5/29/16

Gringopalooza 3 was last night at the Three Links in Deep Ellum, the former crime ridden  home of legal gambling and prostitution that has been gentrified over the last fifty years so lofts will sell to folks with money. "And it's so safe to walk around..."

There was the usual group of friends out and a few new ones. Made for a hell of a night. 

The Me-thinks had a smoke machine and a couple of them were wearing capes. They brought the rock as usual but it was amazing how cool they looked. They would be rocking along then there'd be a blast of smoke curling up from the back of the capes and it was swirling around in the lights. The smoke kept moving, the capes kept moving, fucking awesome. 

Gringos were on their shit too. And the crowd was all over it. They played tighter than any show I've seen them do in the last few years. Nice work fellas

We were on last and had a hell of a set. The place was packed and people were up front and singing along. Yeah!

We are headed to Bob's in Bend tomorrow. Then home!

5/28/16

As expected Kansas City was great. 

This little tour was put together because the Westport Roots Festival wanted us to play. We rolled up and got set up with wristbands and gift bags and hung out in the green room for a while. It smelled great when we opened the door. When we got upstairs, where the party was, it was good and smokey and it states that way all night. My people!

They fed us, they beered us and liquored us up real good. Too good! After the set I was given a fifth of Four Roses Bourbon. I'll get to that in a minute. 

Our set was at the firefly, we were second to last and we had a solid crowd that was really in to us. Lots of people jumping around like fools and singing along.... We all agreed, it made up for Tulsa.  

Back to that fifth. I didn't have a way to carry it around and I burdened Cody with my dilemma. Being the country gentleman he is he stashed it in his coat. Then he took off and we lost him for an hour. Eventually we found him well lubricated with two-thirds of the liquor left. He was missing the cap but the booze made it!

Dallas tomorrow. 

5/27/16

The drive to Tulsa was easy. No bad traffic or weather. Don't worry the show made up for it....

We were originally booked at club A but they were going out of business so we hopped on a bill at club B. But there was already a band playing there that night so our set had to be finished by 9:30. 

We loaded our crap up to the second floor, set it up so the first band could use it and by the time we went on there was a half hour left for us...

Our set was four songs. 

It's not anyone's fault. Certainly not the "late" bands or the clubs. But it still sucks doing all of that work on the second day of a five day tour to barely get to play for ten people. 

Tomorrow is Kansas City, should be better. 

5/26/16

It was a bitch of a drive getting to Little Rock. As usual the Arkansas interstate system is shaky as hell. There were a couple of spots when it was down to one lane in both directions and we spent a fair amount of time stopped. Par for the course up here. The weather was shitty as well. At a few points there were sheets of rain pounding on us. The wind and the semis weren't smoothing things out either. We survived. 

The White Water Tavern is a pretty cool joint. It's all patched together and rough around the edges. Reminds me of some of the places I played when I lived in Knoxville. Between that and the hospitality it kinda felt like home. 

Frontier Circus was first. Pretty much the same ass whipping as the last time but now they have three guitars (don't worry they still have the theremin!) Beautiful. 

Our set was a little rough. Took us a while to get going but we were running properly by the end. 

According to sources this little tour is gonna be plagued by bad weather. I keep hearing about rain, wind and tornado... 

Tulsa tomorrow. 

5/24/16

Hickoids played the Hard Luck last night. It was a birthday show for our buddy Matt Meshbane, a local sound guy and first rate ne'er-do-well. We skipped our rehearsal the night before to get paid for practice. It sorta worked.

It was a swamp in the back of the Hard Luck. With all of the rain we've had over the last couple of months and the recent reappearance of the sun we get to appreciate the humidity of New Orleans without any of the culture or food. Mosquitoes were floating around the stage like feathers. Big fuckers who were very thirsty. Jesus...

We sorta played two sets. The first one ended early when Cody's second guitar crapped out (the first one crapped out a couple of tunes earlier.) We were starting the next set when more guitar "issues" got in the way. Eventually we fired it up and did a decent job for the folks who wanted birthday party fun on a Tuesday night.

After the sweat fest we loaded up the Freak. We are headed out for five days of stupid fun! Lots of driving, bad food and van farts in our future.

5/13/16

Bigfoot was back for a night. Matt was on drums and we played my new favorite, The Hard Luck Lounge.

ST-37 was on first. I think the last time I played with them was at the Electric Lounge... 372 years ago. What a great set of rock and roll. A wall of psychedelic goodness. Lots of layers on top of swirly layers mmmm.... Three guitars and a noisemaker! Loved it.

We went up and did our thing. The set was pretty good, Matt did great considering he had one rehearsal and the rest of us have been in the band for the last twenty years... We were solid and sludgy like Bigfoot Chester should be. Playing outside helps, there was an extra layer of swampy funk on everything before we even plugged in.

Hard Luck is cool. So cool I think that...

4/29/16

I bummed another ride with Lance for this last one. It was only to San Antonio but since there was a backline we carpooled like responsible little Austinites.

The show was at San Antonio University. From what I heard it was the final for the RTF students. All I really know is we got paid before we played! Jacob was playing with Javier (who was up next) so he got up and Hickoided it for the set. Nice to have him back for the night. There was a fair amount of "reminding" going on, but he always catches up fast.

Our set was ok. At times we rocked it, but we are always a little behind reality when we play on a big stage and we need to rely on monitors. We are a club band. Someday we may get there...

Javier had a great set. There was a little bit of rain and a lot of lightning, but that added to the kick-assness! Rock and Roll in the rain is fucking great.

We were dry for the drive home and we made it back before midnight! I like easy/early gigs like this.