BassCliff w/ANB at Ho Chunk Casino, 7/18/21

Greetings ladies and gentlemen,

After getting off early Saturday night from Knott's Berry Farm, me and the ANB were afforded an extra hour's sleep. That's a good thing because it was a long travel day to get to our gig at the Ho Chunk Casino in Black River Falls Wisconsin. Arnie's Merle tribute, "Big City", was opening for "The Man In Black", a top rated Johnny Cash tribute.

This would be my first fly date for my new Kiesel PB5 so I had to make sure it would fit snugly in my SKB flight case with all my essentials. Check.



We met at Arnie's at 4:45am and rode together to John Wayne airport. The flight from SNA to PHX was uneventful until we checked our tickets and found that our connection flight left a half hour after we were scheduled to arrive. That's cutting it close.



As soon as we arrived in Phoenix I checked the departure board and found our flight to Minneapolis was boarding RIGHT NOW! We were at one end of Terminal A and had to go to the departure gate at the other end of Terminal B. Arnie, Paul, and I took off at a swift pace and left John and Dave to bring up the rear. Dave has a bad knee and John is just old. I figured if we got there in time we could talk them into holding the plane for just a couple more minutes. We broke into a trot as we heard our names on the public address system giving us our final boarding call. We arrived just in time and the crew was gracious enough to give the rest of the band a few more minutes. I asked the clerk at the counter about our instruments and she said the baggage usually travels faster than the passengers. OK, we will hope for the best. At least I had my trusty ukulele with me so we ran over some of our set list. I hope Merle doesn't mind his tunes done on the uke.



We were breathing a little easier now that we had made the flight to Minneapolis. The next hurdle was getting our rental car and driving to the venue two hours away. We landed, grabbed our bags and instruments, and made our way to the rental counter via tram. From the rental counter this kindly old gentleman shuttled us over to the rental yard to pick up our SUV. He was more interested in telling stories than hurrying us to our car. Bless his heart. But we finally piled into the rental and headed East. Here we are crossing the Mighty Mississippi on the Wakota Bridge. This river sure is small way up here.



Thankfully the traffic was moving along quite nicely at about ten over the speed limit. Arnie was going with the flow. We saw a lot of this as we drove across the state of Wisconsin.



We drove straight through, no time for potty breaks. We had a 7pm downbeat and the GPS said we would arrive at 6:10. Arnie shaved a few minutes off of that estimate.



I believe this was the new indoor theater venue but our show had been moved outdoors.



The other band had already sound checked, there was a huge line of folks waiting to bring in their lawn chairs. We pulled right up to the stage and unloaded our gear.



This was my backline, pretty good. I thought for a minute about playing the upright on a couple of songs.



It was 6:15pm. We had time for a quick line check, had Chris (monitors) adjust a couple things, we played half a song, and we were done. Rhonda was kind enough to give us a golf cart ride to our green room.



I had traveled in my stage clothes. Turns out I would have had just enough time to change but I didn't want to chance it. We took advantage of the hospitality.



This utility room was used for the bands' green room.



We had a nice selection of Subway sandwiches, veggie plate, soft drinks, and coffee. We all had a little snack since we hadn't eaten all day.



I also had a cookie and a brownie to "sugar up" for the show.



OK! It's time! We take the stage and Paul's pedal steel takes a dump. Drat. Once he and Arnie figured out what went wrong I helped him change the battery in his volume pedal.



While Paul puts the last two screws in his volume pedal, what a hassle, I took a couple pictures of the band. Arnie points at the old country bass player. That's Chris down there running monitors.



John is ready to tickle the ivory.



It was a friendly crowd. When I waved they waved back. They knew the words to Merle's songs better than Arnie did.



OK, one quick selfie as the FOH guy, Matt, finished up his announcements. Matt and his whole crew were top notch and really helped us pull this off.



Our forty five minute set went by in a flash. Then somebody handed me a Bud.



Sure, I drank it. It kinda hit the spot. I knew there would be better beer later.

I'll finish up the gig in the next post. Thanks for looking!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Hi,

Now that our whirlwind tour of Wisconsin was over we could relax. I tell you, if anything would've gone sideways, a plane delay, a car rental snafu, a road closure or accident, we would have been toast. But everything went smoothly and we made our very tight schedule.

We met up with Sean and Jennifer at the green room and paused for a photo op.



The Man In Black hung out back stage for a couple of minutes while the band played him on. They put on a good show, polished and relaxed.



That case for the upright is bigger than my first apartment. I wandered around the venue taking a few more pictures of "Johnny" and his band.



They had sold out the show, sold as many tickets as the theater had seats, maybe five or six hundred?



Here's the view from the FOH console. The sound out front was a little subdued, probably because of the age of the audience. It actually sounded better behind the stage.



Here's another view over the monitor guy's shoulder. "Johnny Cash" did a great job talking to the audience and relating the history and stories behind Cash's songs. Arnie needs to work on that a little bit.



Oh yeah, we get to check into the hotel and spend the night. We decided to get our rooms before trying to get over-served at the bar.



It was a nice room on the third floor, a little smaller than our rooms in Vegas.



I had a lovely view of the parking lot.



The facility was clean and fresh but not too busy on a Sunday night. They actually close at 2am.



The band got changed and proceeded to find good beer. Yay band!



That Cave Ale Potosi was a nice amber. The Spotted Cow is a local favorite. I also tried a local chocolate stout that was pretty good. I chased them down with shots of tequila. Both bands got together a swapped war stories.



Since most of the Man In Black band is from So. Cal. they promised to try to make Arnie's Birthday Jam on Sept. 1st. I hope so. It will be fun. IIRC it will be at Cowboy Country in Long Beach.

Oops, you can probably tell Johnny and I are feeling no pain and have the munchies. We found some Pringles. There was no food in this joint. The town rolls up the sidewalks at 10pm. So we had vending machine snacks again.



The next morning the band heads back to fly out of Minneapolis. I'm going to miss breakfast with the gang because my daughter is driving out to pick me up.



I'll see the hairy legged pickers back at Knott's Berry Farm on the following Saturday after I spend a week with my grandkids.



Mrs. BassCliff had flown up the day before I did. She rode with our daughter to pick me up. They made good time on the two and a half hour drive.



Then after spending a week with my two youngest grand daughters I had to get back to work. I flew home on Friday. My youngest daughter had forgotten her neck dragon. I was happy to give it a ride home with me.



I got home about 11:30pm, just in time to catch some shuteye and head back to Knott's to put on the show the next evening. Hopefully our next fly date will not be as rushed. We all enjoyed ourselves anyway. Yay band!

Next week will be busy for us. We've got a concert in the park on Wednesday, The Ranch on Friday, then back at Knott's on Saturday. Oh yeah, I have a day job too. But not for much longer! Retirement is looming. Maybe I'll pull the trigger a little early, hmmmm?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Hi,

So if we ever have a fly date to Russia, I'll stick to vodka.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff