Laguna Ranch Fundraiser, 4/9/17

Hey there everybody! It's me!

Ater two weeks without a gig the KRB had a fund raiser to play for on a Sunday evening. We played at "The Ranch at Laguna Beach", a hotel with a 9-hole golf course and other amenities. The event was a fund raiser for the Laguna Beach Seniors, their annual Legacy Ball.

My evening started right after church. I had to load up and hit the freeway. I brought my small rig and added my ABG so we could do a little practicing in the green room.

It was a pleasant drive, only a little over an hour since there was little traffic on a Sunday afternoon. It's almost always a treat to drive along Pacific Coast Highway.

On the grounds guests are greeted by this big rock. To the left are the event rooms and restaurant. To the right are the hotel rooms, tennis courts, etc.

I decided to park before unloading because I found a space fairly close to the load-in spot. Parking is at a premium around here.

This is a new facility on the grounds. This new patio area and renovated restaurant were under construction the last time we played here.
 

I was pretty early today and was set up before anyone else.

Jack, running sound today, and Art were here just before I was but it takes them longer to set up.

It was a very pleasant day today, a little on the cool side with a moderate breeze coming in from the ocean. Here's a view of the stage area and patio from the balcony above.

You see Art's yellow truck. He got here early enough to snag a prime parking spot. We had to roll our gear from there all the way up the hill around the patio rather than schlep our gear up the stairs.

The venue was really strict about noise this evening. It seems there is "one guy" who lives in the canyon that gives the venue a lot of grief. They didn't want any speakers facing back toward the open end of the canyon, i.e. our monitors. We had to turn our monitors sideways. Plus, there was a decibel meter at the edge of their property. It couldn't be any louder than 60db at the edge of the hotel property. Yeah, I know. I belch louder than that. But we're talking about the volume at the property line, not the volume on stage. We didn't have any complaints about our volume this evening.

This was the logo for the event this evening.

The guests had their dinner and live auction inside the ball room. The silent auction was out on the patio with us.
 

Kelly has arrived and is very festive looking.

The lads and I run a couple of songs for sound check. One of them is a new one for us, "You Look Good" by Lady Antebellum. It's a silly pop country song that's more old school R&B than country but it's kind of fun.

Then we retire to our green room to go over some vocals and change before showtime.

We have a nice view of the 9th hole from our green room. We'll be having supper here later on our break.

It's time to get the party started!

This is the new guy, Skip, on keys. Jack is checking out Skip's new hat he just got at Boot Barn.

Here's an action shot. What is that weird looking thing? Oh, that's my face.

In between our songs the auctioneer, Zack, here in the sport coat, would say a few words, encourage the bidding on the silent auction items, and tell some corny jokes.

We played an hour set from 5:30 to 6:30. We then had a two hour break in which to have supper in the green room. Then we were scheduled to be back at 8:30 for another one hour set. Our event hostess, Lindsey, apologized for the long break. I told her, "I'm in this business for the breaks!".

Here we are bellying up to the buffet.

It was a very nice supper of BBQ chicken breasts, salad, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. I also had a nice Stone IPA to wet my whistle

After a long break we made our way back to the stage area. It was fully dark by 8:30.

The guests inside had finished their supper, some speeches, the live auction, etc, and were just a few minutes away from hitting the dance floor.

We had a small crowd of dancers join us.

Most of the guests left early, as they usually do at these kinds of affairs. We had perhaps a couple dozen people stick around for the dance set. They had a good time but we ended up quitting early anyway, done at 9:15 instead of 9:30. We all made a hasty getaway.

I helped Jack load up his PA and I was still home before 11:30. It was a pretty easy evening even with the one hour drive to and from the gig.

Next weekend I'll be in New Orleans with the True Willie Band for another private event. That should be a trip. Thanks for looking!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Valley View Casino 3/26/17

Hello friends and neighbors,

This was the first time here for the KRB so it was a bit of an adventure, new people, new room, new procedures, etc. It turned out to be a bit more fun than I had anticipated so we just might do it again. We were well-received and everyone enjoyed themselves. Other than my long drive there's really nothing to complain about. How about that?

I'd already played three services in church this Sunday morning before heading down to North San Diego County on this beautiful day. Traffic was sticky in only a few spots.

The springtime is quite lovely in So. Cal. after a wet winter. The hills are green instead of brown.

The Valley View Casino is near the town of Valley Center. After a long drive down the 15 freeway I take the exit near the Larwence Welk retirement community.
 

It's a two lane road the rest of the way. It's a very scenic drive. The hotel and casino are on a hill over looking the valley, hence the name.

I parked by the security check-in and, since I didn't have a lot to load, wheeled my stuff in to have it checked.

The security here is pretty tight but everyone is polite. They check your bags going in and going out.

I noticed that we are on the marker board as the entertainment for today. I hope we are great today.

In brought my gear in through the security check-in station and so had to wheel it through the casino to the stage area. Everyone else carpooled with Kelly and unloaded right at the back of the stage. An officer was dispatched to check out their gear too.

Hmmm, I guess the officer wanted to have a closer look at Art's pedal board. She probably thought it looked too loud.
 

We hopped up on stage to find Craig setting things up for us. Here he is unfolding the Roland V-drums.

Craig closed the curtains so we could watch the basketball game in privacy. This was such a typical "behind the bar casino gig", complete with the automatic curtain that opened at the first note of the show and closed during the last 10 seconds of the set. It was hilarious.

Daniel, Art, and Mario get situated while college guys run around dribbling and shooting. Somebody should get them a basketball and a towel.

Here's Craig at the board working his magic. I was impressed with the speed at which he got us all wired up and sound checked.
 

We all had wireless mics, wireless in-ear packs, and used iPhones to mix our own IEMs. Except for the phone screens being a little smaller than I liked (I got the manly stumps of a bass player) it was a very slick setup.

Here Craig is using an iPad and a couple of backstage speakers to get some rough levels for the mains.

It seems like the gang is enjoying the sound check.

This was all I brought in, two basses, two cables, and one guitar stand. I left the rest of my gear in the van. Next time I'll leave it at home and save me the trouble of loading it. I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Here's the little iPhone I used to set my monitor mix. The app we used was very intuitive but must've used battery like crazy. We all had to put our phones on the charger for every break. But even if the phone ran out of battery, your mix would still be there, you just couldn't change it.

Yes, we did "Sweet Caroline". If you can't do that song in a casino lounge, where are you supposed to do it?

Thankfully Craig made the basketball game go away and gave us some different backgrounds. The leaf background was not my favorite, but it changed often enough.
 

Before we started I ran out front to grab a picture of the stage, or the bar, the stage behind the bar. Sheesh.

Hey! Who's that bass playing lounge lizard in the leisure suit?

Here we are, ready for the curtain to open. We're looking forward to trying to woo the gamblers away from their one-armed bandits.

The first set went great, nobody got ill, so we decided to go down the hall to the employee cafeteria. I was pleasantly surprised. This is better than the last time we were at Gilley's in Vegas.
 

They had a pretty extensive salad bar, sandwich bar, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, etc, and on the featured menu tonight was Chinese food.

I had orange chicken, stir-fry vegetables, a couple of spring rolls, and a slice of pizza. It was all pretty good but I was really surprised at the pizza.

We came back on the next break for dessert. There was a whole cooler full of pie!

After a piece of some pretty good blueberry pie we went back to the stage and found Craig enjoying the hockey game. It looks like the Flyers were skating away with it.

I hope we don't get sucked into a black hole on the last set. We played three hour sets with a half hour break in between. It made for a pretty quick night, 5-9pm.

I didn't take any crowd shots but I stuck my phone out from behind the curtain to snap this in between sets. We didn't pack the place but did manage to get most of the tables filled with other folks standing along the back wall. It was a well-mannered but very responsive crowd.

Here's a view from one of the video poker machines at the bar, taken by one of Kelly's friends.

Here's a couple more action shots. Art and Daniel are six-string brothers having fun.

Kelly and I have a little dance while we play.

At 9pm we were done, curtain closed. After turning in our security badges and loading out, we drove by this huge neon sign.

 And here's a parting shot of the front of the casino. It's a pretty nice place for a smaller Indian gaming establishment (San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians).

I'm sure there is some significance to those sculptures of children playing in the fountain. I'm too lazy to look it up.

I've got a couple of weekends off so my next date with the KRB will be April 9. The following weekend I'll be in New Orleans with the True Willie Band. Thanks for looking! Stay tuned! 


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff