6/20/15

Last night the Ladies had the opening slot at ABGB. That place really has it's shit together. They feed you, give you great beer, they pay and have parking in the back so you don't have to mess around with searching for a spot down the street after you load in. Hell, they even had enough microphones to cover both drum kits and we still had four vocal mics! Shit! It almost makes you feel spoiled.

Our set was good, a little ragged at times but we were solid. The crowd was on the tame side but they were enjoying themselves, we got solid applause after every tune. It's never a huge, ruckus of a crowd, people don't really go to ABGB to raise hell.

Western Star was up next. They are from Baltimore and we played with them during ACL a few years ago, good bunch of dudes. They had a rockin set, but most of the crowd drifted off during the fist part of it, so they didn't get to play to that many people. Kinda crappy but they still whipped it.

The Casters finished things off. They played the roller derby earlier in the evening and when they showed up to the club (a little before the Ladies went on) they were already coated in sweat. By the time they went on everyone was caked in it (it's been in the high 80's with 80% humidity, it's nasty outside... I was drenched halfway into our first song and I stayed that way until I got to hop in the shower back at home.) They whipped out a "new" tune, "Fistin After Midnight", apparently it got the plug pulled on them at the Derby. But the dozen or so folks at ABGB ate it up.

Tonight the Ladies are opening for Western Star at the Mix. I love the Mix and tonight should be more of the "In your face" type of evening!

5/24/15

I rode to Dallas with Smitty and Lance. We left Austin a little after 10 AM, about six hours after Plaidstock finished. We were all running on fumes. In theory this should have been a short day, the last band on the bill for Gringopalooza was scheduled to go on at 10 and we were playing around 7. Things didn't really work out that way...

As we drove north the evidence of previous night's storm was all over the place. Every few miles there was a missing roof or a sign across the street from where it was originally located. Loads of destruction. The worse we saw was a little north of my house on I-35. A storage place had about a third of it's top floor ripped off. Walls, roof and people's boxed up houses were gone and everything that was left was an absolute mess. More than a little sobering.

Anyway, the drive was easy, and we got to Dallas early. Tubb from the Gringos booked an extra room near the club so we went there and hung out for a bit. Then things got strange.

We were playing at the Gas Monkey on an outdoor stage and it was billed as a rain or shine show. But their power transformer is located under the stage and for the last fifteen hours it was under a couple of feet of water. Rain or shine my ass.

So some Dallas folks scrambled up a new venue, Club Dada in Deep Elum, a neighborhood that was once famous for legal gambling AND legal prostitution! By the time things got moving and the Me Thinks were going on it was after our original start time. It was gonna be a late night...

We went on third, after the Grannies and before the Beaumonts. Yup, more with both of them! Poor Dumb Bastards and The Gringos (duh) were also on the bill. Lots of love from lots of friends!

About half way through the Gringos set Tom was itching to go. Smitty and Lance were staying back at the hotel so I took the first Hickoid I could home. Tom drove the first shift and got us to Waco, I slept. We stopped for gas and I coffee'd up and drove the rest of the way home. After a shower and a beer I was in bed by 5AM. It felt good sleeping in on Monday.