Let's say it was a soft opening, a low-key debut of the Country Club Events triple artist show. Arnie booked a night at Campus Jax, a nice little room, and I mean nice, and I mean little. Here's the flyer. (It was so low-key I didn't even get paid for this gig.)
Then venue is located in the vicinity of UC Irvine right across the street from the Orange County Airport. We're on the south end of the runway.
Everyone rolled in about 4:30 to set up and sound check. It's a good looking room that would hold about 200 patrons.
The stage was a little small for our needs but the sound guy, John, was friendly and accommodating and made sure everyone had a place, a mic, and a monitor. I waited a bit for the scrum to break up and walked out front to take a couple of pictures. This was the first time I've been to this room. It looks like the building had a near miss with an airplane.
As you can see we are right across the street from the south end of the runway.
It looks like things are settling down on stage so I toss up my little rig. I'll have a little room behind Johnny's keyboards beside Jason's drums. Oh boy.
I had my own monitor. It's too bad my ankles don't have ears. I was behind the drum shield so it did me no good. I had to wear an earplug in my right ear. I stood right in front of my amp behind those two monitors, with just enough room to place my feet.
Here's my view of the left side of the room. It's a nice place to sit, eat, drink, and listen to entertainment.
Here's the right side view with the bar.
I would spend an hour an a half listening to this guy play. I was able to hear nothing else. Nothing.
Well, I could hear some Johnny. He wasn't using IEMs and had his keyboard speakers facing back toward the stage like monitors.
Arnie calls a quick meeting during sound check. Amanda gets bored and takes a nap.
The meeting's over. Amanda is perky now!
After sound check I retire to my spacious dressing room.
Then I mosey on over to the bar for a couple of drinks, Alka-Seltzer Cold Formula and Throat Coat Tea.
Look who dropped by! Our friend and super-fan, Tammie. She's such a sweetheart.
We kicked off the show with Jed and Claire singing songs they wrote. They write good material with a country/gospel feel and some zydaco spice. Jed and Claire are from the South.
After Jed and Claire we had Kevin Click come up and play about half of his new CD followed by Amanda Kate who did the same thing. Then everyone got on stage to sing a big Eagles medley as the closer. Unfortunately there were only about thirty fans in attendance. They were enthusiastic and loud. Because I couldn't hear anything I played a half of a verse in the wrong key without realizing it, and generally stunk up the stage. I was literally playing by braille. All the singers were using IEMs. Jed had brought some special gear to make sure they could hear themselves. I usually don't need to hear much in order to sync up with the band but all I could hear was drums. The soundman had asked us to keep the stage volume low because it is a small place. Most of us took his suggestion. I asked him twice to turn up the vocals in my wedge but I never heard anything come out of my monitor. I could hear the house just enough to make sure I was playing the same song. I even started the show with the wrong song because my music was out of order. Oops.
But for the most part it went OK. The singers sounded great and I didn't get in their way too much. The show went smoothly as unprepared as we all were. We had a couple of quick rehearsals leading up to this gig and I thought the Jed and Clair tunes, which we were just given a few days ago, sounded the best. I didn't have time to refresh all of the material because we've been so busy working. Next time will be better. I think this all-original show can get some legs as soon as everyone is comfortable with it, and I can hear something other than drums.
Thanks for putting up with me.Here we are clearing the stage. I felt like I'd just lost the game because I fumbled the ball.
This weekend we're back at The Ranch. Amanda is not with us so Claire will be sitting in. We'll be doing a few of Jed and Claire's originals and Claire will get to sing with Andrew. Won't that be a treat?
P.S. We played for the door so nobody except Paul got paid, he was the "hired gun" for this gig. (Perhaps Jason and Johnny if they were insistent. That would have to come out of somebody's pocket.) I told Arnie he didn't have to pay me for this gig. All I did was poop all over the stage anyway. I've been playing such great gigs lately I suppose it's inevitable that I'd have a stinker once in a while.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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