Oktoberfest boogie

[Lazylion]

Last Saturday I went to the Oktoberfest at the local fairgrounds. It was still September, but any time is good for bratwurst and beer! A small oompah band was playing in the food and drink hall. An excellent accordian player named Heidi, drums, bass guitar, and the leader was sometimes playing a horn (flugelhorn?)like the one in the enclosed picture. They were all wearing lederhosen, except Heidi, and all 4 sang. Lots of good solid root-5-ing by the bass player, with some cool runs and fills to keep it interesting. He knew the material pretty well. I could see from my spot in the food line that he had a nice fretless Precision w/a dark natural wood finish, ashtrays still attached.

I settled down with my brats & beer to watch the band. It wasn't long before I was tapping my foot, then humming along. By the time they got to "Rosamunde", aka "Roll Out The Barrel", I was ready to sing along. I finished up the consumables and went up by the stage for a closer look. The bassist was definitely looking the part, with swept-back steel-gray hair, lederhosen and a stern expression. I guessed him to be in his 50s.

They went on break, and I stepped up to get the details on the Precision. Turned out Ernie didn't have a Bavarian accent, or any other kind of accent. The bass is an '81 P with tapewound strings, which explains how he got a good thumpy tone even though he was using a Hartke Transporter cab, 4x10 w/aluminum cones. Turns out he's a former rock player, who mostly plays standup these days. He's looking forward to retirement from his day job, so he can play all the time. Sounds good to me!

So after the conversation with Ernie, I went out to the craft booths to spend all my money! This has gotta be the earliest I've ever started my Christmas shopping.
Anybody else had an Oktoberfest experience, or planning to go?

[Lazylion]

Bump, now that we've had a weekend actually in October...