Smack Dab playing at Sammy’s Original, Saturday, July 26, 2025, and the day after…

Our poster for our July 26, 2025 gig at Sammy's Original.  Smack Dab is Lloyd Brown, lead vocals and guitar; myself on drums; Allison Friedman on lead vocals and guitar; Marc Repaire on lead guitar and vocals and Kent Richards on bass and vocals.  We can be reached at SmackDabGroup@gmail.com.  

Sammy’s Original, 23221 Lake Center Drive, Lake Forrest, CA

 As per sammysoriginal.com, “Sammy’s Original is the only place to go for upscale bar food, craft cocktails, tap beers, live entertainment and premiere Mini Satellite Wagering.”  It is a really interesting place, combining a restaurant, bar and off-track horse wagering, “With more than 60 races a day, Sammy’s Original is Southern California’s number one venue for betting on the ponies.”  Bets can be placed from their six traditional cashier counters, or from more than a dozen self-serve kiosk style betting machines.  They also support live music, hosting a Bluegrass pub club open jam session every first and third Monday of each month, and open mic jam sessions every Wednesday, and live bands every Friday and Saturday evening, and they even pay!  Also, the hours for playing are not bad; 7PM to 10:30PM, which is much earlier than the usual dive bar gig, which usually goes from 9PM to 1AM!  (I’ve done a few of those in the past, and coming home at 2:30AM is not easy…)        

From Sammy’s Original entertainment website. 

  

As far as stages go, it is not super big, but not the smallest I played on.  We placed the front of house speaker stands on the floor below the stage.    

 

All set up on Sammy’s Original stage.  Just enough room for a five-piece band like us! 

 

 

Smack Dab getting ready for sound check at Sammy’s Original.  Myself, Allison, Marc and Kent, with Lloyd behind the camera. 

 I’ve semi-retired my little PDP New Yorker bop kit, and instead I’ve decided to use my 1990s British-made Premier XPK kit as my little club kit, which I play as a four-piece.  I bought the Premier XPK a few years back as a five-piece with a matching snare, and I played a few gigs with our Edwards Lifesciences with the little Premier.  This is a great kit, built like a tank, and perfect for clubs and restaurants, with its 10”, 12”, 14” and 20” bass drum configuration.  It is a lacquer kit; the cobalt finish is maybe not as nice as my Premier Genista kit, but nice enough for a working drummer kit, and I really like it.  I put Rims mounts on the 10” and 12”, and I used the original Premier tom mounts for the 14” floor tom, so that I can use it with legs.  I’ve dampened the bass drum with a Ebony Pinstripe on the batter side, a Remo Muff’l ring, and a big pillow, and the Pinstripes on the toms are further dampened using Remo Muff’l rings, and I also put a towel on the snare!  So now I can lay in to the kit, while still being reasonably quiet!     

 

I’ve made my little British-made 1990s Premier XPK my club kit, with a big pillow in the bass drum, and the toms dampened using Remo Muff’l rings.  Also, I put a towel on the snare, a la Ringo.  According to some of our fans, the overall sound was really good and balanced. 

 

 

Smack Dab playing at Sammy’s Original.  For your horse racing betting, the place is full of monitors, so you can follow the races…   

Here is a little snippet from the gig: 



 

At 10:30 PM, it was all over, and time to take a stage bow!  Marc, Lloyd, Allison, myself (taking a deep breath after three hours of playing) and Kent.    

 

 

Thank You!!!!!! 

 So, being the drummer and PA guy, at around 11:30 PM, with the help of the band, we were all packed up, and headed back home to San Clemente.  For this gig, I used Kathy’s four-door Jeep, and with the backseat folded down, which I packed full with drums and the PA, which just barely fit.  By using the Jeep instead of my truck, I could just park the Jeep in the garage Saturday night, and not unpack until Sunday. 

And now it is Sunday the 27th of June, 2025, and it is time to unpack and store away all the music stuff until the next gig.  I had stuffed my wife’s Jeep completely full, as you can see below:

Sunday, July 27, 2025:  Time to unpack the Jeep… 

When I bought my two-door Jeep Wrangler back in 2016, I built what I call “the snout shelf”, which is a 4’ x 8’ shelf that is high up enough so that the hood (or the snout) of the Jeep fits under the shelf.  This way, I can have more storage while also fitting the Jeep in the garage.  The snout shelf is partially attached to the drum cave, so it is kinda one unit.  When we moved from Irvine to San Clemente in 2021, I moved both the drum cave and the snout shelf, and set it up in the garage in San Clemente.    

 

This is the snout shelf!  It got a blue tarp, that is held up with hooks to hold the stuff in just in case there is a small earthquake, so the stuff don’t just fall over on to the hood and windshield of my Jeep.    

 

Loading up the shout shelf, using a ladder.  Below is some of the wood I got left over after the kitchen and bathroom remodel.  You never know when you might need to use some wood… 

 


 

Digging my way through all the stuff in the back of the Jeep…  The PA head, monitors and drums…

 

 

Finally got everything loaded on the snout shelf…  It just barely fits! 

 

 

The blue tarp is back in place, and now I can park my Jeep in the garage!  Behind the snout shelf is the drum cave.  You can see my trusted old Ryobi table saw to the left, which I used for a bunch of stuff.  Not my favorite saw, it scares me a bit, but when you need a table saw, there is no substitute…      

 

 

Finally, my wife’s Jeep Wrangler Unlimited is restored to normal, complete with the dog barrier between the front and back seat.  On Sunday afternoon, we took the dogs down to Dana Point harbor, which made it a great finish for a great weekend! 

 So, about an hour later, the Jeep was unloaded, the music equipment back on the shout shelf, and the Jeep restored to its usual configuration, which is that of a grocery getter and dog transporter!  All in all it was a great weekend, with a super fun gig on Saturday, and a two-nap Sunday, complete with a visit to the Dana Point harbor with the dogs!   Life is GOOD!!!!!  





 

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