Played a couple of sets at the Lost Well last night. Actually Lance and I played a couple of sets at the Lost Well last night and the Ladies weren't even on the bill!
Lance subbed for Trey in Bigfoot Chester. We rehearsed twice (once right before the show) and had a great little set. Not surprising Lance knows what he is doing and the majority of Bigfoot tunes are simple. The only "tricky" parts are the dynamics and those are easy to figure out if your paying attention (The trick is to watch Walter, or be in the band for eighteen years, either way it's not that hard.)
Hickoids were next and it was the pretty standard ass-whipping set. The crowd was happy, drunk, sloppy and a few of them made it up on stage.
It only takes one and there were several of the usual stage crowding suspects in attendance so it was inevitable. It started when this one girl hopped up in the second or third song and within a couple of tunes she was licking Smitty's chest. Then one of two dudes started putting a foot up, like he was testing the water. A couple of tunes later he was standing on the edge of the stage and he was looking at my microphone like he needed it. Meanwhile, several times during the set the second dude would hop up in front of my mic and start yelling at it from the other side.
By the end of the night all three of them were on the stage with us and the two dudes were fighting over who go to use my microphone. I was gonna sing my part, but they needed it more than me.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
10/12/15
Dave, the dude who owned Trophies died a few months back and someone
decided it was time to have a memorial for him. It was at C-Boy's which
was Trophies but they really cleaned the place up. It's the small
things, like not having to stand in someone else's piss when your using
the bathroom, that makes the new place feel better...
The tribute had a few bands on the bill and almost no one (other than the bands and employees) in the club. Hickoids were asked to do a little set and we figured we'd do "Stop It" for the whole fifteen minute set (we've talked abut doing the one song set for a while, but it's never happened, thank the lord I don't believe in!!) We get up after Chad Holt told another racially "rough" story about the departed. We did our fifteen minute tune and started packing up, but the two or three actual crowd members wanted more so we did a couple more.
After I started hearing about how the apartment complex next door is now the "grandfathered" business so when they complain about noise from C-Boy's the are actually listened to. Huge change. At points during SXSW there would be three bands at Trophies. Two of them outside! Big loud Marshall and SVT amped bands with distortion pedals and Les Paul's. And the complex couldn't say shit.
So now you can move in to one of the big entertainment districts of Austin and legally complain about the noise... Can I start complaining about the train that passes my house? If you live under the flight path of the Austin airport and you complain enough about the jet noise will ABIA get shut down? The answer to both of these questions is obviously no. But (apparently) it's ok to bitch about the noise of a nightclub you moved next to... That's some screwed up shit.
Ten years ago there were hookers walking on the sidewalk out front and a porno theater a block away. Sometimes I wish that crap would come back. At least then the rents would go back down.
The tribute had a few bands on the bill and almost no one (other than the bands and employees) in the club. Hickoids were asked to do a little set and we figured we'd do "Stop It" for the whole fifteen minute set (we've talked abut doing the one song set for a while, but it's never happened, thank the lord I don't believe in!!) We get up after Chad Holt told another racially "rough" story about the departed. We did our fifteen minute tune and started packing up, but the two or three actual crowd members wanted more so we did a couple more.
After I started hearing about how the apartment complex next door is now the "grandfathered" business so when they complain about noise from C-Boy's the are actually listened to. Huge change. At points during SXSW there would be three bands at Trophies. Two of them outside! Big loud Marshall and SVT amped bands with distortion pedals and Les Paul's. And the complex couldn't say shit.
So now you can move in to one of the big entertainment districts of Austin and legally complain about the noise... Can I start complaining about the train that passes my house? If you live under the flight path of the Austin airport and you complain enough about the jet noise will ABIA get shut down? The answer to both of these questions is obviously no. But (apparently) it's ok to bitch about the noise of a nightclub you moved next to... That's some screwed up shit.
Ten years ago there were hookers walking on the sidewalk out front and a porno theater a block away. Sometimes I wish that crap would come back. At least then the rents would go back down.
Monday, October 12, 2015
10/9/15
There were four bands on the bill for the second Friday of the Corn
Lovers Fiesta, the show was at ABGB and we were on third. I got there as
the Surlys were going on They had a tight little set and the crowd
was way in to it. I missed the first band... work is lame... time moves
on.
Hickoids were next and our set was a dandy. We played mostly the "classic" Hickoid hits from way back before anyone other than Smitty was in the group and crowd was eating it up! Lot's of fast cow punk for people who were screaming for it. It's a symbiotic thing. I don't think I've ever seen that many people at ABGB before. And I know I've never see that many people at the front of the stage while a band I was playing in was there. Really impressive turnout.
Pong finished things up. Such a good band. They are still rocking the (mostly) one cord jam/modal tuns they've been know for. There were lots of smiling, ass shaking people enjoying a fucking great set! Pong!
Hickoids were next and our set was a dandy. We played mostly the "classic" Hickoid hits from way back before anyone other than Smitty was in the group and crowd was eating it up! Lot's of fast cow punk for people who were screaming for it. It's a symbiotic thing. I don't think I've ever seen that many people at ABGB before. And I know I've never see that many people at the front of the stage while a band I was playing in was there. Really impressive turnout.
Pong finished things up. Such a good band. They are still rocking the (mostly) one cord jam/modal tuns they've been know for. There were lots of smiling, ass shaking people enjoying a fucking great set! Pong!
Thursday, October 8, 2015
10/3/15
It was day two of the Corn Lovers Fiesta and the evenings festivities
were at the White Horse. The place was jammed with people most of the
night. At some points there was a line from the door to the street,
about fifty people deep. ACL really brings them in. Everyone loves that
corn.
There were five bands on the bill and a whole lot of ass kicking top to bottom. I'm not even gonna get in to specifics here, I was too busy having fun to pay too much attention to anything other than the set I had to play. And getting drunk, stoned and having as much of the aforementioned fun as was possible.
We went on at midnight and it was PACKED! Packed like it usually is for the Beaumonts, but this time they were looking at Hickoids. Our set was short and punchy. I had to ask for a little extra vocal when we did Driftwood. The little bit of monitor I had for the first few songs was fine, but when I really got to "sing" I need a little clarity. Picky son of a bitch...
When the Beaumonts went up the crowd thinned a little and the line at the front was down to nothing. Lance and I snuck out when those boys from Lubbock had around fifteen minutes left. We were attempting to beat the 2AM bar closing time cluster fuck that had been leaning down on us with an ever increasing pressure. Fail. It took twenty minutes of dodging drunken morons to get five miles down I-35. Yuck.
There were five bands on the bill and a whole lot of ass kicking top to bottom. I'm not even gonna get in to specifics here, I was too busy having fun to pay too much attention to anything other than the set I had to play. And getting drunk, stoned and having as much of the aforementioned fun as was possible.
We went on at midnight and it was PACKED! Packed like it usually is for the Beaumonts, but this time they were looking at Hickoids. Our set was short and punchy. I had to ask for a little extra vocal when we did Driftwood. The little bit of monitor I had for the first few songs was fine, but when I really got to "sing" I need a little clarity. Picky son of a bitch...
When the Beaumonts went up the crowd thinned a little and the line at the front was down to nothing. Lance and I snuck out when those boys from Lubbock had around fifteen minutes left. We were attempting to beat the 2AM bar closing time cluster fuck that had been leaning down on us with an ever increasing pressure. Fail. It took twenty minutes of dodging drunken morons to get five miles down I-35. Yuck.
Friday, October 2, 2015
9/26/15
Then it was Saturday and we were still in New Orleans. Well most of us
were, Cody had to jet off to play a show somewhere in Central Texas, but
the rest of us were there and so was Rowsey. And the folks over at
Siberia casually mentioned that their happy hour band canceled on them.
I just happened to have my Les Paul and Tom had his Bass. By some
miracle of chance (i.e. planning) all of us had our Swishbuckling gear,
so we strapped it on for one more round of pirate rock.
The crowd was thin, but since we finalized the the show a couple of hours before it happened you can't expect a huge turnout. It's a little bittersweet, we probably played the best show of the year (for the 'bucklers) to ten people. You could tell that we all knew the songs better and the confidence level was high. Smooth sailing would be an appropriate metaphor here, or a half assed pun...
I played through Cody's rig, a giant Marshal head on a 4X10 Orange cabinet. I went through the second input and kept the volume on one and a half. When it went to two it was way too much. His rig has no tremolo (I've come to rely on it) so I had to screw around with my delay pedal to try to mimic the sound the best I could. I eventually got something decent but I couldn't help thinking I sounded a little like The Edge...
After the set we packed up the Freak Van started the drive back home. We really got on the road around 11PM after a dinner at America's shittiest diner and we made it to my place around 7AM. Not a bad little drive.
The crowd was thin, but since we finalized the the show a couple of hours before it happened you can't expect a huge turnout. It's a little bittersweet, we probably played the best show of the year (for the 'bucklers) to ten people. You could tell that we all knew the songs better and the confidence level was high. Smooth sailing would be an appropriate metaphor here, or a half assed pun...
I played through Cody's rig, a giant Marshal head on a 4X10 Orange cabinet. I went through the second input and kept the volume on one and a half. When it went to two it was way too much. His rig has no tremolo (I've come to rely on it) so I had to screw around with my delay pedal to try to mimic the sound the best I could. I eventually got something decent but I couldn't help thinking I sounded a little like The Edge...
After the set we packed up the Freak Van started the drive back home. We really got on the road around 11PM after a dinner at America's shittiest diner and we made it to my place around 7AM. Not a bad little drive.
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