9/19/19

This ended up being an “only in it for the money” gig. God it was awful...

It was Talk Like A Pirate Day so the Swishbucklers got asked to play this place in north San Antonio. I’m not even gonna name it. It’s a big rambling “fancy” joint, not the kind of place we would usually play. They don’t even have bands regularly. 

But we were all in for it. Two sets and we were told they were doing a bunch of cool stuff for the “holiday”. When we got there there were 300-400 people there. And less than 10% of them were dressed for the day. And the rest of them were there for turtle racing...  as in making a turtle “run” in the middle of a bunch of screaming folks so the owner can get a free beer if it won. 

Gross. 

We did our two sets. Got paid and got out. 

100% for the money. 

9/18/19

Second night with Daddy Long Legs but this time it was in San Antonio with the Swishbucklers. I think I mentioned that before...  and that it was at Paper Tiger. Broken record over here. 

We went up and there were so few people  we thought we’d do some rehearsing... no joke. Dead city. So we started up on one of the four new tunes we’d been working on and then a dozen or so folks come in.  Oh great, now we got to play a real show.  Thanks a lot audience...

Anyway we did pretty damn good. Didn’t get through any of the new stuff. Have to wait till Thursday for that one. 

I only caught a few tunes from Daddy Long Legs. They were three pretty awesome but all I could catch. I needed to get back home and I’ll be back in SA soon enough (matey)!!

9/16/19

Real nice show on Monday at The Empire Control Room. Hicks were second of three and everyone was there to support Daddy Long Legs.  

First up were The Reputations. They were great. Really nice soulful and poppy stuff all played by first rate musicians. I’d never heard of them and I was thrilled to be on the bill with them. 

Our set was solid. We gave it good and the folks were right up front for it. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a band that was on tour for a month throwing it down!

Daddy Long Legs were awesome. They really know how to rock it. I played with the lead man (who’s name I can’t remember...) a couple of years back during sxsw. He jumped up for a couple at a Bigfoot set. He was great then but nothing compared to him with his regular band. Holy shit. 

And last night they asked the Swish to play with them in San Antonio. So....

9/15/19

On Sunday the trio played Riley’s for the Beaumont’s Sunday brunch. A very high class and reverent affair, filled with the best of the best. Only the finest. 

We went on second and had a solid set. As Lance said “not inspired but solid as hell”   He summed up what I was thinking before I could articulate it. Fair enough! 

Beaumont’s were on it. This is their regular monthly now and folks show up and are ready for it. No need to sing a song two or three times, the crowd sang when they were supposed to unprompted. 

I even got “Not As Cool As Jesus” dedicated to me!! I left happy as hell after they finished. I love those dudes. 

9/8/19

A week ago Bigfoot had an in store at Antones Records. A continuation of the cassette release we had last month. Lots of Bigfoot love in the house. 

We played about a half hour and it was pretty good. I still didn’t have my guitar worked up the way I want, it’s calming but this was a little too soon after the tour for me to be 100% ready. 

Anyway, a good bunch of folks were there including Mike, Roger and Ray working the shop. Roger is from Knoxville like me and invited an old band mate out to see us! So nice of him. I hadn’t seen John in more than 25 years. Apparently he moved here a while back and I still hadn’t run into him. 

Oh Austin. 

9/7/19

It was Bigfoot last night at the Black Sparrow Music Parlor our in Taylor. That’s right Taylor has a really cool music venue. Who knew? And why did it take so long to get out there to play?!!!  

We were last of four in this great sounding room and a decent amount of folks stayed out to see us. I didn’t really expect that but people out there want to have a good time on a Saturday night, why wouldn’t they?

Anyway the set was ok...  I think we sounded pretty good for anyone who isn’t in the band (or more specifically, me) but I really played like shit for my first full show on guitar. There. I said it. A month of being on tour with no lefty guitars around, that’s how it works. It had to happen. We had to get it out of the way and last night was it.  

9/2/19

It had to happen sometime. Last show of the tour in Denton at Dan’s Silver Leaf. It was a 14 hour drive to get there. We left Cookeville around 5am and got to Dan’s at 7.... brutal. 

Both bands got up. And the sets were pretty damn good considering everything.  We were in semi autopilot mode but at that point of the trip we were so tight it would have been hard to have an awful show. 

At the end we packed up the freak and made the four hour drive to my place. I got my stuff and said goodbye (foolishly leaving a 12 pack of Yuengling behind...) and after a shower and a drink it was all over and I was finally in my own bed. Yeah!

8/1/19

We did our set for Muddy Roots in the big tent yesterday. It’s a fest in Cookeville Tn about an hour and a half from where I grew up. Driving there was a little eerie. So many similarities to my home town, kind of unsettling. 

I only saw a few of the other bands, Black Eyed Vermillion and Black Irish Texas, some friends from back home. The 

 Dead Kennedy’s and Fishbone where the two big headliners I got to see. 

Fishbone was supposed to go on abut a half hour after we stated. It was a real bummer thinkin I was gonna miss most of them. But there were som sound issues that pushed them back so I got to see almost all of them.  During their set the PA shut down three times because it was being overloaded.  You could clearly hear the vocals distorting it especially when four of them were singing. Distortion causes amps to overheat and overheating shuts it down. It’s how it works. They finally got it goin correctly a couple of songs from the end. 

So because Fishbone was supposed to start during our set. And their stage was right behind us most of the fest was back there getting ready. We still had a decent crowd and we rocked them pretty good on back lines gear. Just wish we could have packed it out. 

Next year?