Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Crocker Galleria

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:22 pm

I'll be playin cocktail at the following venue:
Crocker Galleria downtown San Francisco
Access is either from Sutter street or Post Street between Kearny and Grant
Date: December 12 from 11:30AM - 1:30PM
Instrumentation:
Accordion with MIDI sounds
Electric Guitar (this guy shreds)
Cocktail acoustic drums ( Matthew Medeiors)
Crocker Galleria is designed after Milan Italy's famous Galleria Vitiorio Emanuelle II fashion center. The Gallery is over 92,000 sq. feet of fashion, jewelry, specialty products and restaurants and cafes. www.crockergalleria.com

We will be playin X - mas music!! Do five, six and seven stroke rolls sound good in Jingle Bells? Load in is a bitch, therefore the old, reliable standby cocktail set. I think multipec wrote about a one time load in for his festival gig. For this one parking is blocks away in a parking garage, etc. you get the pic. If anyone is close, stop by!!!

Post by **jmettam** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:41 am

Hey Matthew,

Good luck with the gig. When I have a shlepp that's more than a couple of blocks I still bring a small hand cart for my hardware bag. As light as things are, they still get heavy and usually quite suddenly! Then things quickly become a drag...

- John

zorf · Post by **zorf** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:29 pm

Hey Matthew,
I'll try and drop by.
ho
ho
ho

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:45 pm

Hey Zorf, would love to meet you. Maybe you can give me some tips as to the best way into the galleria??

zorf · Post by **zorf** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:19 pm

I usually go through the door.

multiperc · Post by **multiperc** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:18 pm

Wish I was in SF, what a great city.

I did do a fairly comfortable one-trip load in for an outdoor gig. John's suggestion for a small handcart is a good idea. In my case, I've schlepped my stuff sometimes several blocks-worth and it's not bad. Here's what I've done: cocktail drum, side snare, cymbals and tom are all in a single beato bag. It has some nice straps and is manageable on it's own, but I bungeed it to a rather rickety luggage roller. I also bungee my large Remo djembe to the back side of the roller. At that point the roller is heavy, but balanced. I have a smallish but full bag of hardware, hand percussion, pedal, mics, and my stick bag. That has a shoulder strap and I sling that on by left side.
I do move slowly with all this stuff but have parked in lots, on the street and have dealt with street and unpleasant urban terrain just fine.

To improve on this solution, or if I had other stuff to bring, I'd get one of those roller things made for musicians (ie. keyboard players) and strap the whole mess onto that. Probably worth the dough to get one, though I've lugged my decent-sized cocktail rig with less.

Big city schlepping requires some forethought, so make it easy and try to do in one relaxed trip
.
HoHoHo, Matthew - have a great holiday gig and enjoy the cheer...and the gig! Sounds fun!

zorf · Post by **zorf** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:49 pm

Hi Matthew

Should be easy.

I'll be downtown this week and confirm the route.

Just curious, are you guys using battery amps, or are they providing AC?

Put everything on wheels for sure. The garage is about 3 long blocks.

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:18 am

Zorf, I'm sure We're getting AC, course We could use the kerosene powered amps...just kiddin. And as far as the one trip load in, I'm still not sure how I'm going to approach, I have an old hard case that will fit the drums & foot pedal (and cymbals if I want) that leaves my remote hi hat, light cymbal stand & a stool so maybe all that can go into one soft case. How are those beato bag cases?? I really don't want to buy any more stuff if I can avoid. i was thinkin maybe I can make a roll around case for cocktail drums out of a keller shell. Any ideas?? I think they make a 28 inch deep shell.

zorf · Post by **zorf** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:37 am

Matthew,

Just leave the instruments home and do your mime act.

Actually,you could buy a big baseball players team bag with wheels,
cheaper than the conga bags. These sometimes have the retractable handle and airport style wheels. Or any box regardless of what it was
originally purposed for. Think outside the box as it were.
If it doesn't come with wheels, you can just strap it on a moving
dolly. You can buy the flat roll arounds at home cheapo now.
Or an appliance dolly. Comes in handy when you have to move a fridge
up 3 flights of stairs.
If you are in S.F. with nothing to do, check out California Casters
on potrero hill. They have everything under the sun
related to moving stuff. Industrial supplier, but open to the public/retail. One of my favorite stores (ok, i'm weird)

Post by **jmettam** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:18 am

We are in a great era for welldesigned and inexpensive bags, cases, and luggage. There is so much ont he market that the prices are very competative plus design and manufacturing tecchnology have made the products so much better than in the past.

For my regular drum kit, I have slowly whittled down my hardware so that it fits into a medium sized sports bag. I use 'Totes' brand bags. Just get the heavier duty ones that are woven material with rubber coating on the inside and reinforced stiching. Usually cost $20 -$30. I went through my fist one after about 12-15 years. By that time the new ones were so much better, I won't be surprised if my current one litteraly lasts a lifetime.

- John

matthew medeiros · Post by **matthew medeiros** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:00 am

jmettam wrote:We are in a great era for welldesigned and inexpensive bags, cases, and luggage. There is so much ont he market that the prices are very competative plus design and manufacturing tecchnology have made the products so much better than in the past.

For my regular drum kit, I have slowly whittled down my hardware so that it fits into a medium sized sports bag. I use 'Totes' brand bags. Just get the heavier duty ones that are woven material with rubber coating on the inside and reinforced stiching. Usually cost $20 -$30. I went through my fist one after about 12-15 years. By that time the new ones were so much better, I won't be surprised if my current one litteraly lasts a lifetime.

- John

Thanks for the tip John. I'll check out the Totes bags. I would like a seperate set up for my cocktail set so I'm not switchin stuff back-n-forth and forgettin stuff. Not that I've ever forgotten my whole cymbal bag, or stool or foot pedal.

Post by **jmettam** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:12 am

For my Cocktail Kit I use a Totes Bike Messanger Bag for all hardware and bits and pieces. The cymbals I set on top of the drum in its bag.

- John

zorf · Post by **zorf** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:15 am

For my Cocktail Kit I use a Totes Bike Messanger Bag for all hardware and bits and pieces. The cymbals I set on top of the drum in its bag.

- John

John,
Where do you put the eyepatch?

cocktaildrum.com