I just finished five nights in a row playing at the Orange County fair on Sunday night and I’m still in something a fog. I woke up this morning (Tuesday) and realized that I didn’t even write my blog for the week. I figured this week I’d share some observations and lessons learned from the longest consecutive stretch of local gigs that I’ve played in a long time.
Venues like you when you are easy. See: http://www.markwein.com/the-live-performers-social-contract/ – This was an easy gig for us in some ways because we were coming back to the same stage every night and there was a professional sound company providing the PA for us with a qualified sound man (Thanks Lee!). That meant that we didn’t have to bring any PA although we did bring our QSC Touchmix digital board that is already set up with our mixes and plug it into their system. The sound guy would just take one of our iPads out into the audience, adjust the mix relative to the room and the house speakers and then go on his way. Because we are used to running our own sound and adjusting our instrument levels appropriately for any kind of room and occasion the venue manager was very happy with the fact that we weren’t so loud that they couldn’t take orders or drive people out of the place. Apparently, that is a problem with the other bands that have been playing the same gig this year. We started on time, entertained the crowd with a minimum of breaks (15-20 minutes in a three-hour block every night) and ended right at 11pm every night so that they could clear the bar and close up without the public hanging out and getting in their way. We played this gig last year just for two afternoon shifts on a Saturday and Sunday and it went well enough that they offered an entire week of the prime time slot. A big part of being invited back to a gig is just conducting yourself professionally and being easy to work with.
Parking can make or break you. We were given parking passes for each night. The drummer and bassist carpooled and had one kind of pass that allowed them to park in the “admin” parking lot and I had another kind of pass that had me parking at Orange Coast College in a vendor parking lot and taking a shuttle bus back to the fairgrounds. What I didn’t know was that they opened the lot I was assigned to the general public on the weekends and Saturday night I was not able to get a parking spot. I got to the fairgrounds two hours before downbeat (6:00pm for an 8:00pm show) like I have been all week but between some mayhem at the loading in point and the lack of parking, by 7:20 I realized that I was screwed. I opted to drive far enough away to a shopping center where I felt like I had a reasonably decent chance of not having my car towed and called an Uber. It only took three minutes to get an Uber to show up and the driver was kind enough to let me direct him through traffic since the local police had roadblocks and traffic control points up everywhere and there was complete gridlock on the routes back to the gig. It took about 10 minutes to go around the traffic but we still got stuck in gridlock and I ended up having to sprint the last half mile to the stage. The guys actually set up most of my gear for me as I was texting them my progress so I just had to run cables to my pedalboard and tune my guitar when I got there. At 7:56pm.
I was ready to play by:
And yes, I have a clock on my pedalboard. It’s nice to know what time it is when you are doing 3-4 sets a night and you need to manage your time. That is a DS Guitar Engineering Chronograph. It runs on pedalboard power supply so I never have to remember batteries.
Playing next to a Monster Truck show can be both a blessing and a curse. The foot traffic passing our venue to and from the arena next door helped fill the room. Hearing monster trucks revving up while you are playing can also sound like your amp or the PA is blowing up.
Five nights in a row in the same room can be nice to fine-tune your gear. Not to the point of distraction, but it was nice to try some different guitars and pedals in a controlled environment. I even brought my Les Paul out for the first time in a while on the last night. It was also nice to bring back a lot of older tunes that we haven’t played in a while so that we weren’t boring people with the same 30-40 songs every night.
I tried keeping track of what we were playing since we don’t use set lists but gave up after two nights. Here is night one:
Not in actual playing order.
Jim and Jack and Hank – Alan Jackson
Drift Away – Dobie Gillis?
Steal My Kisses – Ben Harper
Sugar Sweet – Muddy Waters
Beast of Burden – stones
Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffett
Is she really going out with him? – Joe Jackson
Little Sister – Elvis
Am I the only one – Dierks Bently
Every day I’ve got the Blues – B.B. King
Islands in the Sun – Weezer
Wonderwall – Oasis
The Way – Fastball
Slide – Googoo Dolls
Take it Easy – Eagles
Brandy – Looking Glass
No Matter WHat – Badfinger
Dancing in the Moonlight – King Harvest.
Big Me – Foo FIghters
All my Lovin’ – Beatles
And Your Bird Can Sing – Beatles
Can’t Always Get What You Want – stones
Train in Vain – The Clash
The Joker – Steve Miller
What I Got – Sublime
Let’s Go – The Cars
Roadhouse Blues – The Doors
Ball and Chain – Social Distortion
Billy Jean – Michael Jackson
867-5309 – Tommy Tutone
Jessies Girl – Rock Springfield
Blister in the Sun – Violent Femmes
Use Your Love – The Outfield
Summer of 69 – Bryan Adams
I want you to want me – Cheap Trick
Brick House – Commodores
The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
Stray Cat Strut – Stray Cats
Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
Sweet Home Alabama/All Summer Long – Lynyrd Skynyrd/Kid Rock
Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show.
Night two:
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
Flake – Jack Johnson
Sugar Sweet – Muddy Waters
Walk Don’t Run – The Ventures
Best Friends Girl – The Cars
Somebody’s Baby – Jackson Browne
Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
Honkey Tonk Woman – stones
Can’t Always Get What You Want – stones
Tush – ZZ Top
A Million Miles Away – The Plimsouls
Boys Don’t Cry – The Cureial
Jealous Again – Black Crowes
Melt with You – Modern English
Mustang Sally – Wilson Pickett
Hit me with your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
Hard to Handle – Back Crowes/Otis Redding
I’m a Believer – The Monkees
Maggie May – Rod Stewart
Learn to Fly – Foo Fighters
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
American Girl – Tom Petty
Are you gonna be my girl? – Jet
Keep on Rocking me – Steve Miller
Mr Brightsize – The Killers
D’Yer Maker – Led Zeppelin
Boys of Summer – Don Henley/Ataris
My Own Worst Enemy – Lit
Small Things – Blink 182
I wanna be Sedated – The Ramones
Meet Virginia – Train
Save me, San Francisco – Train
Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
I Want You Back – Jackson 5
One Way Out – Allman Bros.
Footloose – Kenny Loggins
Rock this Town – Stray Cats
Marketing works. At least at an event that has 70K+ people going through every day. The ad they ran on the big screen at the Pacific Amphitheater all week during concerts for Earth, Wind and Fire, Jefferson Starship, Supertramp, Brett Eldrege and an 80’s tribute band brought people into our gig EVERY night. Mostly people who saw our ugly mugs on the jumbotron and realized that they knew us and came by to say hi, dance and have a drink. Our constant social media-whoring also brought folks in as well. Not many people came specifically to the fair to see us, but a ton of people we knew at the fair came by the gig and made us look good to the management. I love the fact that the picture they used was from 12 years ago.
I’m so tired. Hopefully, I’ll be caught up by next week. 🙂
Just a reminder that I am on Facebook Live and YouTube every Monday night 6:30-7:30pm Pacific time talking guitar. This was last night:
