5/26/19

The last show of this little tour was Gringopalooza at Three Links in Dallas.  We have done this before, many times.  As a matter of fact, they did it without me last year when I was in Greece(!). 

Went up with Harvey first. It was the best we’d been received so far but I didn’t do as well as I should have.  Missed some stuff...  Oh well. 

Mean Motor Scooter was next. I don’t think describing them as “on fire” is a good enough description.  Those songs, and the way they are play them, that’s some serious shit!

Gringo’s played the best set I’ve seen them do in a while. They were up and ready.  Always nice to see them, that might have been my 30th time?!  

We closed it out with Frontier Dan.  Didn’t do any of the tunes we recorded with him but we hit our classics.  The crowd was really in to our set with and without him.  Great feeling having the biggest show of the tour on the last night. 

5/25/19

Whitewater Tavern in Little Rock last night. Same deal as the night before except for the Frontier Circus in the middle slot. 

The crowd was light when we got up with Harvey. It thinned out further as the night went on.  First set was great. We really got it going right from the top and only a couple of easily coverable screwups.    

Danny and the Circus were great. Better than I’ve ever seen them. And he is so stupidly charming.  

We kinda kicked it. Pretty sure all of us we so out of it that we were in full “fuck it, let’s rip this shit up” mode. And we did!!  

Wish the crowd was better but it’s kinda how it seems to work when we play here. Still fun. Dallas tomorrow. 

5/24/19 show

We got to the Lamplighter and got ready for the first set. Lance and I have been rehearsing with Harvey and we have a five song set we are playing on these Hickoid dates.  

We did a decent job of it. This was only the third time we’d played together so there were mistakes, but nothing horrifying and we never got derailed. Pretty much a win. Looking forward to getting it nailed down. 

Joecephus and The George Jonestown Massacre we’re in the middle slot. They were tight as hell and tore it up.  That is until a cymbal stand fell and chopped the power cable leading to the pedal board. A huge spark jumped out and the rig was dead. It was crazy. 

Hickoids were last. The set was pretty good. Of course Frontier Dan got up with us. That guy kills me...  felt good making music with him all day. I spent a fair amount of time outside in the window behind Lance. When I looked up in to the sky I could see planes taking off and landing. Pretty nice night. 

5/24/19 studio

Hickoids just wrapped up a recording session with Frontier Dan in Memphis. We headed to the birthplace of Rock and Roll to make Danny a star.  It’s our mission.  

The session was pretty awesome. Did it at Dale Watson’s place, Wat-Sun down in the basement.  Cris Burns engineered us live to tape, mono, no overdubs, no mixing. A beautiful and nerve wracking thing.

Got down nine tunes down, all of them loaded with “personality”. That’s what I’m calling mistakes.  You are gonna get them in this type of situation. Did multiple takes of most of the tunes, not all of them are gonna work but a bunch of them will. Pretty exhausting but satisfying day. 

Heading to do two sets at the Lamplighter. More on that tomorrow. 

5/19/19

The Beaumont’s invited the Hickoids out to play their Sunday brunch at Riley’s last Sunday.  The place was  packed considering how fucking hot and humid it was. Summer has finally come to Central Texas.  

Wild Bill was up when I got there.  They were killing it. But I stayed inside, the swamp cooler made it a little nicer than the world outside.  

We went up, plated for about an hour. It was a sweat fest but pretty fun. At one point were doing the medley and  during  the break at the end of “Butfuck Junction” a train whistle blew thirty yards from where we were playing.  Surreal. 

Beaumont’s went up last. I was fried and sat inside near the door facing the stage. I made it three tunes and headed home. 

Old man was whipped. 

5/15/19

Bigfoot did a little recording session the other day. Another one with Chris Burns at  Dales place. Or Dales old place... I don’t really know, I’ve recorded here a few times. It’s a cool little room and close to the house!!

The 25rh anniversary of the band is coming up. And we are releasing a cassette (?!?!) with a bunch of unreleased tracks and theses two tunes. Since I don’t have a cassette player I asked for a cd copy, trading one arcane format for another. ..

We did it mostly live. Overdubbed backing vocals on one tune and did the lead/backing on the other at the same time Bill put on two acoustic parts on that second tune. Honestly more tracking that has ever happened on a Bigfoot session. Bigfoot wall of sound!!

This fella Henri (didn’t catch his last name) played piano with us. He just moved here from outside of London and is staying on some kinda green card or work visa. Nice dude and he really added a lot to the session.  

Cassettes soon!!

5/5/19

Hicks at the Hole! We even played up front!!! Classic, it felt so good. 

It was the Pocket Fishermen’s fish fry, we were on near the end and things started out early afternoon so I missed a ton of stuff... Apparently there was a kid dance party at some point(!!!). Most of the folks on the bill are old enough to have em, might as well give them a reason to come!!!

We were packed on that little stage. Six of us with no room to move.  Didn’t really matter. The crowed was stuffed in and right up by the stage.  Nothing but smiles for our little half hour set of rock. 

If you’ve played the Hole and you didn’t play up front, you didn’t play the Hole...  The stage in the back is fine. The front is THE Hole in the Wall. The back is just another place.