7/18/25, Sunset Grooves at Sand Point Country Club

Night 1 of a double header of private parties. We played the Sand Point Country Club a couple summers ago and it was a great time. Beautiful views, awesome weather, energetic crowd, delicious food and a good payday. Last night, it was much of the same, except a little cooler and breezier than expected.

There are better views, but here's what I got.

Traffic took a bit, but once I got there, I loaded in and started helping get set up. That's the worst part of these private parties, setting up the PA, lighting, mics, etc. My actual bass setup takes just a minute or two. At least I don't play drums and own the gear, so I'll gladly do what I can to help.

Partly setup.

Buddha was running sound again, dressed all in black and full of name-dropping stories. It's endearing and long-winded all at the same time. At least he makes us sound good! We got setup and grabbed some grub from the buffet line. We were originally told they'd make to-go boxes for us and deliver to us... right at downbeat. That wasn't gonna work, so we bum rushed the line (there wasn't one) and got to dining. As with last time, the food was very good and I shoulda grabbed more.

I think it's tenderloin, coconut shrimp. tuna poke and rice, pulled pork, pineapple and strawberries and some dessert bits. Very very good!

We got dressed after dinner and got to work. We were going to do an 11-song first set and then a quick break, but decided to play it by ear: if the crowd was jumpin' we were gonna keep going. Starting off, we had one dancer at the opener, which was encouraging. It continued with a few ladies up front for the first few songs, and then more people started coming up. At the set break, we decided to keep going for a few more songs, before taking a break after song 17.

The thing about playing these long sets is that after what feels like a normal set (10-12 songs), I look down and see that, nope, there are 20 songs left! It's pretty crazy. We took a quick break and then jumped back in with "The Tide is High." Dusty does a cool drum intro that reminds me of the drum break in "Everybody Wants Some" by Van Halen. It's pretty fun.

Me and Dusty

The sun started going down during this set, more and more people danced, and the wind started picking up. I got a little chilly, even my fingers getting cold. Earlier in the week, we were in the mid-90s, with the weather cooling a bit on Thursday, and then into yesterday. I at least had pants and a shirt on; some of the ladies were wearing strapless dresses or sundresses. Jen wore short shorts, so she might have been cool as well. But we are pros, are we not?

The rest of the set was pretty uneventful. I had both L1Ks in attendance, playing Goldie the whole time. There's slapping in "Somebody's Baby" and "Peg" and the Hog's thumbrest just gets in the way. Plus I have the de-tuner on Goldie and I like to do the drop-D in "Africa" and also "What a Fool Believes." We play both those songs down a step, so if it was standard tuning, I'd be OK since those Ds would be Es instead. But it works out.

the Wonder Twins

Buddha had us sounding good in our monitors and out front. Bring our own IEMs helps so much, getting them dialed was no different than playing at Jen's house. I put a camera out front and recorded. Lots of people stood in front of it, but we sounded pretty good. I played well, no major trainwrecks, but I need to dust off "My Life" a little. I think I'm too familiar with it or something; I keep getting screwing up some part of the verse, nothing a quick revisit won't fix.

At the end of the set I chatted with an old high school acquaintance of mine, Alan, who has been to a few shows for Planets and Embers. We've gotten friendly in the past few years. He was rockin the Rolex Submariner and he's a member of the SPCC so I think he's doing just fine. A woman came up and asked if I remembered her. It took me by surprise, but after Alan mentioned her name, I recognized her and we all chatted for a bit. After a while, I realized they were both definitely a bit buzzed so the convo was a little repetitive, but all in all, it was a nice chat.

We finally packed up and after about 8 hours, I got home and went to bed. Lots o fun, and we get to do it all again tonight. It might be a little cooler and we're playing an even longer set. Looking forward to it!