Day 3: Monte Carlo – Las Vegas
When the alarm went off, about two minutes after my head hit the pillow, I wondered if a sound check was really necessary for the show tonight. We were playing at the Monte Carlo in the Brew Pub. This place is pretty large and has a very nice stage and a pretty big sound system. The catch here was that the place only used in-ear monitors. In-ear monitors for those of you who don’t know are earphones that the musicians where inside their ears which has all the sound they are making on stage transmitted back to them so they can hear what they are doing. Usually, a band will have a set of monitor speakers on the stage pointing back at them. In-ears eliminate the need to have monitors on stage, and cuts the over all sound coming from the stage. And in theory they are better because each musician can get their own mix of whatever they want to hear in their ears. The in-ears are also wireless so you can go wherever you want on the stage, but the mix in your ears will never change, unlike monitors where as soon as you walkaway from your monitor the sound changes. Really nice in-ear monitors are usually what most big acts use. Since our only experience with in-ears has been the simple cheap in-ear system that we have, we were a little worried about how this would go. And, so there was every reason to get our of bed and get to our soundcheck, otherwise we would be courting disaster for the show that night.
So at about 8:30 we rolled up to the Monte Carlo, pulled Katherine and Trailer through the valets at the front of the hotel and started to unload our gear earlier than ever before. Our sound guys Keith and Matt met us in the Brew Pub. They were very professional guys, complete with Monte Carlo uniforms and nametags. We were set up by 9:15 and proceeded to take the next hour and a half to soundcheck everything. It’s sounds like a long time, but these guys were very methodical. They went through every piece of Boody’s drumkit and then went to each of us one by one to see if we wanted more of each piece in our ears. Ideally, when it’s all done you feel like you are listening to a cd when your in-ears are mixed properly. In the end, we had everything dialed in the way we liked it. We were told to be back by 9 for a 9:30 start time.
After the soundcheck we headed back to Dawn’s house. Boody, Genj, and The Kid, decided to go get some more sleep. Cuz’n Steve and I decided to find some breakfast. We found an IHOP and grabbed some food. The original plan was to head back to Dawn’s and get some sleep after breakfast, but we remembered that Genji wanted to find a Guitar Center to grab some extra strings, and since we were out anyway, Steve and I decided to look for a music store. Since we had the GPS system, I didn’t think it would be a big deal to find some place. And we were hoping to find some small shop to give them our business instead of going to the Evil Empire for strings. I plugged in music store and got two different places about a half a mile from IHOP. But, apparently both of those places didn’t exist anymore. So this time I put in “guitar”, it gave me two guitar centers and another place called Guitar Works. I figured, well, Guitar Works sounded like a local type of shop so we would follow GPS to that one as well. This time it took us on a 10 mile trek out to what I think was Henderson. And when we got there, again, the place was not there. This was starting to become a little annoying. Not to mention the fact that the pancakes from breakfast were starting to kick in, and combined with the three hours of sleep the night before, I was in dire need of a nap.
We finally gave in and decided to go find the Evil Empire to get Genj some guitar strings. I was familiar with the location of the Vegas Guitar Center because I used to make an annual pilgrimage to Vegas with some friends of mine in Phoenix. We used to go for the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament every year since 1999. And every year we would take the Tropicana exit off of the freeway and go right past the Guitar Center. I would vow every year that if I did well at the tables that weekend we would be stopping at the GC on the way out of town to drop my winnings on a new guitar. Unfortunately, I had never seen the inside of the place, but at least I knew where it was.
Cuz’n Steve and I headed out of what I think was Henderson and drove back towards Vegas. I got off on the Tropicana exit and figured we would soon be at the Empire. Well, apparently I was never meant to see the inside of that place because once we found it, it too had been closed! Unbelieveable. We had now spent the better part of two hours looking for a damn music store that had freakin guitar strings. I remembered that there was also a Sam Ash music store somewhere in town, so I plugged that into Tom Tom and we finally arrived at the place about 15 minutes later. We grabbed some strings for Genj, some sticks for Boody, a couple of other supplies for me, and headed back to Dawn’s.
I think we rolled up to Dawn’s place sometime around 3pm. We had to be back to the Monte Carlo at about 9, and I had heard that Dawn was planning a barbeque for us before the show, so I figured I had a few hours of sleep I could get in before the night got started. So I’ve just spent the last three hours driving around with Cuz’n Steve looking for a music store, I’m on three hours sleep, and I’m tired. But I settle into a really comfortable bed in one of Dawn’s guest rooms and I’m well on my way to a pleasant unconsciousness.
After about 2 hours of sleep, I awoke to the pleasant aroma of barbeque. I got ready for the show and headed downstairs to find our hosts have prepared burgers and barbeque chicken along with a number of other side dishes. Quite the feast. Lindsey and Selena, friends of Dawn’s and ours, had also come over, and we proceeded to start the pre-show party.
At about 8:30 we all loaded up into various cars and made our way towards the strip. Ironically, just off of I-15, as you are headed into the strip area, of the side of the road, is probably the largest Guitar Center I have ever seen. I didn’t see it the night before because I was sleeping when we got to Vegas, but there it was, mocking me as we drove by.
We parked Katherine near where we had dropped the trailer earlier that morning, and headed inside. As we were walking up to the venue, we were pleased to see that the Monte Carlo had advertised the show for the night on large displays leading up to the Brew Pub, complete with one of our latest band photos. As we walked up we were met by the promoter for the show, Michael Soli. We have worked with Soli for a couple of years now as our main promoter in Vegas and his company is really starting to take off which is great to see. Soli always gets us great venues in Vegas and has been a great supporter of the band. We went inside and prepared for the show.
Our soundguy Keith told us that once the hockey game that was being shown on most of the screens in the place was over, we would be starting. It looked like we would go right on time. We were also met in the Brew Pub by three of our fans from Phoenix. They had traveled all the way to Morgan Hill last January to see our show at Sobrato Arts Center, and this time made the trek from Phoenix just to see us again. Samantha, Lisa, and Christina, if you are reading this, you are awesome, and we hope to see you all at the last tour stop in Tempe at the end of next week. There others too that we were not expecting to see. Perhaps the coolest thing was that a couple came up to Genji, and told him that they had seen us, just by chance, for the first time, in the spring of 2006, when we played Vegas for the very first time. Since that time, they have had some kids and had other things happen that have prevented them from seeing us again at any of our numerous other Vegas shows, but they have continued to be fans of the band. Well they marked this night on their calendars and came out to see us once again.
We got on stage as the hockey game was ending and readied ourselves with our in-ear monitors. A few minutes later, we get a voice in our ears telling us that they will be raising the screen in front of the stage, announcing us, and then we are supposed to start. And sure enough, the screen started to go up, these crazy stage lights started spinning around, and the announcer says in your typical announcer voice….”LLLLLLLadies and Gentlemen, the Monte Carlo Brew Pub Music Series is pleased to welcome to the stage tonight… FourPLayFree…”
Frankly, I didn’t even notice the guy had made a mistake until after the first set when he came up to apologize. We were playing two sets this night each lasting about 45 minutes. We started with Done, and then went into Introductions. I don’t remember everything about the set, but I know we played our new song Not Now Not Ever, and Deeper in the first set.
It turned out that even though the first set went pretty well, Boody had actually played just about all of the set completely unable to hear anything other than himself. Apparently, his in-ear buds just stopped working. Since there were no regular floor monitors, and since his kit was behind a plexiglass shield, he could hear nothing except himself the entire time. The set was a real bummer for him. Cameron had similar issues not being able to hear very well. Steve, Genji and myself actually had really good sound in our in-ears. They tried to fix the issue with Boody’s in-ears at the break, but apparently it only worked marginally.
The second set we decided to open with Before You Go. This was essentially the first time we had played it since our rehearsal a couple days before, after not having it in the line up for about a year. And it went surprisingly well. This probably wouldn’t have been played except that Lindsey requested it. I guess Boody’s ears were better in the second set, but apparently not much better.
It ended up being a pretty cool gig for us despite the issues with the in-ears. That’s just something you have to get used to so we will be back there soon. In fact, while I am writing this we found out a couple days ago that we have already been booked back there again on June 5th. We will be playing Vegas June 4th at the House of Blues and then on the 5th back at the Monte Carlo.
After the show we loaded up our stuff and all headed back to Dawn’s house. We spent the night hanging out, having a few drinks, listening to some great music and watching Dawn show us how to use the stripper pole she has in her living room. (Relax she was fully clothed at the time). We introduced Dawn to a musician we have shared the stage with Jay Buchanan. If you haven’t heard of the group Buchanan you should check them/him out, incredible songwriter. One of the best single performances I’ve ever seen, and this is including every concert I have ever been to, was Jay Buchanan when he opened for us at one of our CD release parties. You really should check him out.
I stayed up too late again, I think deciding to go to bed at about 3:30, almost exactly 24 hours since we had gotten there. It’s always a good time in Vegas and we really appreciate our friends there who help us out every time. The next day we would be headed towards Taos, New Mexico, making a stop to play at the Campus Coffee Bean in Flagstaff, Arizona.