Wednesday, December 31, 2014

12/14/14

One day at some practice Lance asked me if I'd play with this drag queen that was coming to town. Apparently there was a benefit for the Austin Drag Fest and they brought Miss Tammy Brown out to do her Christmas show then a set of her songs. She was bringing a guitar player but needed full backup. That was me and Lance.

We had one rehearsal where we plotted through some of the worst written charts I have ever seen in my life. On most of the songs I ended up rewriting the whole thing... They were so bad it was almost amazing. We played through everything three times, shook hands and met up at the show.

They had Lav mics for the play, but the soundguy was really a DJ and he didn't have a clue how to work them. Bad sound was a theme for the night. They did the show (a pretty funny riff of Charlie Brown Christmas) and only a couple of mics worked... for a dozen people... After the play the DJ, I mean "soundguy" took off... and didn't set anything up for the music...

It took about an hour and a half to figure shit out. Tammy's guitar player, Michael didn't have anything to plug in to then there was the "regular" mic problem... Some genius had a mixer with only two inputs... and Michael had to go direct so that left one mic for Tammy, Michael and the two backup singers (Cunty and Natasha). Well planned...

You could tell Tammy was not happy with the problems. She (and Michael) flew from LA to do these two sets to a sold out crowd (Tables were $400, this was no cheap affair) and the sound was absolute shit. And there was and HOUR AND A HALF BETWEEN SETS!!!!!!!!!

By the time it all got straightened out over half of the crowd was gone. Tammy, Michael and the ladies had to play on a bar while Lance and I played over to the side and on the floor. Tammy had everyone that stuck around come right down to the front so half of the crowd had their backs to us. It was so weird.

But the best part of it all was that it worked. We played the tunes (from a combination of old/reworked charts and visual cues) amazingly well. Lance and I even made up a couple of songs on the fly. At the top of the set Tammy came over with the wireless and had me "play something that makes people shake their hips. I said "That's my specialty!" and I kicked something off that Lance and Michael jumped all over.  And at the end of the set we just kicked in to a groove that eventually became Iko Iko at Tammy's request. So much fun!

So that was it a weird and wonderful night that was loaded with problems that were overridden with a little musical greatness. Lance and I are ready for Tammy (and Michael) to come back anytime.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

11/15/14

This is way late because I didn't want to write it up. It was the last Hickoids show of the year and it was kinda boring and uneventful.

It was a benefit for KVRX so they could get a new transmitter and it was in the studio where they use to film Austin City Limits. In a place like that there are a bunch of load in/out regulations and parking permits and security checks but they had people helping us with the gear every step of the way. It's kind of annoying but everyone was nice and you could tell they were ready for a good show.

We were on first of three and the last band already had their gear on stage. By on I mean powered up... Silvertone tube amps from the early sixties that were "warming up" for three or four hours before their set. Someone has a lot of money for tubes. Or not... the bass amp was humming away and I couldn't find it's power switch to turn it off (it was "modified".) I'm doubting it made it through the night...

We did our sound check, waited around then rocked our set. There were only about fifty people when we played and in a space that big it looks like five. Most of them were in the bleachers so they were far, far away... in other words zzzzzzzz.

After the set it was get the gear off load out with lots of get here to wait for the security and/or elevator then get the truck load it up and go home.

The Hickoids are done for another year and it kinda ended with a whimper.

Boo.