8/28/19

Pretty great/bizarre show last night in Houston at Under The Volcano. It’s mostly a bar restaurant but on Wednesday nights they have bands. Some really cool bands! The quality is high when you get to be that selective. 

The trio got up and we played pretty great. All of us are still tour lagged and jet lagged and we haven’t played since the last show in Spain, four days ago?  I honestly don’t remember. Anyway the trio kinda killed it. 

Hickoids were supposed to be next but one of Smitty‘ s brothers died unexpectedly when we were playing Madrid. Fucking terrible. And tomorrow is his funeral and Smitty needed to be there and he didn’t want to cancel the show, so...  we did a little Hickoid karaoke. 

This dude, David got up and sang four tunes. He’s been a huge fan since way before I joined the band. He makes every hick or swish show and he’s enthusiastic as hell. He hopped up and shoved the mic down his pants and the room went wild. It was incredible. He’s not a singer and he’s never been in a band as far as I know, but he more than made up for it with his enthusiasm. It was truly awesome. 

So we kept asking around for someone to sing some of the covers and Sue from Dinola hopped up and killed!! I mean absolutely killed on Benny and China Grove. We’ve got to get her up more in the future. And the Hickoid family expands. 

Speaking of... Harvey sang Burnin Love to close out a surreal as hell night. It was pretty awesome. 

Then Dinola got up... oh right!! We are playin with them the next two days!!  As always, fucking awesome. And we get to see them on their home turf tomorrow at dba. And Smitty will be there for it.   

12/21/18

Hickoids were in Houston last night. 

Fitzgerald’s is closing?!!!!  Zeldas too... talk about the end of an era. I played both back when I was only a solo act. Twenty plus years ago...  first place they ever miced the stage to make my stomp extra loud.  It’s gonna be gone....

There were bands upstairs and down. I showed up when Texicali was on. The Beaumont’s were after and Dash Rip Rock after them. Hicks last. 

 I dug all the sets I saw. Ours was not so hot...  it’s how it goes. We haven’t rehearsed much with all of us in the same room over last few weeks.  

Oh well. We gave them what we could and they seemed to like it.  

Gonna miss that joint.  

9/14/18

It was a rainy Friday night but the roads were pretty clear for the drive to Houston.  It’s Swishbuckler time again. Ahoy!

We were at Rudyards with the Poor Dumb Bastards. Our set was a messy ball of fun. We were a little all over the place, only one rehearsal since last year.... what do you want. Good thing the set doesn’t change much (or all!) 

Tommy is back so we are a two guitar band again.  It’s a thicker sound with two of us. And on occasion there are some harmony parts!!

We wrapped it up and PDB went on, they were playing the next night in Austin, see y’all then. We took off and made it home a little after three. 

7/14/17

Hickoids went to Houston for the Poor Dumb Bastards anniversary show at Fitzgerald's. You seen those words before... this show has happened more than once.



But not really. In the past it's been a big blowout with a bunch of bands and the Bastards had a lot of special stuff going on. But this year it was on the small stage downstairs and there were only three bands and we were the Headliners. Keeping it small made it really cool.


I drove solo and got there twenty minutes before PDB went on. They had a rocking set, no real surprise there. Then we went up.


I'd only had one rehearsal with the boys since they got back from Alaska. It was a little shaky, I was a little nervous. No need. We killed it.


At the end of the set during "Truck" Smitty started in on his rap while we held down the groove. We went to some pretty sweet musical places we've never even seen before that night. It felt SO good!!


The drive home was a quick as it could be, I was in bed by 5AM and at work by 10 the "next" day. So whipped when I got off I slept for 14 hours!!


Worth it.

4/9/16

Hickoids played the PDB anniversary at Fitzgerald's again. It was basically the same concept as the last time they did it (before this blog existed!) but it was expanded to Zelda's downstairs. Extra big and dumb!!

I had just gotten off an extremely relaxing seven day cruse at 8AM that morning. We pulled in to the Houston port and drove like hell back to Austin. Five hours later I was in my truck driving to Lance's to make the round trip for the show. At least I wasn't driving, it's a lot easier to ride/nap.

We played upstairs between the Beaumonts and PDB (so preheadliners? ) and I played like shit. I was told I played fine, but I felt like I was using all of my brain to just barely hold on... And I was listing... Jesus, what a mind fuck that was. I'd turn a little and my whole body felt like it was flying in that same direction, felt like I could puke. The lights weren't helping either. They'd move and my stomach would follow, my brain wanted out! I never heard of seasickness after the cruise, but now I've felt it. Yea for me...

Anyway our set was thankfully short and PDB got up with the same set-up as last time. A "tour through the ages" as it were. We caught a decent portion of the set and slunk off in to the night. I was in bed around 6AM and I slept for twelve hours.

Worth it.

2/20/15

The Hickoids headed to Houston again. This time we went in three different cars instead of traveling the smart/green way... Tom picked me up after work and we made great time getting to Rudyards. Right about when we finished loading up the stairs (a long, single flight of horrible stairs) and parking the van the other guys showed up so we loaded them in as well. Up those stupid stairs...

We were getting paid to play a dog benefit. None of us have any problem with that, but we are all cat people. Pretty soon we are gonna have to do a benefit for some of those lonely neglected pussy's out there.

Anyway, we were middle slot on a line up of three. The crowd was solid and we rocked them for a good forty five minutes. There were no crazy moments, no one got naked or punched out. It was just a really good night of rock and roll. Followed by another three hour drive home...

8/9/14

Tom met me at my place when I got off of work and we headed to Houston. The drive was OK. At some point outside of the beltway they made everyone get off of the interstate and drive down the access road. It wasn't horrible and traffic was moving along nicely until they knocked it down to one lane so the closed interstate could exit... That added about forty five minutes to the drive.

The Hell 'n High Water Saloon isn't really a club in the traditional sense, it's a TV studio. And it isn't technically in Houston, it's way north of downtown in Humble. I was on the phone with a friend who lives in Houston before the show and he said "Shit, that's and hour and a half from where I live I ain't comin out". Houston is huge.

There were three bands being filmed and we were the last. We got there a little after eight and we were "going on" at nine, but the first band was just setting up. It was gonna be a long night. I spent my time talking with some folks (including this one gal who once worked at NASA!) and bumming around. Generally this is the time I down a few beers or wander off somewhere and check out some part of town I'd never seen, but we were basically in the middle of nowhere and since I was gonna drive home after I stuck with one beer and water. Clean living (and a bunch of weed) Good clean living.

It's finally our time and we set up. The stage looks a little like someones home, my one stage beer fit comfortably on the mantel. It looked nice up there not getting kicked over. We had an OK set. There seems to be a Hickoid tradition that we fuck up a lot when we are being filmed. This time was no exception... I clammed a half a dozen times and Tom kept bitching about all of his on the drive home. It happens, sometimes a lot, but the crowd was happy an the crew loved it, that's all that really matters.

After the show the had us stick around for an interview. It was pretty lame but we were already there two hours later than we were supposed to be so screw it, let's have some fun. Loads of bad jokes later and Tom and I are back in the truck and headed home. I was at my door by 4AM and in bed a half hour later. Up by noon to make the next show in...

1/18/14

I made the drive to Houston to play a solo show at Notsuoh. The building was a shoe store on Main street and they have a ton of the old stock still sitting around. Back in the '60's this must have been a swinging part of town. I was in the area a few years ago and it was a ghost town. Back then we were lucky to get some pizza from a place that was closing at 5PM on a Saturday, now there are fifty or so places that serve through most of the night. I guess things are improving in Downtown Houston...

I was here to play a benefit for a friend who has some nasty lung cancer. She has the worse possible kind, but she is getting kinda lucky with it (if there is such a thing). Somehow the chemo she takes isn't knocking her on her ass and she still has most of her hair... It truly is the little things that count in this type of situation.

I get up and did my little set... Damn I'm rusty playing solo. It's so easy to get use to playing with a band. I can go from rhythm to soloing easily with the Ladies, but when your by yourself it's a whole different world.

My favorite part of the night was doing a couple of duets with Hilary York. We played a bunch of songwriter Sunday afternoons together a few years back and ended every week by playing some together. It was really nice dusting off the Parliament classic "My Automobile", after all this time we still remembered those sweet ass harmonies! It really felt good.

12/6/13

I am a week late on this one...

Hickoids made the drive to Houston and loaded our gear up those goddamn awful stairs. Good thing Rudyard's is such a good club. We were "Headlining" (last) on a cold and wet Friday night. The forcast kept screaming for ice and/or snow. It was gonna ba a long night. 

The drive there was easy and we loaded up and said our howdys. I got a falafel from next door and went back for the rock.

Shinta was up first. I love a band with a Lady! Good tunes and some screamin guitar. Bring it on! Barkin At Nothin had a splendid trio of songs about love, but their standout was "Get The Hell Out Of Texas". A brilliant piece of stupidity.

We went up and did the Hickoid thing. Finished and loaded back down the stairs... I hate those stairs... Started the drive home and everyone but me wanted food (damn falafel!) So we stopped at Denny's and watched some drunken Houstonians make fools of themselves. 4 AM, Friday night, it's a guaranteed good time.

The drive home was uneventful. The weather was kind and I stayed in the back and slept. Made it back home and into bed at 6:50. I was up for work at 8:45... Saturday was rough as hell. 

8/23/13

The Hickoids loaded up the freak and made that drive to Houston. More specifically we headed to Rudyards. It was the same old crap from the same three bands from two weeks prior in New Orleans.

Beaumonts were first. Tom was subbing on bass and other than a few screw-ups he did fine. But don't ask him how it went. "Shittiest thing I ever done" or something akin to that. Another dose from the Hickoid king of optimism...  On the last tune I walked up and turned up the gain and the low end on my amp (which he was using). I don't think that made him happy, but the Beaumonts sounded better.

Hickoids next. We kicked it. Adding a couple of extra rays of sunshine to Toms night I ended up hitting him in the head a couple of times with my bass when we were rockin out. It was an accident, I swear!

PDB finished things off in their big, stupid way. Cum Drunk! Live like a Poor Dumb Bastard.

We loaded up the freak and made the drive home. I was in bed by 6AM and up for work two and a half hours later. Useless!

11/23/12

Hickoids at Fitzgeralds in Houston. This was a reunion show for the Axiom, a Houston club that was way before my time. There were a ton of people out for it. When I pulled up around 10 PM there were a few hundred folks waiting to get in and it was already packed inside. Nice.

This is the first of three nights of a little tour, Houston, New Orleans, and Lafayette. I had to work on Saturday (today) so I made the round trip drive by myself while the other fellas were packed up in the Freak. I was on the road by midnight and in the house and showering by 2:30. I didn't even speed all that much... I'm flying out to NO for the show tonight. I'm fancy.

I went to Houston early to hit Southpaw Guitars, the happiest place in the world, if your a lefty. I was/am looking for a lefty P bass, but they didn't have what I wanted (picky). I did see a really cool Gibson 336 if you have a spare $3200 you want to give me!

Breakdown

There was a backline but the bass amp sounded like crap. It was some fancy tube amp, but it couldn't keep up with the SPL level needed for the Hickoids. A backline is nice, but I wished I was using mine.

In the expansive backstage area there was a cooler of beer, pizza and cookies. I almost felt spoiled.

More tomorrow.

8/18/12

I'm late with this one...

Hickoids at Rudyard's in Houston with the Poor Dumb Bastards and El Pathos. All the gear goes up and then back down the stairs. I counted 21 of them. Thankfully I was using the Bastards bass rig! I guess it's better than playing out in San Fransisco where it would be gear up and down stairs every day of the week.

Saturday wasn't quite as wild with drunken stupidity as Friday, but it was a hell of a good time. Hickoids played the middle slot and we really got the crowd worked up. Davy did NOT try to kill anyone with his guitar this time. There was no need...

At some point Smitty asked it he was using the same microphone as Byron, then he stuck it down the front AND the back of his pants and rubbed in the Smitty stank real good. Byron, you are welcome.

Breakdown

You only get one free beer, lame, but folks were kind to me. I ended up sleeping most of the way home.