Another year has passed and I must admit that I am a bit sentimental toward all of the electronic and IRL relationships I've made since joining this forum. I continue to believe that God puts into my life those whom He wants me to interact with, for whatever reason. All of you are the lucky ones, or maybe it's me who's the fortunate one. Either way, you all are a blessing to me and I hope you are blessed beyond measure in the New Year.
I stopped by to tell you about my New Years Eve gig at The Ranch. It was a great night. I'm sure your NYE gigs were great too and I hope you tell us about them. Mine began with Johnny Magic Fingers picked me up at home so we could commute together. Mrs. BassCliff is coming tonight but wanted to drive separately so she could arrive later and leave earlier. When John and I arrived I had to go through the front door to get the stage door open. The staff was working hard to get the place looking festive.
You can't really see it in the picture above by all of the pitchers were full of noisemakers and lighted necklaces. It looked really cool when all of the guests were line dancing with their lighted necklaces on. But I'm getting ahead of myself. John and I loaded in through the stage door. It's a pretty easy load-in for this stage.
John and I loaded in. I brought two basses and used the house DI box. Johnny Magic Fingers and his Incredible Array of Keyboards takes a bit more effort.
I had to get a closer look at this contraption. Last year The Ranch rented a confetti cannon. This year the engineering department built their own. It was like Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor went and modified the original. That's 120 psi waiting to blow confetti all over the place.
Jason considers the multiverse and how loudly he's able to play without disturbing the space-time continuum. He has been known to cause a crack in reality and initiate movement on the San Andreas fault.
My babes! I tweaked my new PB5 a bit tonight, because I had time. It made a difference and was more fun to play because I could dig in a bit more. It seems to have come from the factory set up for more of a slappy/poppy style player but I'm more of a finger funk kind of guy.
Here is a rare picture of Mark, the excellent, magnificent, extraordinary, yet humble sound man at The Ranch. He's setting up the owner's floor wedge and had to call engineering about moving the confetti cannon a couple of inches to make room. As it turned out, the cannon had to be returned to its original position and the owner's floor wedge had to be relocated.
Johnny Magic Fingers plugs in all of his talent.
Here's a picture of the band's IEM rack with the venue's monitor room behind it.
This venue has an impressive everything. Look at that patch panel and the Yamaha MC7 that is used for a monitor board.
The doors opened at 6pm tonight so all of the hors d'oevres had to be ready. Believe me, John and I were ready too. Here are a few of them, like oysters on the half shell.
Shrimp with cocktail sauce.
Seared Ahi tuna.
And a nice selection of deli meats, cheeses, and other stuff.
This was my appetizer plate, with a token vegetable.
Soon it would be time to hit the dinner buffet.
There are three different salads.
Roasted turkey and beef tenderloin.
This was my dinner plate, with lamb chop, Chilean sea bass, roasted turkey, ravioli, roasted vegetables, and the Caesar salad.
The set times were clearly posted in the green room, different than a normal weekend.
The event was sold out, every seat and table. It was not a capacity crowd because the management wanted to have a place for every one to sit and enjoy their dinner. Later on, after dinner, they let the "general admission" folks in.
There was a $115 charge for the full dinner at 6pm and a lesser charge if you wanted to come later just to drink and dance.
Here I am with Arnie and Mrs. Arnie.
Just before we hit the stage at 8:30 Arnie and I take a picture of the talent and Mrs. Arnie.
I played my new Kiesel PB5 for the first set. It felt much better after I tweaked it. All I did was raise the saddle height by a half turn on the saddle adjustment screws. It's not nearly perfect for me, but it helped a lot.
OK, I guess we're starting the show.
Johnny Magic Fingers on his throne of keyboards.
The crowd was having a great time. They were here to party!
I'm not sure what's going on here but I think some talent is being displayed.
Jason must be playing an intro and I had time to snap a picture.
This turned out pretty good. Most of stage right was looking at me.
The dance floor stayed pretty crowded all night.
It looks like it's Jed's turn to sing in this here honky tonk.
Jed and Claire have been married for a long time, probably thirty years or more. You can tell from they way they harmonize.
It time to do "The Wobble"!
On the last break I finally get to have an adult beverage. Arnie and Randy join me to toast the New Year.
Yeah, I'm drinking a martini and those guys are drinking beer. What'cha gonna do?
For the last set we start at 11:45pm and play for an hour. Heather is on stage to fill everyone's champagne glass to toast in the New Year.
Then for the last set Andrew, the owner, gets up to sing a little of "Your Shook Me All Night Long". He actually pulled it off. Earlier in the evening he started off the show with a few other numbers. He was in such a good mood, he got back up.
After Andrew sang a couple of verses we were back to normal. Andrew rocks!
Amanda sings one of her big hits for the crowd.
We played an hour for the last set. What's left of the crowd seems to be hassling the band as they pack up.
It looks like the natives are still hassling the band. I'm going to try to make a quick getaway.
I took my stuff to his car and then helped John load out.
On New Years Day I'm hoping to sleep late and then watch football all day. I hope your January first is healthy and happy and followed by 365 more days just like it. (It's a leap year!) Thanks for looking! God bless you and yours.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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