Day 10: Solana Beach
Welcome
Yesterday we drove down the west coast to Solana Beach for our first show with Rosie Tucker.
It was another spotless summer morning that we awoke to in our hotel in Del Mar. The previous evening when we checked in I had spotted the New Zealand flag flying above our balcony and assumed it was hoisted in our honour. Seeing it now in daylight I was disappointed to spot that the flag was Australian.
I breakfasted on the remains of a huge Al Pastor taco leftover from dinner and re-heated in the microwave.
Tristan and I had one task for the morning and it was to get a US Social Security card. We headed to a Social Security Administration office on the outskirts of San Diego and after a half hour in the waiting room we each completed an interview that focused around the first time we entered the United States, and the reason for said entry. Both of us passed with flying colours and moved onto the next phase which comprised of singing the national anthem from memory, reciting the names of seven presidents (including middle names), and ranking the rights in the Bill of Rights.
Our successful morning was soon to be followed by a successful afternoon as we rolled back to the hotel to pick up the rest of the band and arrived for load-in right on schedule. The venue was called Belly Up Tavern and was set in an old building where everything was made of wood and felt very high quality; try and imagine the way they don’t make things anymore. Hanging directly above the bar was an inflatable Great White Shark with glowing red eyes that patiently watched while we hung our inflatable birds at the other end of the room.
First show of the run is always a long day. There was a huge amount of merch to be sorted and counted and sound equipment to be set up and tested. Luckily we have some real talent in our crew and the pre-show was completed on schedule giving us some time to relax. I walked down to Fletcher Cove to catch the last few pink rays of the setting sun.
I returned just in time to watch Rosie Tucker and was surprised to find that they hadn’t gone on yet. Then I found out that what had begun as a bad situation involving a few pops from the PA system had worsened into a full on meltdown. The two fine sound engineers in our crew were working hard for a solution and the venue engineers were on the phone to Yamaha. Meanwhile the 300 or so audience members patiently waited as components were troubleshooted and fixes were tried. In the end it was 80 minutes after the scheduled kickoff when Rosie went on to a very grateful crowd. It was well worth the wait.
Rosie and their band played a gorgeous thirty minutes of music with striking melodies and angular chord progressions augmented by energetic and dynamic band arrangements. We were grateful to Rosie for doing the hard work of getting the night underway after such a stilted start. Gabe was working frantically through our set to get the mix back to where it was in soundcheck. The solution had ended up being to use our monitor mixer for front of house sound. There was no time to lug it out to the sound desk so Gabe ended up mixing on his ipad with an almost depleted battery. It turned out to be a great show though and one of the funnest performances I can remember.
Hopefully Belly Up Tavern have everything fixed for the Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter show the next night! Good luck, Jeff!
I really want to stop posting shark content but Discovery channel wont stop broadcasting shark content and it just keeps getting better. Please enjoy this rubber pig being attacked by this shiver of Reef Sharks.
