John Hancotte's Bass Desires: Lake Rabun Reception with Sweetwater Junction

Monday, August 29, 2011

Lake Rabun Reception with Sweetwater Junction

When you're told you are playing a wedding reception at Lake Rabun, a country club image comes to mind. This time, we were simply next to the lake, in a field just off the road. Who thinks of these things? Who sees this spot and thinks that this is a good place to tie the knot and then drink, dine, and dance the night away? Actually, once the sun sets and the party is underway, it doesn't really matter where you are. With this particular venue, weather certainly was a consideration. Given the summer we've endured, this night was perfect. They lucked out. If it had rained, this non-walled tent would have been a soggy mess. As it was, we enjoyed low humidity and very few flying insects. Hey, not bad for the proximity to water, even some standing large puddles/small ponds. The stage was woefully small for the 5 of us, particularly with Walt's full-sized weighted-key piano-thing. I did what I could. My rig went on top of 2 rectangular "milk crates", borrowed from the caterers. My pedalboard went on top of Walt's rack. I stood in the back with no wiggle room. It's ok. Hey, no need for a wireless since I can't move around anyways, No room for my JBL Eon monitor either. Mark's was aimed in my direction, so I could hear vocals and keys with that. Our dances were "Free/Into the Mystic" as performed by Zac Brown Band and the old Breakfast Club '80's flashback "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds. The latter being a choreographed/lipsynced dance/play acted out by the mother as a plea to not forget her. Everybody was invited to join in so we ended up playing the whole of both songs, unusual for 1st dances. The father/daughter dance was played from an iPod. That destroys the vibe when they do that, in my opinion. Hire a band and then play pre-recorded music. Actually, I was glad I didn't have to learn that particular tune, whatever it was. We did well on the 2 for which we were responsible. We usually play Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" anyways, so that part was already worked out. Another tune thrown at us was - surprise - "Hava Nagila!" They (the bride) seemingly and suddenly wanted us to play the Horas. I had my big book of assembled charts from various sources. My old Hora chart, entitled "Jewish Dance Medley II" fit the bill. We've done this as a band before, most recently was last fall (I think) when we had a guest violinist (fiddle player?) scraping out the melody. Walt covered it admirably. I don't think Brian found his copy of the chart but he joined in after a couple of go-rounds. We did successfully increase the tempo, like any good Hora. They went up in the chairs and it really went off well. Usually we get a heads up about this particular part of the program. Lots of stuff we never got around to playing that we usually do. that was nice, actually. Our closing number? That great send off that most wedding bands end with? Of course! It was Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On"! So sentimental. They really wanted some rock at the end of the night. Love playing that one. At one point, I really had John Paul Jones' 16th-note intensive bass line down cold. I was close. He really did a lot to give them some R&B funk bottom to their bluesy folk leanings. A real "whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" band.