4/4/15

This one is way, way... way late. It couldn't be helped I went to Asia and brought Davy Jones with me.

Anyway, The Hickoids played the roller derby again. This time we played two half hour sets instead of just one and because of that there was a little bump in pay!!!

The derby takes place at a "civic center" so there is a bunch of checking with security and unloading here and parking there kind of crap you have to deal with just to get your stuff to the stage, which was the floor.  You kinda have to show up early to this type of thing.

Our first set was pretty lame. It was before the first half of the bout so the crowd was barely paying attention to us. That's how it works in the derby world, people are really only there to see chicks wailing on each other and I can't blame them one bit. The band is about fifth on the list of things people care about when they go to the roller derby.

Second set was better, around 30% of the crowd was paying attention to us, not bad. There were even a couple of roller girls up at the front and THAT is why we play these things.

When the second half of the match started up we loaded up our trucks and took off in to the night. 

3/21/15

The last day of SXSW, this one was a doozy, four shows!!


#1 Hickoids in a parking lot downtown

All of the Hickoids met up at the 04 Lounge (where sets two and three would happen later) and we hopped in the freak to make the first show. It was in a parking lot behind where Lovejoys use to be. There were two big stages set up side by side and as one was rocking the other had another band breaking down or setting up. Everything was backlined so there wasn't much to haul, but it was right in the middle of all of the SXSW mess and it was cold and raining.

Our twenty minute set was ok. The best part was when some folks with kids were watching and Smitty yelled "Kiss my pussy now!" and you could see the parent's smiles fade as the kid's perked up.


#2 Hickoids at the 04 Lounge

We freaked it back to the 04 and eventually got up and played. This set was better. We were close to the crowd and not getting wet, a huge advantage over the previous set. Also the crowd was a lot better. Being inside on a chilly, rainy day means more people IN the club.


#3 Rice Moorehead and His Ladies at the 04 Lounge

That's right, the Ladies are back! Lance is in as the newest "Lady". He doesn't cut the same figure in a dress as the gal he replaced, but he sure can whip them drums! Our set was pretty good. At this point I was kinda delirious and mildly drunk so there was no holding back. The crowd seemed to like it. There were lots of laughs when I was spewing dumb jokes and lots of rocking when we were... uh...rocking! More from the Ladies soon!


#4 Hickoids at the Mix.

Nice way to end the festival. I made the drive from the 04 Lounge. This morning I came prepared with everything I could possibly need to spend the night (including a six pack). I got some food and checked in to my hotel for the night. It felt so good getting those wet ass shoes, socks and jeans off. I sat around for a bit, smoked out and watched some Sarah Silverman on HBO (hotel!) and eventually dressed myself in dry clothes and made my way down to the Mix.

Roky Erickson was playing across the street so the neighborhood was packed, but inside the Mix was kinda dead. I got there as Trixie Trainwreck was going on. I figured I would have seen her play twenty times at this point, but this was only the second, glad I made it early!

About half way through Pony's set the Roky crowd came over and packed the place. The were eating that German rock up!

Then we were up. The place was still crowed as hell and the five of us were running on fumes, adrenaline (and a few of us were also a little bit tipsy.) What an amazing set. I can't really remember too many specifics but there was an overall vibe of "let's have the best night ever!" coming off of everyone in the room. Whatever we gave them, they gave it back and we threw it right back at them again. It was one hell of an hour.

At the end of the night there a lot of hugs and goodbyes and I made it back to the hotel cleaned myself up and drank the six pack, smoked and watched some more HBO. Nice finish to a busy ass week.