Well, here’s my first stab at trying to document and share a fun gig, a la @BassCliff.
My home town of San Luis Obispo, California (aka SLO, and home of Ernie Ball Music Man, Bartolini Pickups and Electronics, National Reso Phonic Guitars, and Demeter Amplification… ok Demeter is 20 minutes away in Templeton but close enough!) has a weekly, downtown Summer concert series that is free and open to public called Concerts in the Plaza. It’s held in the outdoor plaza of the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, built in 1772, and is usually attended by anywhere from one to three-thousand concert goers each Friday, with beer and wine and food for sale. One of my two current bands, The Tipsy Gypsies, played this series this past Friday for our third year in a row. Anyways, on to the gig!
I actually now live 20 minutes up the road from SLO, in Morro Bay, mostly due to my surfing habit. I drove over to our drummer Daryl’s house, also in Morro Bay, to pick him and his drums up around 2:30pm. Drummer Daryl and I often surf together at the beach just two blocks ahead of the intersection in this pic, and his house is two blocks to the left. It's 68 degrees and foggy here.
We got drums and bass gear all loaded up in my ’06 Rav4 and headed down Hwy 1 towards SLO. Traffic was as congested as usual for 2:30pm on a Friday around these parts, but we still managed to cover the 14-mile trek in 14 minutes. Here’s a view of said typical traffic and terrain halfway through our commute.
We arrive in SLO where it's 88 degrees and sunny, which is a typical weather difference from Morro Bay during this time of year. We got to drive through the plaza and right up to the stage. Gotta love super easy load-ins! Dustin from Bill Gaines Audio, the top local sound and lighting company, had the stage and sound system ready to go before we showed up. (Side note, I used to teach bass lessons to Bill’s son. Small town.) Two hours before down beat and people were already claiming their spots. Here’s the view from next to the sound board after we got set up but before sound check.
Forrestt making sure his 1950’s Gibson guitar and 1960’s Sears catalog Silvertone amp are still working. After all these years, they are sounding better than ever!
Daryl makes sure the drums still sound like drums while a guitar plays. They did.
I got my Shen bass with Full-Circle pickup into Peterson Strobo-Stomp Tuner into Sansamp BDDI into Aguilar TH500 into Schoreder 1210L classic cab all set up and tuned to the stage. I had some bears behind me playing in the water. I actually grew up playing/swimming in that fountain when I was a little kid myself.
Our background vocalist, Reese, warms up her mic while our lead singer, Hilary, gives her the cold shoulder. (They’re actually “besties” in real life)
Laura on Alto sax and clarinet gets her turn to sound check as more and more people try to claim their seats that will undoubtedly only provide a view of dancing peoples' butts once the show starts.
With sound check done and 50 minutes to go before downbeat, we retreat to the red green room behind the fountain that’s behind the stage. The downtown association provides us with plenty of snacks, water, and beer/wine. This gig is two hours long with no breaks, so getting sound check done early and having time to relax really helps the long set go smoothly.
The show goes on for a while before I remember I'm trying to document this for TalkBass. So I grab a quick shot of my view of the crowd about halfway through the gig. Good thing those early birds got those seats in the front row earlier!
Here’s a few other pics of the performance from the Concerts in the Plaza social media.
We got done, vacated the stage, and the crowd demanded an encore which we happily obliged. After that final song, we took this band selfie with the crowd.
While packing it up and loading out I got to watch my 5-year-old son play around the same fountain I played in when I was his age, which made the evening that much sweeter.
The sun sets as my Rav4 is loaded and ready to vacate the plaza to head back to the foggy coast with Daryl. The stage folds up in to a trailer to be towed back to storage until next Friday’s Concert in the Plaza.
Playing in this band and at this show are two of the most fun things about music for me. I love the people in the band and the music we make, and I love that other people get some enjoyment from participating in our own enjoyment.
I’m fortunate enough to be playing this Concerts in the Plaza series again in two weeks with my other group, Damon Castillo Band, which I play electric bass in. Maybe I’ll do another one of these for that show, although maybe not because everything will probably look the exact same other than the band members.
Anyways, thanks for stopping by!
Edit/Update: I got asked to post some clips, so I'm putting one here in the first post. This is the only clip I could find so far, not great quality. It's our singer Hilary's boyfriend filming us playing a song she wrote about him. I'll try to find a better clip and update if I do.
My home town of San Luis Obispo, California (aka SLO, and home of Ernie Ball Music Man, Bartolini Pickups and Electronics, National Reso Phonic Guitars, and Demeter Amplification… ok Demeter is 20 minutes away in Templeton but close enough!) has a weekly, downtown Summer concert series that is free and open to public called Concerts in the Plaza. It’s held in the outdoor plaza of the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, built in 1772, and is usually attended by anywhere from one to three-thousand concert goers each Friday, with beer and wine and food for sale. One of my two current bands, The Tipsy Gypsies, played this series this past Friday for our third year in a row. Anyways, on to the gig!
I actually now live 20 minutes up the road from SLO, in Morro Bay, mostly due to my surfing habit. I drove over to our drummer Daryl’s house, also in Morro Bay, to pick him and his drums up around 2:30pm. Drummer Daryl and I often surf together at the beach just two blocks ahead of the intersection in this pic, and his house is two blocks to the left. It's 68 degrees and foggy here.
We got drums and bass gear all loaded up in my ’06 Rav4 and headed down Hwy 1 towards SLO. Traffic was as congested as usual for 2:30pm on a Friday around these parts, but we still managed to cover the 14-mile trek in 14 minutes. Here’s a view of said typical traffic and terrain halfway through our commute.
We arrive in SLO where it's 88 degrees and sunny, which is a typical weather difference from Morro Bay during this time of year. We got to drive through the plaza and right up to the stage. Gotta love super easy load-ins! Dustin from Bill Gaines Audio, the top local sound and lighting company, had the stage and sound system ready to go before we showed up. (Side note, I used to teach bass lessons to Bill’s son. Small town.) Two hours before down beat and people were already claiming their spots. Here’s the view from next to the sound board after we got set up but before sound check.
Forrestt making sure his 1950’s Gibson guitar and 1960’s Sears catalog Silvertone amp are still working. After all these years, they are sounding better than ever!
Daryl makes sure the drums still sound like drums while a guitar plays. They did.
I got my Shen bass with Full-Circle pickup into Peterson Strobo-Stomp Tuner into Sansamp BDDI into Aguilar TH500 into Schoreder 1210L classic cab all set up and tuned to the stage. I had some bears behind me playing in the water. I actually grew up playing/swimming in that fountain when I was a little kid myself.
Our background vocalist, Reese, warms up her mic while our lead singer, Hilary, gives her the cold shoulder. (They’re actually “besties” in real life)
Laura on Alto sax and clarinet gets her turn to sound check as more and more people try to claim their seats that will undoubtedly only provide a view of dancing peoples' butts once the show starts.
With sound check done and 50 minutes to go before downbeat, we retreat to the red green room behind the fountain that’s behind the stage. The downtown association provides us with plenty of snacks, water, and beer/wine. This gig is two hours long with no breaks, so getting sound check done early and having time to relax really helps the long set go smoothly.
The show goes on for a while before I remember I'm trying to document this for TalkBass. So I grab a quick shot of my view of the crowd about halfway through the gig. Good thing those early birds got those seats in the front row earlier!
Here’s a few other pics of the performance from the Concerts in the Plaza social media.
We got done, vacated the stage, and the crowd demanded an encore which we happily obliged. After that final song, we took this band selfie with the crowd.
While packing it up and loading out I got to watch my 5-year-old son play around the same fountain I played in when I was his age, which made the evening that much sweeter.
The sun sets as my Rav4 is loaded and ready to vacate the plaza to head back to the foggy coast with Daryl. The stage folds up in to a trailer to be towed back to storage until next Friday’s Concert in the Plaza.
Playing in this band and at this show are two of the most fun things about music for me. I love the people in the band and the music we make, and I love that other people get some enjoyment from participating in our own enjoyment.
I’m fortunate enough to be playing this Concerts in the Plaza series again in two weeks with my other group, Damon Castillo Band, which I play electric bass in. Maybe I’ll do another one of these for that show, although maybe not because everything will probably look the exact same other than the band members.
Anyways, thanks for stopping by!
Edit/Update: I got asked to post some clips, so I'm putting one here in the first post. This is the only clip I could find so far, not great quality. It's our singer Hilary's boyfriend filming us playing a song she wrote about him. I'll try to find a better clip and update if I do.
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