CC Blues Factory @ Moosestock '21, Escondido, CA 7/24/2021

This was our band's third gig since we formed after things started to open back up in CA. This is my first attempt at a gig report, so bear with me.

CC Blues Factory is a blues-rock band led by CC Blues; we do a mixture of covers and originals.

Moosestock '21 was a 2-day music festival put on by the Moose Lodge in Escondido, CA, about 30 miles north of where I live in San Diego and pretty close to where the band practices in San Marcos. The party went from 5 pm - 10 pm Friday night and then from noon to 10 pm Saturday. Each band got about an hour on stage, though, as expected, sets went longer than expected, setup times took longer so start times were pushed back. Fortunately a few bands were last minute cancelations so the effect was minimal. I was around for about 5 bands on Friday: all of them were great and covered a variety of music: harmonica driven Chicago style blues band, Americana mainly acoustic roots/blues, classic rock and the blues-rock of my band, CC Blues Factory.

The day started out with a simple pack: my bass, chords, strap and Bass Fly Rig in a case since they were providing a bass amp (unknown at that time so I did not know if I would like it but who can't resist taking a light load).




My wife came along so she drove us out of the neighborhood on Sixth Avenue (a bass player has to get his rest!). That is Balboa Park on the right.



After that, it was an easy highway ride: 163N to 15N until we exited onto a North County country road.





I was provided with a nice amp: an old SWR Working Man with a 15" speaker. That coupled with the Bass Fly Rig allowed me to get a sound I liked.




We were scheduled to start at 6, but were pushed back to almost 7. That was a good time slot as they started serving food at 5:30 so the crowd picked up at that time as folks ate and settled into for an evening of music and adult beverages. The evening music was well attended, there were about a 100 people during our set; not many dancers: it was a hot, bright sunny day and most of them sat in the shade until the sun went down.

I didn't get many pictures of the band in action. My wife took the photos on her phone but she focused on recording videos that I have not been able to transfer to my laptop. In lieu of that, here is a stage shot (apologies to all the drummers out there) and a link to our YouTube page with a recording of the show.





The food looked good: ribs, burgers, corn on the cob, etc. I didn't get any pictures, maybe next time.

Next up is the Orange County Fair on Friday August 13.

 

The Fly Rig does the job for me. I have never been much into pedals so I don't need to have a lot of effects available but I have always liked the Tech 21 SansAmps pedals. I just upgraded to Fly Rig v2 which has two different drive channels as well as a clean option (no mixing however). Those combined with the compressor enable me to get sounds I like. It is nice having a tuner on the board and you can't beat the portability. Chorus is decent (and simple to use) having only one knob. I have played around with the Octave Fuzz section, and can get decent sounds out of it (it took a lot of trial and error), but have not yet used it with a band.

Pre-covid I played in a band that went ampless. I used the FlyRig as my DI box, it worked well.

 

Thanks!

I am trying to find out how to get gigs next year in Balboa Park as part of their summer music series. Getting there will be a simple walk in the park, lol, as I live directly across the street.

 

It is nice to be out playing again...….I am going to try to get enough pictures for a Fair gig report.

 

Only Human ones