With all the excitement today I just can't sleep so I'll get my gig report started at 4:45am on a Thursday morning.
I'm playing bass for Arnie Newman's Country Club Band featuring Amanda Kate this weekend at Gilley's Saloon at Las Vegas Treasure Island. Yay me.
I drove solo this evening. Randy sometimes rides with me but he's not with us this weekend. John would have carpooled with me but he had to leave early to take care of other business on the way. So I packed after I got home from work and left the house at 8:08pm listening to a Tanya Tucker tune.
I made one quick pit stop in Baker and forgot to take a picture of the big thermometer. I pulled into Treasure Island at 11:47pm. I made good time. I just set my cruise control for 70mph and stayed out of everyone's way. The traffic was very light this evening.
I let the valet park Big Betsy and the bellman take my basses and luggage up to my room. I'm treated well here despite being a bass player.
I've got a standard single room on the 9th floor. I made sure my babies were comfortable.
I'm in the south facing wing with a pretty good view of the Strip.
John arrived earlier and had a room on the same floor. I met him in his room for a hard seltzer. This drink is actually pretty good, light and refreshing. John had already been gambling and, so he says, drinking "heavily". (But he doesn't really.)
I hadn't eaten all day so I decided to go have a late supper while John went back to the blackjack table. I noticed that this store, usually full of instruments and posters signed by famous musicians and celebrities, is now empty.
That's right, I made my way to the "Sad Cafe", the employee cafeteria. It was pretty slow at 12:30am.
I wanted to get myself some plain water out of the soda machine. When I touched the display I got the blue screen of death. I didn't know these were Windows machines, probably Windows XP.
I got my water from another fountain. The food this evening was really good. I limited myself to protein and salad, filet of cod in a dill creme sauce, BBQ chicken breast, pork, and sauteed mushrooms to go with my house salad.
Yes, the NASCAR 500 is in town this weekend. We are expecting good crowds.
I met John on the floor and watched him lose a few hands of blackjack. Then I went next door to the CVS and picked up my liquid refreshment for the weekend.
It's my favorite beer in the store. One of these days I will visit a microbrew or a nice store here that has something more unique.
After I'd had a couple it was time to get ready for bed. Unfortunately my sink blew up and spilled a sink full of water all over the floor.
I called housekeeping and they sent an "engineer". He told me the pipe was cracked and it's going to be a "project" to fix it. So I was given another room. Great. I have to pack up all of my stuff and move it all the way to the other end of the hotel, and then unpack again. At least my new room was on the same floor. But the view from my window is not quite as interesting.
But I think I'll be able to sleep now. (It's 5:18am as I type this.) I'll set my alarm for about 2pm so I can make it to soundcheck by 3:30 or so. John is going to need help getting his gear set up. That'll be me. I'd better hit the hay.
Thursday night found us enjoying copious amounts of fun units. At 3pm I slid down to the saloon to find Jason had already loaded in.
I brought one bass for sound check, put it on stage, then helped Johnny Magic Fingers with is mountain of keyboards, powered speakers, mixers, stands, etc. Basically I've volunteered to be John's roadie while he's healing from his surgury.
Jason, John, and I begin our setup dance. Jed is riding with Arnie and they are not here yet. Amanda has it pretty easy, you know. She just shows up looking great and gets handed a microphone.
You might remember Bob and Daniel, our intrepid, hard working, handsome, and talented sound guys. These two are really fun to work with, great attitudes and skills.
Here's the lovely and talented Johnny Magic Fingers and his tower of keys. What a mess of cables. He's got all the sounds.
One of John's scissor stands broke. That's why he has his sound module and mixer on top of the speaker cases. It was a little wobbly but there were no mishaps. He's got another stand at home but this will do for the weekend.
We usually are sound checking by 4pm, that's when Arnie and Jed arrived, but today, unbeknownst to everyone (even the sound crew), this dance club had rented out the saloon for a couple of hours for an event that they were video recording. So we plugged everything in and left. We came back at 6pm for a quick sound check and it was fine.
Hey! I know that guy!
I found our friend Andy's band, Dez Hoston, on the February bill along with some other friends of ours, Redneck Rodeo and Chris Lozano, and some dude named Arnie.
Here are a couple of old codgers trying to find a place to eat. John decided to buy his roadie supper before the show. We're taking a break from the "Sad Cafe".
We made our way across the Strip to the Venetian and headed for the Prime Burger in the food court. John had been here before and really enjoyed it.
I thought the "Fungus Humongous" burger looked interesting, portobello mushroom and Swiss cheese. The burger was great, ground chuck and sirloin. The beer, not so much.
I've seen the Arrogant Bastard Ale around and was curious so I finally tried it. If you read the brewer's description you'll find this beer has quite an attitude (7.2% ABV). It has a good feel, good dark color, starts with a bit of malt but then the bitter end stays with you and doesn't go away. I like a good dark beer with a little bitter on the end but this was about 90% bitter with very little malt or other flavors up front to mellow out your drinking enjoyment. I don't think I'll be buying this beer again, not because I'm a wimp, it just doesn't taste good.
As we walked back to our rooms to get ready for our quick sound check I enjoyed the sunset on the Strip.
Amanda is happy we get to have a little sound check.
Johnny makes sure all of his sounds are there. The crew here at the saloon take all of his keyboards direct individually. We have a channel on our IEM mixer pad for each of his four keyboards. It works out well because there are volume differences. Most places just take the stereo out from John's keyboard mixer.
The talent, cheesing with the bass player.
Arnie and Jed take a minute to get their IEM levels set.
Bob and Daniel did a quick and thorough job going from "Gimme some kick drum" to "OK, play a number". I like sound checks that don't take hours.
When I got back to my room I decided to take some time to show some love to my old Carvin LB76. I recently purchased new strings, a new TU-3 tuner, and new batteries. These strings were about two years old and it was time.
I wanted to give the truss rod a slight adjustment but I'd forgotten that this one takes a socket driver, not an allen wrench. Oh well, it's not critical.
We start at 9pm on Thursday night so at 8:30 I made sure everything was in it's place. I've decided that I'm going to buy one of these triple stands. That way I could also hang my Fender Kingman and use it for our more acoustic numbers.
Here's a shot of my vocal mix and my clip-on sheet holder. I picked up a couple of new songs this week and I haven't totally memorized the lyrics yet. Plus the number charts for Amanda's original songs that I haven't totally memorized yet either. Hey, give me a break. My brain is almost full. I have to forget something in order to put anything new in there.
Here's a picture by special request going out to Bill. He said he wanted to see Amanda playing my new bass. Wow, she makes it look great, even if Arnie got in on the photobomb.
This is DJ Shaddix helping us keep the dance floor full tonight. We love Shaddix. He's a real DJ at the local country station here in town, a transplant from Orange County.
That big group you see over John's left shoulder is a tour group from Australia. We spoke to them earlier during out sound check. They were about to leave because they have a 4am plane to catch to continue their tour in Florida. But after hearing the band they decided to stay up all night and enjoy themselves this evening. What a fun group! The tour organizer and I spoke. He owns the tour company and he owns a venue in Australia that flies in entertainment. He asked if we'd be interested. What do you think? Chris was an affable fellow so I really think this could happen. He said, "Let's have a chat."
We had an emcee this evening announcing the band and running the bull riding contest tonight. Kirk the Urban Cowboy is kind of a goofy dude but that's what they pay him for.
And then it's on with the show!
Arnie wails on his guitar and Amanda looks fabulous in her fringed denim and cowboy hat. Bam Bam did a pretty good job tonight and only got too loud a few times.
We had lots of paid requests and a couple rounds of liquid applause, stage "presents" to help our stage "presence".
Amanda passed on her shots. But she was happy to share with the hairy legged pickers. I'm glad nobody in the band had to drive home.
Our friend Tony was in the house tonight. Hey! We've got a couple of lovely photobombers too, Melba and Amanda.
Here's Tony and the talent. I think Amanda has a little crush on this old tubby pilot.
Hey! Now it's a party! We've got Beauty and the Three Bass Players. Andy and the lovely Mrs. Andy came by after hearing another band in town. It's great to see you Andy. I hope your lesson with Frank goes well and your studio project is a success. Hopefully I'll catch you on this same stage if I get in early next time since we have adjoining nights.
This is the lovely Ms. Melba. She kept feeding the band shots of tequila tonight. The Aussie group and a group of Jed's friends kept sending up rounds. It was a heck of a party!
We were done playing at 12:30, still kind of early. So John and I went to the Breeze Bar downstairs to enjoy a couple of really nice cigars and have a nightcap.
I don't smoke (actually an ex-smoker, quit more than 20 years ago), but a couple of times a year I like to enjoy a good cigar. John has had to cut back on his cigars as well. But we're in Vegas! To pass the time I also put $20 in this machine in front of me and played Keno. I was up $2 at one point but gradually lost it all. That's why I don't gamble.
Then John and I decided we were hungry. We couldn't resist the Sad Cafe. I had another plate of protein and salad. That polska kielbasa was really good. The fish was dry.
John was a bad boy and had dessert. I exercised some will power and had no dessert. Like I needed any. I'm still not hungry even twelve hours after that meal. I might not eat at all today. I need to save room for beer.
Anyway, the show starts at 10pm tonight. There is a private event in the saloon from 3pm to 9pm. I don't know what it is but it might be live coverage of the NASCAR race, I'm just guessing. They did that for the rodeo when we played during PBR weekend. We'll see.
Well, Friday night was just about epic. I started the evening by taking a quick jaunt down the strip just to get the blood flowing and the joints loosened. Here I am out front of Gilley's/Treasure Island.
This is looking south along the Strip.
And this is looking north up the Strip.
This is my home this weekend. You cant' see my room from here. The south wing is on the left, north wing on the right, and the west wing is behind. I'm at the end of the west wing.
I actually just went next door to the CVS to pick up a few energy drinks, Bang is my current favorite. You can get to the store without leaving the hotel but I wanted some fresh air. After putting on my cowboy clothes I made my way to the saloon. The line out the door was encouraging. It's going to be a good crowd.
There was already a good crowd inside. We're going to have fun.
This young lady was nice enough to spot me a couple of Sam Adams on the band tab. I'm sorry, I've forgotten her name.
Now I feel like I'm in a honky tonk band. I got a beer in my hand and get to watch the Gilley Girls get the dance floor warmed up.
Now look who's in the house tonight! It's our friend Andrew, all the way from B.C. Canada. Andrew is in town with friends to see a metal concert and was kind enough to check out my little country band. We had a nice visit. We talked about Red Green and Leonard Cohen and all that Canadian stuff. (j/k)
It turns out that Andrew has done quite a bit of traveling. I was impressed that he's been on a road trip all the way from B.C. to Mexico, driving all across the U.S. and back. Fun stuff! Andrew and I shared stories and beers then it was time to put on the show.
Andrew had a prime spot in the audience tonight. He had front row for the bull riding and a good view of the stage.
Tonight the band really "featured" the lovely Ms. Amanda Kate. We played three songs as an opener and then got her up on stage to WOW the crowd. She was on fire tonight.
We just love Amanda and enjoy the heck out of working with her.
Jason played well tonight. We actually smiled at each other a couple of times because we were having fun.
This is an ill-timed picture of John. Something in the crowd must've caught his eye.
Hey! It's a party! Our first set felt really good. The second set started off with Arnie having pedal board issues. We never really recovered our timing and the whole set fell kind of flat. It was OK, just not our best. But then the third set we came back with a vengeance and everyone had fun.
Now you can see why Andrew enjoyed his location. The mechanical bull was pretty busy tonight.
A couple of Amanda's friends were in town tonight, Jessica and Vanessa. Jessica was with us at The Cave recently selling merch for Amanda.
Hey, look at that! Adrian, one of the Gilley Girls joins us and turns up the flash!
Amanda and Jessica were kind enough to pose with the old country bass player.
The DJ was keeping the dance floor hopping as we unplugged our guitars and headed back to our rooms at the end of the night.
It was a good Friday night. Now I'm going to grab some lunch with John and we'll do it one more time tonight. Hopefully Charles will be able to stop by for a bit this evening. We're planning to lunch together after church on Sunday. Everyone is invited to Casa Don Juan (the Henderson location) on Sunday a little after noon o'clock. They have great Mexican food. Tony? Andy? Andrew? Any takers?
OK, that's it for now. I gotta get outta this room and feel the sunshine.
I forgot to tell you, this afternoon Johnny and I decided to take a walk and have lunch somewhere other than the Sad Cafe. We went across the pedestrian bridge over Spring Mountain Road to the Fashion Show Mall. There are lots of interesting places to eat there. This is a view of Las Vegas Blvd from the pedestrian bridge. All the cars you see are headed north on Las Vegas Blvd. (the Strip).
The weather was getting pretty cloudy and threatening rain. It was also a bit chilly.
Most of the escalators in the area were not working. I was a bit worried for John climbing stairs. The elevators were still working so he was good to go. We decided to have lunch at the Ra Sushi restaurant. (I don't think Bill likes sushi, or was that kale? Sorry Bill!) We started with sake.
Even though it was a bit chilly we found a place right below a heater on the patio. The hot sake helped too. Our meal began with a Surf and Turf Roll, tempura shrimp, spicy tuna, with seared filet mignon on top. It was incredible. I love complex flavors and textures in my food.
We had a nice view of the sidewalk and were able to do some people watching. There were people to watch eventually.
My main course was a Shogun Bento Box with teriyaki chicken, tempura vegetables, a selection of sashimi, rice, and salad. It was a lot of good food at a reasonable price.
We paired it with an Asahi beer on draught. I like Asahi with my Japanese food. It's a light pilsner that doesn't get in the way of the flavors of your meal.
After lunch we took a walk through the mall to have a look around. This is one fancy, huge mall. We found a production booth on an upper level. With the lighting, sound, trusses, etc, it looks like somebody could put on quite a show here.
When we left the mall we saw that it had been raining. The sidewalks here were very slippery. This old man has to be careful not to fall down.
I just couldn't help myself. We passed by a western store in the mall, Pinto Ranch, and I found a Scully shirt that I just had to have. It's a tax deduction. I'll be stylin' on stage tonight!
Downbeat is at 10pm tonight. I've got my Bang energy drink chilled and my Wranglers ironed. I'm ready to play some country music!
I made my way down to the dance hall. We had a pretty good Saturday night at Gilley's Saloon here on the Strip in downtown Las Vegas. These guys are two of the hardest working security personnel I know. Reese and Kevin always treat me like a rock star.
Justine is usually working the door on Saturday nights. She's a sweetheart.
There was a great crowd in the joint tonight.
Jason and Johnny are ready to put on the show.
So are Arnie and Amanda. Jed will be ready as soon as he tunes.
Here we go!
Jason seems deep in thought.
John seems serious.
Amanda was fabulous tonight.
Arnie is thinking, "Hmmm, what is that bass player doing?"
The crowd was on the dance floor most of the night, except for one song. Poor Jed sang "On The Road Again" and it went over like a turd in a punch bowl.
Arnie's doing a blue Haggard song.
At the end of the night DJ Shaddix kept the folks on the dance floor while I helped Johnny pack up his gear. I'll help him load it in his car in the morning, after I get a little sleep.
We had a wonderful time this weekend. We'll be back in May for a couple of nights. I like working this room. The people here are all great to work with. Thanks for coming along with me. It'll be time to head home in the morning.
Just to tie a bow on my little trip to Vegas, here's my journey home.
John and I met downstairs to load out his gear at 9am. I'm waiting for the bellman to take my stuff down to the valet, then I'll head downstairs to the saloon where John's gear is on stage.
I tried to capture the snow-capped peaks left behind by the rain yesterday. They were more impressive in person.
I hit the ARCO on Spring Mountain Road. I sure enjoy paying a dollar per gallon less than I do at home.
Then I drive back past the Chinatown area of Las Vegas to get to the 15.
The Raider's stadium is coming along nicely.
I like to visit the church where Charles often plays on the worship team, Life Springs Christian Church.
After church we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, Casa Don Juan in Henderson near the airport. Tony joined us for good food and fellowship. Charles and I both had the milanesa. The chef really knows how to do it right here, even better than my neighborhood Mexican place.
After lunch it was time to hit the road. Here's the big thermometer at Baker. It's about 75 degrees, a pleasant day.
Then there was an accident between Baker and Barstow. It took almost an hour to get past all this. That line of cars heading south went on for miles and miles.
Then it was smooth sailing until I got to the summit of the Cajon pass. Everybody slowed for the downhill stretch.
This didn't let up until the bottom of the pass where the 215 split from the 15. After that I was home in no time. I didn't want to be busy at work today but I was swamped. There's no rest for the weary bass player.
We'll be back at Gilley's on May 22-23. I do believe Andy will be there with Dez on the 21st. I'm going to try to roll in early on Thursday night and catch their last set. That'll be fun!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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