John Hancotte's Bass Desires: Airmen Party in San Antonio

On Saturday, July 23rd the distinguished members of Platinum met at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to fly out to San Antonio for a gig to entertain the attendees of the 2011 Professional Airmen's Conference at the San Antonio Grand Hyatt. Our perfornace was actually held at the convention center adjacent to the hotel. This made for an odd vibe as far as gigs go. We generally perform in ballrooms or venues more conducive to live music, perhaps along the lines of restaurants or even large tents. A convention center is a massive facility geared to trade shows with roving attendees that hold exhibits and demonstrations. The place was just too big! Nonetheless, we performed well and played host to those who wanted to party and dance. The theme of this party was "Biker Night", so we were adorned with the requisit leather pants and biker oriented vests, doo-rags, and shades. Yes, I wore my western (well, who can really see what they are?) leather pants. Do they make my butt look big? No chance on this white boy! We had fun wearing something besides black on black suit 'n tie conservative threads. But, hey, we're getting ahead of the game here. Getting there was half the fun.
The day started early, like 5:45 am early! Had to be at the airport by 7:00 am or so, since the flight was at 8:55. I was carrying on my Ibenez Soundgear 6-string bass, so I had to check my luggage. Ugh. $20 per flight. I hadn't flown since that went into effect. Between that fee, the parking (at The Parking Spot), the various tips, the pricey lunch, other incidentals, it was a time intensive and somewhat expensive gig out of town. My poor wife was saddled with the boys and a rapidly developing deep cough for almost the whole weekend. Not fun for her, I know. Well, we had fun on the plane (airTran) with drinks - mine being a bloody mary, others starting their day with bourbon.

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which turned out to be a very frustrating experience. V had asked for an early check-in through the client, explaining our travel, soundcheck, show time, and need for rest and cleaning up requirements. Well, apparently, there had been a hotel staff issue and the entire hotel was way behind on cleaning the rooms for the day. We were lost. We did have a most excellent barbeque lunch along the River Walk at the nearly famous County Line. Jumbo margaritas and brisket bbq, along with very good corn and cole slaw (yes, I have finally developed a taste for this, as long as it's not too mayonnaisey) - plus, appetizers of spicy sausages (for free, thanks to Kevin). Well, it sure was hot out there in Texas! This all led to us being completely wiped out for soundcheck! Not good.

The sound crew was excellent. That said, when Gus and I had wandered over there to check out the backline roughly an hour before our scheduled soundcheck, we sensed a rough night ahead. As we were nearing the stage, one of the fellows was plugging in a large power cable. BAM! Did not sound good and I saw an arc of sparks! I think everything was ok, but it sure wasn't a good initial vibe. My rig was not the Thunderfunk with the Accugroove El Whoppo cabinet that had been requested and apparently ok'ed. This is probably a common occurrence with backline companies and I understand that exact requests cannot be realistically granted. I was given a GK head with an Eden 410 cabinet (blown tweeter, I found out later). I was afraid to plug it in just then, so we left after Gus couldn't do anymore to the smallish kit. My rig did sound very strong, louder than I usually run. Nice, but I would have liked the tweeter working. These high-end cabs have the crossover, so any top end is routed to the little horn. If that's out, it sounds a bit daff. A tweeterless cab ultimately sounds better than a horn eqipped cab with the said horn dialed out. The gig itself went fine, although the crowd was a bit thin in front of the stage. Nonetheless, they had a great time. Quite possibly the highlight of the night was a 12-year old girl sitting in with us on the Lady GaGa and Ke$ha tunes. She actually killed 'em, knowing all of the words and singing spot on key! Nice work, little lady.

After the show, we met for drinks across the street and kept the party going as we walked around the city some more. I almost got up to sing some karaoke at a bar (The Liquid Monkey), but was never called up by the dj. Anton and I snuck into the pool for a very late night dip - that super long pool on the 5th floor. I always like to squeeze a little swim in, time permitting. In a sense, this was indeed my vacation for the year. Sabina was right about my trips being little vacations. The next day, I was drained. hanging at the airport due to another inconvenience from the hotel. The shuttle could only take us at 9 am - our flight was at noon, so we waited at the tiny airport for a few hours. How fun! I had a croissandwich and a Starbucks Iced Americano. I had my Keith Richards "Life" book, so I had something to read, at least.