7/29/17

Late as hell...


It was the Hickoids at AGBG with Chicken Snake. They drove over from New Orleans to do a little rock and roll with us. I walked up after parking and Pauline was sitting outside talking with Smitty. She said "Don't you play in South Filthy?" My response was "Yes, Who are you? and I love you!"


New best friend. Seriously. I was a little out of it before I got there but not after we met!


They went up and killed it. The best standing two-drum, drummer I've ever seen. She actually made it groove. Not an easy task with so little to work with. And everything else made me happy as hell. We got to get back to NO for some shows with them.


We went up and it was the usual Hickoid stupidity. Loud and dumb with beer spilled all over the floor. At the end of the night Johnnie Hell got up and played drums with Lance sliding over to play the floor tom. Possibly the best musical Hickoid moment ever. My grin went on so long I forgot to type this up...

3/18/17

Double show Saturday!


First up was the Hickoids at '04. The crowd was sparse when I pulled up, but that meant a parking space up front!! I was told there was a house bass rig so I didn't have to bring much for the early set.



Western Star was about to go on. New bass player and a kick ass set! These dudes can really bring it. In every way except one... the bass rig was a tiny combo amp. I could have brought mine (and they could have used it to rule further.) I'd loaded then unloaded it at home already. Oh well.


Our set was pretty great. The crowd started packing in near the end of Western Star's set and by the time we went on there were a good bunch of folks looking at us. Our set was a wild one. It always works that way, the smaller/more dive a place is the more we turn up the stupid. At some point Smitty, Tom and I were in some kind of Human Centipede configuration with our instruments going off in all directions. I'm not sure what happened or how we got there but I'm looking forward to the next show!



Right before we did our last song The Lar Lar walked up to me and said "Chuck Berry just died." It knocked the fucking wind out of me. Did I mention it was my birthday?... Fuck me... I was down down.


We played Donkey Lady and went on to ABGB for The Swishbucklers.



I pulled up and they were blasting the Chuck. It set my funk bar a little lower. News like that before a show (or during) will set me off...


But then I had a little coffee and started talking with the openers and the rest of the 'bucklers and I felt better. We were joking about playing "My Ding-a-ling" as a tribute. Kind of a perfect tune for a gay pirate band to cover.


We went on after The Ian Quiet Band from Shreveport LA. Holy crap! What a bunch of kick ass weirdos!! Two bass players!!! Drums and Ian on vocals/theremin. Some crazy good, angular punk rock with some surprisingly funky moments added in for flavor. Ian licked the floor at some point. Fuck yeah! They really brought me out of my funk.


We went up and had fun. Our set was short but pretty rocking.



After I hung around for the regular greatness of Pocket Fishermen and Pong. Then The Zeros who put on a seriously rocking show.

Not a bad end to the week.

3/20/15

Friday of SXSW I only have two shows today!

#1 AGBG with the Gay Sportscasters.

I drove down to South Austin on an extended lunch hour from the day job to fill in for this show. Tom (who took over for me a couple of years ago) couldn't make it so I was back in for one. The stage was packed with three dancers, three guitars, a singer, bass and drums. It's a decent sized space, but not with that many people on it.

I was switching between both sides of the stage. When I was singing I was on the opposite side of the bass rig. That's always a little weird, but you get used to it. There were a bunch of kids at the show and they all got eyes and ears full! The 'casters would have been my dream band when I was a kid. All of that jiggling flesh and dirty talk, I would have been in heaven!

We finished up and as I was changing back in to work clothes the rain really picked up. I was soaked by the time I got back in the car. At least the post show shower was taken care of...

#2 Triple Crown with the Hickoids.

After seeing the Residents and 숨[suːm] at the Paramount (!!!!) I made the drive to San Marcos. It was a shitty, drizzly night and it kept getting colder. I made it to the club right when Pony was finishing up. We loaded up and rocked a thin but excited crowd. The Triple Crown is a locals bar and it hard to get the central Texas locals out during SXSW even in San Marcos, but we still had some good, drunken fun during the night.

The most memorable moment was after closing one of the other bands on the bill had a truck with a dead battery (if you keep three iphones plugged in and the overhead light on for hours on end without turning on the car it will drain the battery...) So Smitty pulled up the freak van and got them jumped, but then he locked the keys in the freak!!! Chalk that one up to exhaustion. Tom and I broke in and eventually everyone got to go home home, but now without feeling a little bit stupid first...

10/10/14

ACL Week 2 Day 1

The show was at AGBG and I didn't play! Hell, I didn't even show up until the last two bands were on, lazy lazy. The Gay Sportscasters (without Bill) did the Sportscastin thing with all the boobs flying everywhere and they played all the hits (even though it was odd without Bill.) 

The Pocket Fisherman played five new songs! They had enough of the "good old stuff" in the set so the regulars didn't miss out on all of the big hits, just some of them. The the five new tunes were really strong and had the Fisherman sound in spades. Beautiful.

It was a good night. Having some beer and watching some bands is fun. No wonder people do it all the time.