El Monte Arceo Park 8/3/16

To all of you who are the foundation of tone, building bridges to solidify the space between rhythm and music, I bid you greetings.

The Kelly Rae Band and I played a summer concert in the park last night (Wednesday, 8/3/16) in El Monte at Arceo Park. It was a little cooler than it has been lately but it was still pretty dang warm.

We got to pull into the park and park behind the band shell to unload. I guess I could have pulled in a little closer but there was a line of cars already there, from the sound crew and other band members.

The sound crew was ready for us, were very helpful, and knew their stuff. They were all musicians too so they pretty much knew what we needed.

Here's one side of the mains. They were in the band shell with us so we heard a LOT of the house while we were playing.

Here's a shot from the FOH console. Phil Reyes (of Souvenir Entertainment - Facebook page) was our engineer. He was very professional and quick to give us what we needed in our monitors.

This was a pretty nice facility. There were dressing rooms and restrooms backstage on both sides of the structure.

Here's Rob getting Mario squared away. Mario is signing an autograph book for a nice young man named Alex.

Nick gets Art's amp mic'd up.

A picture of the generator has become standard with my summer concert posts. This time it was a pretty green one.

A local radio station was in attendance as well as a good representation of the El Monte Police Department. It was the annual "National Night Out" for law enforement, a community outreach program.

Here's the view from my mic as we start to think about beginning our sound check in a little while.

Daniel couldn't make this gig so next to Art is Paul. He's worked with the band before.

Nick gets Mario's kit mic'd up.

Jeff looks like he is all ready for sound check.

Rob is just making sure the kit is ready to go as Mario gives Phil some kick drum.

Why not? Here's a sound check selfie. Maybe one day I'll get a barbecue stain on my white t-shirt.

After sound check we had to move our vehicles out of the park. I was told we could park on the street. I parked next to this sign. I figured I'd just tell them "I'm in the band".

This is Paul's rig. He's crazy loud. He and Art had some volume wars going on today. I was glad I'm on the other side of the stage.

This was Art's rig today. Since we were outside he brought one of his bigger amps, a Deluxe reverb.

Here's my small rig and Mario's kit. Mario has more monitor than I have bass amp.

We retire to the dressing room and wait for the talent to arrive. We were furnished a tub full of water and soda. We stayed well hydrated.

Along with all the drinks, we were provided a tub full of salty snacks to munch on. Crunchy food calms the nerves.

We're still hanging out waiting for Kelly. I guess driving up from the south OC was a bear today. Lucky me, I had a quick 20 minute jaunt from work.

Our dear Kelly has arrived. We do a quick sound check with her. I'm kinda digging Kelly's cap.

I guess they'll let anybody in this joint, even a bass player.

OK, we're all sound checked and the stage is set.

Paul says "I didn't do it" and points toward Art who's trying to act innocent.

Kelly and Mario discuss an upcoming gig. There are speeches going on and we're just waiting to be announced.

While we're waiting, why not take another "beauty and the bass player" selfie?

It looks like they're just about ready to start thinking about moving on towards the end of their speeches. This is the mayor, members of the city council, and other city officials.

Since it's National Night Out the LEO representatives are introduced. We were all encouraged to hug a cop. I didn't hug anyone but I did shake a few hands.

OK, let's get this party started! It looks like Phil is ready at the FOH console.

Mario wasn't feeling his best today. He was having an issue with a tooth and can't see the dentist until Saturday. Ouch.

Kelly asks, "Would you like a lozenge?"

OK, that's better. She gives us a nice smile in front of the crowd.

Jeff was amused with the lozenge bit.

Towards the end of the show Paul also does the ever popular "Devil Went Down To Georgia".

Then these lovely ladies give away the 50/50 drawing and other raffle prizes.

Then the stage crew gets busy. They were very efficient and almost got their gear put away before we did.

Rob and Nick (and Phil, not pictured) are all stand-up guys. I enjoyed talking shop with them and they bent over backwards taking care of the band. I hope we get to work together again.

If you're the praying kind, I'd like to ask you to remember Madison, Nick's 14 year old daughter, in your prayers. She had a kidney transplant 7 years ago and her body has started to reject the transplant. The doctors caught it early and are treating her but it's going to be a rough go. Thank you for your prayers.

As I rolled my gear out to my trusty "Bob van Astro" I became worried when I saw a paper stuffed under the windshield wiper. I was relieved when I found this.

It seems the coordinators were kind enough to mark our vehicles in the no parking zone so that the LEOs knew we were supposed to be there.

All in all, it was a fun night and I was home before 10pm. This weekend we're at The Ranch and Saturday most of us (the KRB Quartet) have a double with the Sawdust Festival being our early gig. Thanks for looking!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Smith at Fairbanks Ranch (Rancho Santa Fe) 7/30/16

Greetings and Salutations!

Last night (Saturday) I had the pleasure of subbing in with some friends in their band, Smith, and play at the clubhouse of the Fairbanks Ranch community. It's in North San Diego County, a large gated community built around a man-made lake. It's a nice part of town.

I did not have a relaxing, pleasant commute on wide open country roads when driving to my gig. Usually I will take the 15 freeway when heading down to the San Diego area. But due to a family event at BIOLA I had to take the 5 freeway from the OC. Besides the usual sticky spots, it was jam packed practically all the way from San Onofre to Solana Beach. It tuned an 89 mile drive into a three hour ordeal.

At least I got to drive next to the Pacific. It calms the nerves, somewhat.

I got to see the Marines working out as we crawled through the Camp Pendleton area.

We had a 1:00pm call time for a 3 o'clock downbeat. The whole band arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 so we did the setup dance very quickly. We had a covered stage area behind the clubhouse on the lake.

It was a nice deck area with just about enough room for all of us.

After I unloaded and parked I snapped this picture of the front of the clubhouse.

You've met Hilary before when she and I worked with the Arnie Newman Band. She is a terrific singer. You also see Mike on guitar and Tom on the drums. I think we are doing a very quick sound check here.

Tom is a class act, very tasty and solid, a bass player's dream. We just locked in and had fun.

This is Hal on keys. He's one of these "less is more" players that always plays to the tune and doesn't overplay, although you know he could if he wanted to because he's such a monster player. 

The band usually has a utility player too but he was booked on another gig so they went as a five piece. Another note of interest is that Mike took this gig knowing that he would have to use three subs in his band (drummer, bass, singer). That's kind of a scary proposition but everyone did their homework and there were very few clams. I love it when good players let me hang out with them.

This is Anthony, our sound man for today. He brought out a nice little QSC rig which sounded good.
 

This is Anthony's little Mackie mixer and tablet. All the speakers and monitors were powered.

After our first set it was time to belly up to the buffet. It was quite a spread.
 

The band got to hang out in the cool clubhouse while we supped.

I helped myself to the BBQ beef sliders, brisket, beans, cole slaw, and mac-n-cheese. I did not sample the hot dogs or BBQ chicken but it looked great too.

Then we were back for another set of music, after Tom and Mike take some selfies.

Anthony hung out on a bench in the shade to run sound out front on his tablet.

Right in front of us was the bar. They had a nice IPA which the band enjoyed very much.

Mike brought out his Dan Electro baritone guitar for a couple of tunes. It sounded killer.
 

Here's Hilary sounding fabulous doing Miranda, Jo dee Messina, Dixie Chicks, or whoever. Mike gets serious with his Tele.

I didn't take a picture of Mike's Top Hat amp. Maybe it's in one of the other pictures. It's a nice sounding little amp, and he's a great player and singer.

Here are a couple of my bass necks looking out over the kids' obstacle course set up next to the lake. The event was very kid-friendly.

There was a bouncy house, pony rides, and a mechanical bull.

I thought about taking a ride but I didn't want to hurt myself at the gig.

Like I've been doing lately, I brought my little rig. Hal uses a couple of wedge speakers and a Crown power amp in a small rack under his stool.

These little QSC 10" speakers are the bomb.
 

NOT a kid, this is our hostess, Ashley, making sure we were fed, well hydrated, and otherwise taken care of.

From the back stairs of the clubhouse, here's a shot of the stage area. The cloud cover moved in just when it would have been very warm in the sunshine. It was a very pleasant afternoon playing from 3-7pm.

We are just about to start the last set so I find a place to set my camera for a selfie.

For our finale at the end of the last set these two beautiful little singers sat in with the band and performed a rousing country rockin' rendition of "The Wheels On The Bus Go 'Round And 'Round". Everyone was taking pictures. It was very cute.

We quit at 7pm and did the teardown/loadout dance. Everyone had fun and our clients and guests were very pleased.
 

It took a little less than two hours to get home. Even with this gig being so far away I was home by 9:30. It was a good day. Thanks for looking!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff