Sure, I'm in Las Vegas right now but I still owe you a gig report from Wednesday night. ANCCB played Stillwater Spirits and Sounds in Dana Point. As I left work I admired the construction site across the street from my office. You see a parking structure going up next to the new stadium construction. Oh boy.
Traffic was sticky getting down there. John and I phone each other a lot during our commutes to keep each other company and pass the time while driving 10mph on the freeway. It was quite dark but a lovely evening when I got down to the venue. This is the front with the outdoor bar and food service on the patio.
Of course I come in the back door with the rest of the hired help. From the stage I see John at the bar having his supper.
I join John at the bar but first take a look back at the stage.
I practiced my minimalism this evening since there is a Fender Rumble 500 for my backline. I brought only a single instrument.
Our intrepid sound engineer, Paul, is trying to make sense of that wiring mess. Actually, he's very well organized and does a great job for us. He's very nice when he asks he band not to play so flippin' loud.
Arnie and Dave set up. Dave is here tonight because we are supposed to be using this gig as a paid rehearsal for Arnie's "Merle" tribute show which we will be doing in conjunction with a True Willie show in January. We didn't do any new Merle songs tonight. Arnie wasn't ready.
We thought we were a four piece tonight so John set up on stage right. He's so far away.
It turned out that Randy was here tonight. Rather than have John move all of his stuff it made more sense just to have Randy set up on stage left. We actually fit on this stage much better this way.
No, my bass is not levitating. There's a hook on the wall so that I don't have to bring a guitar stand and it takes up no room on the small stage.
Just before we start Dave and I greet each other through the plexiglass.
It looks like Johnny is boogie-ing and woogie-ing.
We had a friendly and generous crowd tonight. They love all of our old school country.
Arnie enjoys himself. I hope he gets his Merle act together soon. We've got a couple of bug shows coming up.
I think Dave is having a good time despite being in the cage. We have a 95db (or so) limit in this room due to the proximity of homes in the area.
Oh yes, this crowd loves their cha-cha and two-step. This is not a line dancing crowd.
It was three quick sets between 7 and 10pm. Since Randy is riding with me to Las Vegas we just put his rig in my truck when we loaded out. Then I helped John load out because he's a bit under the weather. There seems to be some kind of inverse formula to my gear schlepping. The less gear I bring the more I have to tote others'. I guess that's a bass player thing.
OK, let me start my Gilley's post. Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
No comments:
Post a Comment