8/25/18

Pork Torta opened up for us last night at Hotel Congress in Tucson. Pretty great night even though we were exhausted by the eight hour drive from LA. Hotel Congress is where Dillinger got caught. it’s  a cool place and is probably the oldest building in another rapidly gentrifying downtown. 

The “Torta” had the double amp setup. A full bass and guitar rig on each side of the stage.  They set up in a line with the drummer dead in the middle. Both the guitar and bass played brown SGs and they rocked it. High energy, punchy stuff. Really fun and a lot of sound from a three piece. 

This place had a curtain that goes up at the start of the show and back down at the end.  This was perfect for our intro music. It’s a minute long and at about 45 seconds in the curtain came up. The Hickoids. Looking more professional than we ever will be. 

Marfa tomorrow. 

8/24/18

Here we go. This was the big one, LA with Pat Todd. I’ve been waiting for this show for months. 

Pat and the Outsiders are one of my favorite bands ever. No bullshit. Just straight forward rock and roll. And what a good fucking set.... they blew it away. The five of them really play as one piece and they don’t let up. Each tune backed up against the last. Bam Bam Bam. 

The crowd really ate it up. It’s the Outsiders hometown, they have that built in advantage. But they don’t cut any corners with the rock. I don’t know if they could. 

Pat does this thing (seen it more than once) where he tells the crowd three songs left, two....  At the end of the last one he even counts down the choruses, 3...2...1... It’s as if he’s saying “you only have this much time left with us. Enjoy it.”

We went up and the place was still packed. We hit them hard. Best show of the tour. My mic was right at the end of the stage and it kept falling over but two different dudes were catching it and popping it back up. Stagehands who paid cover!, I love LA!

Tucson tomorrow. 

8/23/18

Well Ventura was last night... played at a place called the Red Cove. Jackass was the lie we and they had a really nice set. I like seeing dudes like this rocking it. And it was the first upright bass I’ve seen all trip!!

We went up and hit it pretty hard. The crowd seemed to enjoy our set. When we finished up I packed up my crap , leaded it in the van and headed to the hotel. I heard what happened. They didn’t pay us...  Don’t know why and I don’t really care. The fellas went back and eventually got three-fourths of what we had guaranteed. But...

So a note me to all touring bands (and area bands that probably already know this)   Don’t play the Red Cove in Ventura. You may be wasting your time and get ripped off!

8/22/18

Last night Fang opened for us in Santa Cruz at the Blue Lagoon. It’s a joint in the strip mall section of downtown. An attempted “normalization” of the city. Bizarre that someone in the city council thought a master planned shopping area was a good move in a surf town with a boardwalk. Seems counterintuitive. 

Fang tore it up but the PA was all screwed up so you couldn’t hear the vocals at all. Not the lead or the backing...  You could kinda hear what Sam was saying between songs but even then it sounded like shit. They still whipped it.  

We went up and the crowd was still pumped after all the Fang. We gave them what they wanted. After the show I was talking to this guy who said one of the PA speakers came on when we had fifteen minutes left in our set.  He told me that was the first time he heard my vocals all night....

Ventura tomorrow. 

8/21/18

Our day off was full of driving. Left Bend around 11 am and didn’t hit San Francisco till about 10:30 that night.  And the smoke... saw a bunch of warn out firefighters at one point. Brutal job.  

Our show was at the Elbo Room. We played here with the Grannies the last time we come through. Dramatically better turnout this time. Most of the folks were there to see Sluggo’s new band REQD.  It was their first show. They did a really nice job for the first time out. Especially since it’s such an ambitious project. Two guitar, bass, drums, two back up singers, a fiddle AND a horn player. Lots of folks up there can’t be easy to keep that together. 

We kinda kicked it. The full day in SF had us all rested and feeling good. I spent my time getting lost and walking the hills. Just what I wanted. We also got to see all the Grannies, love those dudes.  

Santa Cruz tomorrow. 

8/19/18

We took off from Portland and made the drive to Bend. We’ve been rolling through smoke from the west coast fires since Boise but it got thicker than we’ve seen it on this drive. 

The openers at the Volcanic Theater were Dr Green Dreams. We saw their last two tunes when we pulled up to the donut shop the day before. This time I actually got a chance to listen to them. Good shit. I love a three piece that puts out that much sound. Sign of people who know how to rock together. 

We had a solid set for twentyish folks. They looks really happy the whole time. Really good sounding room too. Probably the best we’ve had all tour. I kinda expected that, when we set up they had a real power strip on the stage. A guaranteed improvement in sound for $30. If only more places did it. 

8/18/18

After the show at Slim’s we got some breakfast near the motel. Pulled up to a Denny’s and a load of people were outside waiting on rides. But not everyone... a couple of ladies were working the crowd and a number of other folks were tweeking, hard. 

We all took note and headed inside. Then there was this dude. He was wearing a tracksuit, backwards ball cap and he was squatting on the floor.  Then in one move he jumped up, spun around and started drumming on the bottom of a picture frame and he started laughing like a maniac.  He ran outside and disappeared. It was really surreal until Cody noticed there was a wet spot where he’d been squatting....  Slapped back to reality quick. We got back in the van and moved on.  

I slept in the freak. The motel was looking pretty methy and we would all feel better if someone took the hit. It was a noisy but uneventful night. 

...

Next morning we drove to Portland for the next two shows. First was at voodoo donut too (2?) in the parking lot. Those folks are so nice to us. And the free coffee, donuts (and secret band beer!) will keep us coming back. 

Smitty was talking about doing the one song set of “Stop it Your Killing Me”.  It’s something we’ve talked about doing on and off for a while. But while we were about to start I was looking at the forty or so faces that were so happy to see us and I just couldn’t do it to them....  I liked them happy.  

Second show was at Dante’s downtown. Surrounded by dumpy bars, strip clubs and fancy new big city, gentrifyin buildings  Portland has a ton of shit going on. We were after the Lucky 13s and they were on it. We also played after another band of Bradley’s earlier in the day. He is doubling up on killer sets. 

We went up and the crowd was decent. Hell of a time even though we were all running on fumes. At this point in he tour it’s gonna take something huge to derail us. We got nothing but momentum. 

Bend tomorrow. 

8/17/18

Back at Slim’s Last Chance in Seattle. What a great joint and the folks there are always kind and generous. And we had our best show since the first time we played there. When folks are that nice you want to give them everything you can. 

The stage is a rickety beast and it was sucking the low end out of my bass. It was twice as loud when I went up high than it was when I played in the ‘regular’ region. And my amp was putting it out, all of the clipping lights were on.  The stage was absorbing the vibrations from the box. Physics meets reality. Lance said the drum kit was bouncing all over the place the whole set.  Oh well. 

The big headliners were the Accused (AD). Never seen these guys but I loved the hell out of them.  They are hitting Austin in December and I’ll be there. Can’t wait to see them again. 

Tomorrow we double up in Portland. 

8/16/18

Victoria BC was a hell of a lot of fun. We were last of three at this pretty strange club called the V Lounge that was over a strip club and part of the same building that holds a restaurant, liquor store and our hotel for the night. 

The inside looked like it was either out of an off strip Vegas casino or an ‘80s porno set. Huge stage with fake plants and TVs behind it. So bizarre and pretty damn cool!

Out set kinda killed, most everybody there was there to see us and we gave them everything. They ate up the Canadian medley and all of our standard shit and they wanted more. 

After the show I sat in the room drinking my liquor store purchased beer until I couldn’t any more. 

Seattle tomorrow. 

8/15/18

After the show in Boise we drove all night to Vancouver. This was the longest drive of the trip so we had to hit it.  

The border took a little while to get through. Had to hang in a building while the freak was searched. They went through some of the bags and Cody’s jacket (big laugh from all of us when we saw that leave the van!) My cord bag was all over the place when I opened it for the show.  Everything was in there but they don’t pack like I do. No big deal, it only took them a few minutes to realize we are just a band out on tour.  

We played in the gaslight district at a place called Pub 340. I was told its been open since the 1890’s!!  What a cool joint. Nice and dark and it felt like we were under the building in the bowels of Vancouver. 

And what a nice crowd!! We really needed it after the last couple of shows. It gets hard playing for just the other bands. It doesn’t matter how cool they are, it’s a little demoralizing.  

We did the “Oh Canada” tribute and they loved it.  I was worried it wouldn’t work but they ate it up!!  At the end when we launched in to the Rush we’d been hinting at the whole medley, a guy in front of me started nodding like crazy and started screaming “fuck yeah!!!” They love all of that up here.  

Victoria BC tomorrow!

8/14/18

We were at the Shredder in Boise last night. Pretty cool place and easily the best openers we’ve had all tour.

Mantooth was first. Pretty sweet rock and roll with one of the most animated singers I’ve seen in a while. Totally on his game and the band was right on top of him.  

Jimmy Vegas and the Phobes were next. Basically straight forward country rock with a sweet little edge.  Fuck yeah.  

I don’t know much about the Boise music scene but if theses guys are any indication of what it’s like there they got a lot of talent in that town.  

Our set was ok. Everything was a little slow maybe because we go too much rest on our day off. Maybe because three of us got hammered the night before.  Doesn’t really matter, there were six people who weren’t in the other bands they saw us play. 600% increase over SLC!!

Vancouver tonight!

8/12/18

Well... we played Salt Lake City. It was a pretty big venue called the Metro. Really nice place with a huge stage, a real PA and a green room. 

And a crowd that consisted of one paying customer, a few folks from the other bands and the three person staff.  

We played pretty good considering. It’s kinda hard to get excited when there are a dozen people in a room that holds 800.  

That’s how it goes sometimes. Boise is next. 

8/11/18

We made it all the way to Denver and to Cody’s sisters house around 9am. She fed us, then I took a long shower and slept. Started feeling human again. 

Eventually we all woke up and headed down to check out the Streets of London Pub. Across the road is the Denver location of Voodoo Doughnuts and they had a couple boxes of love waiting for us!! And, and there was a dispensary next door... Double yes!!

The crowd was a little light but spirited. It took us a bit to get up and moving but we were hitting it pretty hard by the end. 

After we went back to the family home. Got to clean up again and get another pile of good sleep. 

SLC tomorrow.  

8/10/18

There we were, in the freak driving to New Mexico. I was sleeping just fine for a while... Until I woke up covered in sweat, feeling cold and hot at the same time. Not good. I knew what was coming andI knew why and that it was gonna happen soon.  Like get the van off the road and open that goddamn door!!!! Now!

I got everything out and I missed the van entirely. After a few minutes we were able to hit a gas station so I could really clean up. And give the guys a minute...

You never know when something is going to be cooked in bacon grease. Life of a vegetarian in the road. I’m pretty sure the “special German pancake” was. And now it’s on the side of I-30.  

We made it to Santa Fe and holed up with a friend of Toms for a bit. Then we went on to The Mine Shaft for the show. It’s in a little town called Madrid. A place with no cell reception. Weird, but cool little town. 

Bunch of folks stayed for the whole set and we tore it up pretty good for them. Hell of a lot of fun. After we loaded and drove to Denver. No throwin up, just a lot of sleeping in the van. 

8/9/18

First night of the actual tour we were at Lola’s in Ft Worth. I’m really glad we made the gig, it wasn’t looking like we were gonna at a few points. I was supposed to be the last pickup on the way out of town but the freak’s alternator bit it when they were just north of SA. It added fiveish hours to the SA fellas day while Cody, Lance and I sat around bullshitting. 

We pulled up to Lola’s when Blood of the Sun was on (missed Mos Generation entirely...). Two full stacks, keys, bass drums and a singer. They were an onslaught of sound and on fire! Really powerful shit. 

We did pretty well. Didn’t drive everyone off that fast. Pretty full for the first half. It thinned out after that but the folks who stayed were the hard rocks. 

In typical touring Hickoid fashion we packed it up, hit a pancake place and got on the road to miss the heat on the drive to the next show in New Mexico.  You sleep in a van, boy!

8/4/18

That was a little more like it. Hickoids were at the Bang Bang Bar saturday night. A place I’ve never been before. It pretty big and nice inside. And it’s in an area of town that makes you remember San Antonio is one huge fucking city.  

We were on our game here. The night before we’d started half of the tunes too fast. And WAY too fast in a couple of instances. Not to mention we weren’t really doing our best with accuracy...  Last night was different. We had those tempos and (most) of of the notes correct. 

Glad we got this second tune up show before we head out! Needed it. 

8/3/18

Hickoids were at the Lost Well last night. I got there right when All Monsters Attack we’re going on. They were tight as hell and it sounded really good in the room. Like better than I’ve heard any band sound in there. I found out that thei soundcheck they did was a half hour long... not sure who was behind that. Really doesn’t matter, they sounded great. 

The Beaumont’s from central Lubbock Texas were next!! It’s been months since we played with them. I’ve missed it!  They did “The Boots Stay On” and I’m guessing the reaction wasn’t quite what they wanted so they did it again!?!?!? Possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever seen them do. And I’ve seen them do a lot of funny shit over the years. 

Our set was decent. The highlights were Wade Driver getting up for a couple and we did our “Canada suite”. Five songs from Canadian artist chopped up and ruined by Hickoids. We’d done a fair amount of work in it and the reaction was pretty lackluster. Won’t be the last time... SA tomorrow!

8/1/18

Walter got a message from Danny B Harvey, looking to put Bigfoot on a bill. He has a new trio and a standing gig at the Sahara Lounge on Wednesday nights. They tear that shit up.  

Really tight. They hit a bunch of styles and they nail the hell out of them. Impressive shit. 

Our set was decent. Once we got two thirds of the way through we were hitting it pretty good. Ninety minutes is a little longer than the average Bigfoot show... Guess we were taking a little time to warm up. 

We finished it off, then were “asked” to do one more. Lots of yelling from just a few makes you feel good! Bill stepped down and Danny jumped in and we played a little Wolf to kill it off.