MBP @ Alameda 4th of July Parade

[MWaldorf]

Cool Mel, do you guys play while the float is moving?!

Absolutely the truck is moving, this is true rock and roll! Thankfully with a good driver we can stick to the rock and roll and avoid the sway and fall.

Very nicely worded there...poetic actually! Thanks for the float advice...yeah, that would be great playing Shads and Ventures on the Amsterdam Canals...on a float ...without wheels

You'd be that much closer to being a rock and roll *SURF* band - I say GO FOR IT!

[ZacJM]

What kind of generators do you guys use? I've jokingly asked friends if they though a computer back up battery like this:
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/9 ... erralID=NA
that offers a 30 min. life unplugged would do the trick as it'd be pretty cheap.
Very cool photos! My band has done two shows on a float around Christmas time in a town nearby. We do polka with accordions so they never need amps and then we got the drums so all together it was easy to do live. We just ended up playing the same song all the way down as it was in a very small town and we only moved maybe 5 blocks total. Very fun experience doing that though!

[MWaldorf]

We used a 3600 Watt generator from an equipment rental place. We got the truck, a Sterling 24 foot stakebody from East Bay Ford Truck Rental. I imagine that we could get by with less power as our total draw is about 500 Watts, but I'd rather not run close to the limit. Also, I want to make sure we've got enough current. Some generators throw breakers at 15 Amps or less, and between the four amps, reverbs, organ, piano and various pedals, we're pretty close to the limit, so it's better to have a generator with more than one circuit.

[ElTwang]

Cool! Sounded excellent too, Mel. Someone need to fill me in on that whole US parade thing?

[Sarah93003]

Cool! Sounded excellent too, Mel. Someone need to fill me in on that whole US parade thing?

It's a custom we have here. We like to take our lawn furniture and line up next to other people on both sides of the street and then we put a bunch of other people in a line so that we can watch them go by. Afterwards there is usually cheap beer, greasy hamburgers and cotton candy available. New Years and July 4th (Independence Day) are great parade days.

The other 363 days of the year we just drive on any California highway and it's just like being in a parade. We're in a very long line and we go very slowly.

[stl80]

I live in Seattle but always spend the 4th of July in a small town northeast of here. The 4 block parade consists of loaded logging trucks, fire engines, ambulances, local "floats", kids on ATV's or just walking, vintage cars, and awsome hot rods, all throwing candy to us onlookers. I wouldn't miss it.
Jim

[MWaldorf]

The Alameda parade has one of the longest routes in the country - almost 3.5 miles. Alameda has a proud history as home to a Navy Base and Air Station - the 1942 Doolittle raid on Tokyo was launched from here (Jimmy Doolittle was a hometown boy) and the USS Hornet, which picked up the Apollo 11 & 12 astronauts after splashdown, is currently a floating museum at the former base. The old air strip is sometimes used for crazy experiments on "Mythbusters" and parts of The Matrix Reloaded were filmed in one of the old hangers.

The parade has entries ranging from politicians in convertibles, cowboys on horseback, high school bands, local businesses and churches, veterans groups, to the sometimes bizarre. I think the most unusual were the Dionysian Club (celebrating the art of celebrating, they wore togas and had a Segway chariot) and PTWNITPLY - "People That Weren't in the Parade Last Year." So the full gamut from the somber to the silly.

[ElTwang]

Thanks for those parade-pointers. Sounds like good fun and a steady job for MBP.

[juan_10]

Yep I have to agree America wouldn't be what she is without parades! I was amazed by the Rose Parade in Pasadena. It seems any excuse to get out the flat beds is hard to resist . LOL
Mind you , I played on a flat bed once , after a long night on the booze, it felt like it was moving ,even though it was stationary.
The Beards in the photo .. sooo close to being secret agent camera beards.. !



" Is it a beard? Or is it a camera? No one will guess that it is both! Great for infiltrating lumber yards, Canada, and strongmen competitions."