Screaming Sally's Saloon 8/22/2020

 Hey, howdy, hey!

It happened! A real gig! It was a long, hot, dry day outside but it was a tonne of fun. This was the first show that our friend Nate, who owns Affordable Productions as well as Screaming Sally's, has put on since March. 

The "opener" is a newly formed band, Cross County Line, put together by Jed and Claire. They don't really have a guitar player yet so Arnie was helping them out today. You might remember Hal on the keyboards. Hal and I have worked together with Kelly Rae. It was good getting caught up with Hal. Steve on bass and Justin on drums are worship musician friends of Jed and Claire, both fine, solid players and good people.

It was an early call time, 10:30am load-in, so I backed up the truck to garage about 9:15 to load-er up. Did I tell you I "fixed" my MB500 that went out at my last gig? (Temple City, 7/1/20) That's why I brought my GK 800RB as a backup, just in case. Since we were outside I also brought the big GK Neo410.

I knew I'd have to stay hydrated so I stopped by my local Dollar Store and picked up a few energy drinks and four six-packs of bottled water. As I left the parking lot it was alreay 91º at 9:30am. Oh boy!

Even though the gig was close, only about a half hour away, I'd never seen the place. I got an early start so I could drive past it, get lost, look up the directions, turn around, and find it again.

Screaming Sally's Chicken Saloon is located on a little side road off a frontage road at the intersection of two major freeways at the south end of the Cajon pass. It's a bit inconvenient to get to. I drove past it the first time because I was looking for the big chicken on top of the roof. I found out later that it was stolen. (Really?) Here's the place as I pull right in the front.

Right next to that Saloon sign used to be a huge chicken on that roof. Who would steal such a thing? But this place has a lot of personality, like this mural on the wall.

I pulled around back to the stage area and found Arnie's equipment van. Rob had also brought his truck and trailer full of gear. Rob, Jed, Arnie, and Kevin had arrived at 8am to start setting up all the stuff.

Here's Jed and Rob showing off their handiwork. They brought out the big guns, the small arms, and all the ammo today.

I just tossed my rig up on stage and tried to stay out of the way until they were ready for me. I found a patch of shade in the seating section so I could show you the stage, dance floor, and stripper pole (the round red stage on the left).

Here's another view of the stage from the upper patio. We did not have anyone take advantage of the stripper pole today. Maybe that was a good thing?

While I waited to sound check I wandered inside the place. Just inside the patio is the pool room.

Our hosts, Nathan and his wife Amber, had a pretty good selection of taps. I'd drink three or four of those. I limited myself to two beers this afternoon, an 805 and a Shiner Bock. I hydrated mostly with water today.

Here is more of the main room. I guess you'd call the decor "mid-century roadhouse".

Our green room was quite charming.

 
I also brought out the big guns, GK Neo410, GK 800RB (backup), GK MB500. It turned out that the adapter I was using to go from Speak-On to 1/4" phono plug had failed. So I bought a real adapter cable plus a couple new adapters as backup.

Hold on, here are my two main string babes. I played the PB5 most of the day. The LB76 was used on our last "encore" set. We played an extra half hour, just 'cause. We had tips and requests for some rockin' numbers. After Amanda's show we did a "power 30", stuff like "Sweet Emotion", "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Life Is A Highway", and "Pride and Joy".

Johnny Magic Fingers looks like he's ready to sound check.

And who is this handsome old country bass player?

I just love photobombs. Claire got me pretty good.

There was a scrim covering the stage. It was still a little bit brutal in near 100º weather today.

All in all, this is a pretty good outdoor place to have something happen. It's a little rough but it has a good sized covered stage, Arnie and the crew brought out the good sound system, there were plenty of shady places to hang out, dance, enjoy the music and the beer, etc.

Here's Rob running the board. He's getting pretty good at this stuff. Normally he runs his medical manufacturing company. But he likes having fun doing this on the side.


 
Here's a rare view of Amanda Kate without makeup during her soundcheck. She's still just as cute as she can be.

 

 Yes, you see Paul on steel (and fiddle) and Daniel on fiddle too. For one of our encores we did "Devil Went Down To Georgia" with twin fiddles. One of them played the devil and the other played Johnny. It was awesomely fun.

After our sound check, Cross County Line got up to do their sound check. I took a little cell pone video of these guys I'll share later. I've also got a bit of fan video of Amanda and the ANCCB.

During their sound check I moseyed up to the outside bar and met Destiny and Brittany, a mother/daughter team of barly pop babes.

They must've noticed I was the bass player because they charged me full boat for my 805. I didn't mind.

Wow, it looks hot up on stage. Arnie did change clothes for the set. The only shorts on stage today were worn by the ladies, and the drummer.

While the opener was playing their set I wandered around, mingled, worked the room, and found some friends who came up all the way from the OC to see us. Maybe you remember Beth and Gladys from some of my other reports. That's Terri, Arnie's wife, also getting in on our selfie. I see some club members were thinking about photobombing us.

 

 

Here's the merch table, Arnie's wife Terri and their daughter were minding the store. 

 

Cross County Line playing their set of 90s Country cover music. They've had only a couple of rehearsals and sounded terrific. 

The old country bass player looks like he's been in the sun all day. I guess we're about to start our set.

 

 

Well, we're talking about starting our set. After CCL did their set, the ANB did a set as "The Hairy Legged Pickers", and then we brought Amanda up for her show after a short break.

 

 

It look like Amanda is thinking about making her way to the stage. Yay Amanda!
 

Here's our selfie just before we start Amanda's show. We learned a bunch of her new material. It's really good and we had a blast playing it.

Claire and Amanda, aren't they lovely?

Amanda had fun telling the folks about her music, her Mom, and how they used to write together.

"She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean..."

Yes! We have dancers! The crowd was not as populous as we would've liked, but the owner/promote loved the show and wants to book us back again.

 

Jason was physically distanced and wearing a mask today.

John tried to duck my picture.

 

 

 After Amanda's show we played a half hour of rockin' tunes and then packed it up. Thankfully I have is that little pile in front of the big pile. 

 

It was a short drive home and I was there just about dark. I was tired and sunburned but quite satisfied with the day I'd had. I'll got some video edited and uploaded to share. Hang on. Thanks for looking! 

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Cliff and John Drink A Beer, 7/3/20

Hi!

Mrs. BassCliff and I went to spend the evening with Johnny and Mrs. Magic Fingers on the 3rd. We made some music, BBQ'd in the back yard, and had a wonderful felloship with friends.

Johnny is really good with a grill. He plays it like a piano.

Oops! Now you know his secret ingredient!

And a good time was had by all.

A little earlier in the day, John and I got out our instruments and pointed a cell phone at us. I'd like to send out this song to all the heroes who deserve honor on this 4th of July. So many have sacrificed so much to make this country great. I'd like to honor the families of our service members and first responders for their sacrifices. I would also like to send this song out to all of you who have lost loved ones from time to time. This song has a special place in my heart because it hit the radio just at the same time my father-in-law. a thirty year Navy Veteran, was killed in a hit-and-run. We had just started to get to know each other and bond in things we had in common, his daughter (of course) and motorcycles. We both loved to ride. God bless us and God bless America!

I hope you all had a happy and safe 4th of July. Take care of each other and be kind to strangers.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Temple City, 7/1/20

My dear readers,

This past Wednesday was a lovely afternoon for a concert in the park, sans the audience and a large sound system. We played to a film crew and just a few spectators in the Temple City Park who had to stay behind the fence. This was the lovely pavilion in the park next to the town hall. Oh boy! Another gazebo gig! I've actually played on this gazebo before with the Kelly Rae Band. A couple other members of the band have played here before with other various projects.

We were scheduled to load-in at 2pm with soundcheck at 3pm for a 6pm downbeat. Johnny Magic Fingers, Jason, and I were a bit early arriving even before the sound and film crews.

There were just a few people in the park. The little playground and picnic area were closed to the public. Gov. Gruesome had just ordered everything locked down again. I'm a little surprised this event didn't get cancelled altogether.

But we were bound and determined to make some noise and have some fun. I mean, look at this lovely setting. It would have been grand under normal circumstances, even under that big soundwarp of a gazebo.

There was a nice memorial in the park. I am a red-white-and-blue patriot at heart and it brings me joy to see honor given where it's due.

I had parked on the street rather than in the parking lot by the city hall. The roll was a little shorter. The other guys pulled up to the other side of the stage to unload. I always try to park once and not move back and forth.

Here's another exciting picture of my gear after rolling it up to the stage to take in the view of Big Betsy waiting patiently on the street for me to finish my activities.

Arnie had called the organizer of this event because we were all here but there was no sign of a sound crew or film crew. Since it was not a big event both crews were minimal and it did not take them very long to set up. Plus, rather than waiting around until 6pm for downbeat we all decided to just get started as soon as soundcheck was done. But first we all had to fill out and sign these waivers from the city. We promised we were healthy and the organizer took our temperatures. Mine was 96.1ºF. Seems a little cool. I'd better have my thermostat checked.

The band is just about set up but the sound and film crew are just getting started. It was a little hard to get excited for this performance. I'm glad I brought my BANG! energy drink.

This is Walter, our FOH, and his view from the sound board. It's not a big rig today since the crew is more concerned with the video recording. There were only a couple of PA speakers on sticks, no subs, but five floor wedges with five mixes.

That's Carlos in the view from my mic. He was the sound tech on scene. Both of the sound crew were very helpful. They had to bring out power from the city hall because the power outlets in the gazebo were not working. What a hassle.

Here's Johnny Magic Mask during soundcheck. I wore my mask only when I could not physical distance from the crew.

As I was plugging my rig into the system I discovered that my direct out jack was busted. It would not hold the XLR cable. Drat. That's inconvenient. So I used the crew's DI box for my bass. When I turned on my amp it got a fault light. All it would do was fart occasionally. I tried different cables, different basses, etc, and determined that my "new" GK MB500 had developed a hardware error. So I put bass in my little 10" monitor as did everyone else who wanted to hear me. At least everyone else had 12" monitors. We all smiled and made the best of it. Amanda is always a joy to work with.

It's plugged in, but there are no electrons flowing. The amp isn't working either.

There were five cameras placed around us. Every once in a while I would look into the camera, wink, and blow a kiss. Hopefully I won't give the old ladies a fainting spell. Probably not. I've always heard that the camera adds ten pounds. Since there were five cameras on me, well....

I think we are just about to start here. Mrs. BassCliff said I must not have gotten the plaid shirt memo. I had the only Scully. I brought a plaid shirt. I was just not in a plaid mood.

I'm not sure what John is trying to communicate here, something about beer, I think.

The sound crew put cables everywhere. I guess it didn't have to look pretty. Even under the gazebo and without a bass amp, a certain drummer would not adjust to the situation. That's why Arnie covered the kick drum. But that just gives him an excuse to hit harder.

I'm ready for my close-up.

Here's the whole gang doing our best to have a good show. It was not one of my better performances. At least not very many people will see it. (Ha!)

The crew said Temple City will stream this show on their Facebook, Youtube, etc, social media outlets on the 8th of July. But the city's website says it will be released on the 15th of July. So I just don't know. Here's the link: Virtual Concert Series | Temple City, CA - Official Website

And Virtual Concert Series - The Country Club Band

It looks like the rest of the month is cancelled. I'm going to try my best to follow some friends examples and record some more music at home to share. I like doing some pickin' and grinnin'. I'm going over to Johnny's today to run some tunes. I'll probably pull out my cell phone and see what happens. Thanks for stopping by and having a look. Hang in there, my friends. Take care, be considerate, and we'll all get through this. God bless.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff