That 57 freeway can be unpredictable, as can all of the freeways here on So. Cal.
The Slidebar is an unassuming, trendy kind of place in the midst of lots of other unassuming, trendy places in the neighborhood. I parked in the lot behind and found a spot close enough to unload and roll into the Rock-N-Roll Kitchen on my handy-dandy Rock-n-Roller cart.
Jason arrived shortly after I did and we began a setup mambo duet.
We were playing on the back patio room. We stored our cases in an adjacent room where they often have live simultaneous music on the weekends.
Also adjacent is another room with another stage where they often have simultaneous music on the weekends too.
I asked our soundguy, Cameron, if all the entertainment alternates sets or if they go all at once. He said they all play at the same time. It must be quite the cacophony. Cameron assured me that the sound separation, and volume control, limit the crossover.
I see this venue went all out on their promotion. Amanda had a banner on the Slidebar website too.
I'm done with my setup so I wander around getting the lay of the land. I'm standing on the outside of the patio looking in. I kind of dig the "drum" stools at the bar.
I turn around to show you the patio extends further outdoors.
Because this is a small space, small stage, and sometimes other performances in close proximity, they really try to keep the decibel levels comfortable. Cameron asked me to turn my cabinet around. No problem. Shucks, if I'd known I probably could've just gone direct and not used an amp at all. I had plenty of bass in the monitor. If we play here again I think I will go sans amp.
I was really glad to see a shield go up in front of Bam Bam. But it turns out he took it as a sign he could just play as loud as he wanted too. Sigh.
Here's Cameron, our soundguy. He was great to work with, did very precise work, knew the gear, knew the room, and had us dialed in quickly.
Jason is ready to pound. We did a power trio using a lot of tracks for this show. It's not my favorite scenario but it is what it is.
The lovely Ms. Amanda Kate joins us. She was the star of the show today.
We had a couple of problems syncing with the tracks, never having done this style of show before. Plus Jason and Arnie were playing so loudly it was uncomfortable and distracting. Add to that the fact that there were a couple of songs on the setlist that I hadn't played for months and should've refreshed. It was obvious that Arnie was not prepared for this type of ensemble either. I was not pleased with my performance. But Amanda was the most professional and put on a great show despite all the issues. Arnie may have been out of sorts because he was having an issue with his eye. He wore sunglasses because it was so red and looked painful. You see Amanda gasp.
We got drink and food tickets at this gig. I did not stick around long enough to take advantage of the kitchen but when I found out this place had a tap with the Garage Marshmallow Milk Stout, nitrogen infused, I was a much happier camper. It's like s'mores with coffee and 7.1%.
My glass of stout made an excellent setlist holder.
I missed a couple of changes on #2 and #12 because it had been so long. I promised Amanda that I would nail these down before our next show.
It was an OK crowd for 5pm in the afternoon. We had a few friends of the band come out to see us.
Amanda put on a great show, carried the whole band despite the volume, Arnie's clams, and my forgetfulness.
Even among seasoned musicians, I just can't understand why they don't play to the room, play to the song, and not just get loud and try to show everyone what a fabulous player they are. It's really selfish. I was so disappointed with the whole show that I just made a hasty getaway. We'll talk about it later, I didn't want to do it there.
I guess with all the good shows we have, we have to have a stinker once in a while. Well, this was it. If we ever do another "power trio with tracks" show I'm going to suggest a rehearsal to smooth things out and talk about VOLUME. Sheesh. But then, I'm just the bass player. Do you think anyone would listen to me?
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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