El Cajon 6/24/16

We're playing a lot of summer concerts, so many that I haven't been able to post them quickly enough. But I'll try to get caught up in the next few days.

Friday, June 24th, we played at the Prescott Promenade in beautiful downtown El Cajon for their "Dinner and a Concert" series. (This just in! It seems Marty Stewart will be playing that very same stage on Oct. 7, at the end of the series. He's my hero!)

Anyway, It was quite a drive down there, a 240 mile round trip. And being a Friday the traffic was really thick at the beginning and the end of the drive.

But I arrived just at the prescribed load-in time. When you arrive early enough you can park in the lot just behind the stage to make for an easy carry.

If this looks familiar to you, we played here last year for a different event. I brought my normal rig since we had full sound.

Here's Kelly with our excellent soundman, Bill Noble.

He was using all EV gear, the mains being ELX series.

Here's Bill's nice compact Yamaha mixer.

Here's the big lunk with his gratuitous amp-selfie. Only this time I think he sat his camera on the subwoofer.

The Prescott Promenade is a nice area of downtown. There are quite a few restaurants and for this evening there were food booths/trucks and other vendors.

It's a nice covered stage but we were looking right into the sun for just about the whole show. But I remembered sunglasses this time.

Bill is getting Jeff hooked up. Jeff was so close that Bill plugged the keyboard right into the mixer, no DI, no XLR cable.

This was the band area, comfy chairs under an EZ-UP with plenty of drinks in the cooler.

Bill helps Mario get mic'd up.

Art is just all too happy to sound check.

Here's Frank, our emcee, to announce the band and get the party started.

Jeff is ready to put on the show.

So are Art, Daniel, and Kelly.

Mario seems a little stressed. But I think he's just joshing me.

You see that little drum in front of the kick drum? I've seen those before but never knew what they were for. (I don't get out much.)

It's basically a reverse speaker used as a microphone for the kick drum. They sound warm and thick as opposed to having a mic inside the kick drum that picks up the slap and click of the pedal.

I know they are usually used in conjunction with a regular kick drum mic, but Bill used this by itself and it sounded great. I learnt something new today. Maybe you can teach an old bass player new tricks.

It was a great crowd. We had lots of dancers, clappers, and folks singing along.

My dear friend and fellow musician Deanna showed up. This gal is a terrific talent and just as cute as she can be.

Daniel and I grabbed a quick picture with Deanna. She's only 4' 10" and feels like she has to stand on her tip toes when she takes a picture.

It's near the end of the evening and Frank asks the crowd if they'd like to hear one more. Of course they did!

Here's about a minute's worth of video that Deanna shared from her new phone.

And just about the time the sun went down and it started cooling off, it was time to go.

It was a good show and a fun time. I think they'll have us back. I hope so. Bill is great to work with and it's a nice stage in a beautiful part of town. Thanks for looking!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

The Ranch 5/27-28/16

Greetings!

I'm in the middle of a couple of weeks without gigs. It's OK. I need a break once in a while. But I've got one more gig to post up then I'll be all caught up. Here it is.

It's actually been three weeks since The Kelly Rae Band has played a gig together. It seems we kind of missed each other because we were having a ton of fun and got lots of compliments, from other musicians even, about how we sounded tonight. Friday was a little slow because of the holiday weekend but still a lively and fun crowd.

I set up two of my basses next to the back line.

But, alas, it was just a prop since we were all using IEMs with no amps on stage.

I didn't even plug in the amp. It was just for show.

Mario and Daniel are warming up for our quick sound check.

I almost caught the sound guy, Mark, in my amp-selfie. Instead we have to settle for me pointing toward him. Mark does not like to have his picture taken.

I was the guinea pig tonight and tried some new rechargeable batteries in my wireless IEM pack.

The "eneloop" rechargeable batteries from Panasonic really held up. After four sets the battery indicator had gone from five bars to four bars.

After sound check we retired to the green room for supper. I ate pretty light tonight and had the beet salad along with the kale salad and grilled chicken.

Then we watched the Angels beat up on the Astros.

Art, Daniel, and Kelly are ready to put on the show! Andrew did not open for us tonight

As I took my amp-selfie, Heather surprised me with a terrific photobomb!

Heather is the entertainment manager. Here she is with Kelly.

Heather announced the band tonight since Andrew was not in the house.

Megan was the birthday girl tonight. She brought a bunch of friends to celebrate. I got a birthday two-step.

This is Megan's friend Rebecca. I like two-stepping with her too.

Here's the band playing some kind of line dance to "Timber". It's going down!

Our friend Kellye Huff was in the house tonight. She sat in for a couple of tunes. Here she is with Heather and a couple of Kelly's friends.

We didn't have to sound check Saturday night so I ordered supper as soon as I got there. I had the seared Ahi tuna and a kale salad with grilled chicken.

Then we watched the Angels and Astros again. Jeff is a huge Angels fan. Too bad they lost tonight.

Soon it was time to get on the stage and put on the show. It seems we're a little confused here.

Heather announced us again. Here she is with Art, Daniel, and Kelly.

Mario says, "No, no, no, no, you mustn't take my picture."

Art's girlfriend, Lori, came by tonight. Here's Art with Lori and Heather.

Daniel really WOWs the room with "Devil Went Down To Georgia".

There were a couple of ladies who were ten-stepping and playing air fiddle. It was very cute. Daniel got a kick out of them.

We had a pretty good crowd all night, not bad for a holiday weekend when everyone usually heads out of town.

But the night eventually came to an end and I had to pack up my basses and go home to post a gig blog.

If you're ever in Southern California, perhaps near Disneyland, I'm sure you would really enjoy a night at The Ranch. The food is great in the saloon and there's also an upscale restaurant right next door if you'd like to have a fancy sit-down meal before you go dancing. The Ranch Saloon is a fabulous live music venue.

My next gig will be with The Arnie Newman Band playing the first show with his "Big City" tribute to Merle Haggard. Here's the flyer with more information. Thanks for looking!

Thank you for your indulgence,


BassCliff