5/30/22

So we hopped on the van and made that long ass drive from Clarksdale to Dallas. Oh boy. I’ll just say that some of us were fairly hungover, nothing too awful, but…

We went on at the Three Links early and kinda killed it. We were first of five and there weren’t a hell of a lot of folks there but that didn’t stop us!!

We were followed by the Me Thinks, Pat Todd (!), Lauretta Suede and the Hickoids. 

That’s right, the Hicks and Pat have been out while I’ve been out with Bigfoot. It’s a crazy world, changes everywhere!! ALL YHE TIME!!!

Speaking of… Austin tomorrow. 

5/28/17

Gringopalooza, number four in Dallas Texas at the Three Links. Me Thinks, Beaumonts, Loco Gringoes and Hickoids. We've done this one a number of times even if it wasn't called gringopalooza. Once again it was pretty amazing.  

No reason to get in to any real detail on this lovefest. The highlight of the evening was when our buddy Hushpuppy decided to take off his shirt and lay down on the stage when we were playing. Then Smitty started teabaging him. It was amazing. Then it happened again and again again and... 

He almost got booted for knocking the monitors around. That happened a couple of times. Eventually one of the club guys started waving his shirt in front of him like a bull. It distracted him enough to get him outside. 

Yeah. Facebook is loaded with the pictures. 

Bend tomorrow. 

1/7/17

You know what happens when you play three nights in a row? You can't help but slaughter it. Fuck ups be damned! Nothing is getting in the way of the Hickoid, three day freight train. We were even stronger than when we tour because we'd all slept in our own beds every night. I could tour like this forever.


It was a big pile of a lovefest at the Lost Well. It was Tub Rex from the Gringos' birthday and folks from all around made it out. I've never see the Lost Well that packed before. It didn't hurt that it was still cold as hell outside so there wasn't that much "going out side to smoke" going on.



Rio Jordan started it off. Holy shit. I missed them at ACL so glad I chance to make up for that. It seems real traditional at first, but that quickly changed when they started mixing up some pretty serious Jazz in the middle. And they didn't do it like they were showing off, they just whip that shit out whenever they want. Got to see them as much as I can.


Me Thinks made it down for their first show in Austin ever. Hard to believe I saw them for the first time nearly ten years ago and they've NEVER played Austin, crazy. Anyway they kicked ass, hard. So hard it made us step up our game when we went up next.



Gringos did a mini set after us. They were wearing pig masks when they did "Nurture My Pig." It was pretty disturbing. The mouths moved just a little and it looked like some kinda shitty animatronic doll that Disney scrapped in the fifties. Thanks for the nightmares fellas...


Beaumonts and Cunto finished things off. I was loading out and chatting folks up while the Beaumonts were on. I caught a fair amount of the set but I wasn't paying too much attention. I was so whipped after the last three days of working and playing I was gone with an Irish goodbye before Cunto even started.

9/10/16

Hickoids went up to Ft Worth last week. Our set was good and the opener, Duel, kicked some twin lead ass. But I don't wanna talk that. This post is all about the Me-Thinks.


It was their record release and they asked us to come up and play. Those dudes are great people and the music is top notch, we couldn't say no!



We finish our set and swap the gear, the "thinks" load in their amps, drums, smoke machines and a bar! A bar! On to the stage!! Then they stared the set. Nothing but covers. For their record release party! Guts! They played the first two tunes from that Cheap Trick Live album. Two Spinal Tap songs. TWO! Replacements and Beaumonts (and many, many others.)



There was a raffle where seventeen of the twenty-odd spaces on the wheel were labeled "cold taco". I saw a few folks eating cold tacos at various points. No euphemism here.


Somewhere in the set they all left the stage and a guy dressed as Peter Criss came up and played a drum solo, then sang Beth to a backing track. Fuck me it was funny.



Later on, I don't remember what song it was but when it got around to the lead, Ray took off his guitar and handed it to one of the dudes from Duel. He plays the solo, Ray sits at the stage bar, orders a beer and has a couple of swigs (they let the solo go on and on!) then they swapped back. The ass-kicking continued.


I spent a lot of time up at the stage at the bar. I was getting pretty lit up in the best possible way. With that easy access to beer and shots it was impossible not to... Then they played "I Like Drinking" by the Beaumonts. The place went nuts and the smoke machines went on. Lance was standing next to me (we were still mostly behind the drums) so I lit up a joint. Passed it around and the good people in the stage bar had an extra good time.


Eventually they finished up with what they were planning on playing and they were gonna call it a night. But there were too many people yelling that they played both songs from the single. I mean it was the release party... Speaking of which I totally spaced on getting a copy... Idiot.



Thanks fellas, that was one hell of a night! Pure Rock and Roll.

5/29/16

Gringopalooza 3 was last night at the Three Links in Deep Ellum, the former crime ridden  home of legal gambling and prostitution that has been gentrified over the last fifty years so lofts will sell to folks with money. "And it's so safe to walk around..."

There was the usual group of friends out and a few new ones. Made for a hell of a night. 

The Me-thinks had a smoke machine and a couple of them were wearing capes. They brought the rock as usual but it was amazing how cool they looked. They would be rocking along then there'd be a blast of smoke curling up from the back of the capes and it was swirling around in the lights. The smoke kept moving, the capes kept moving, fucking awesome. 

Gringos were on their shit too. And the crowd was all over it. They played tighter than any show I've seen them do in the last few years. Nice work fellas

We were on last and had a hell of a set. The place was packed and people were up front and singing along. Yeah!

We are headed to Bob's in Bend tomorrow. Then home!

5/24/15

I rode to Dallas with Smitty and Lance. We left Austin a little after 10 AM, about six hours after Plaidstock finished. We were all running on fumes. In theory this should have been a short day, the last band on the bill for Gringopalooza was scheduled to go on at 10 and we were playing around 7. Things didn't really work out that way...

As we drove north the evidence of previous night's storm was all over the place. Every few miles there was a missing roof or a sign across the street from where it was originally located. Loads of destruction. The worse we saw was a little north of my house on I-35. A storage place had about a third of it's top floor ripped off. Walls, roof and people's boxed up houses were gone and everything that was left was an absolute mess. More than a little sobering.

Anyway, the drive was easy, and we got to Dallas early. Tubb from the Gringos booked an extra room near the club so we went there and hung out for a bit. Then things got strange.

We were playing at the Gas Monkey on an outdoor stage and it was billed as a rain or shine show. But their power transformer is located under the stage and for the last fifteen hours it was under a couple of feet of water. Rain or shine my ass.

So some Dallas folks scrambled up a new venue, Club Dada in Deep Elum, a neighborhood that was once famous for legal gambling AND legal prostitution! By the time things got moving and the Me Thinks were going on it was after our original start time. It was gonna be a late night...

We went on third, after the Grannies and before the Beaumonts. Yup, more with both of them! Poor Dumb Bastards and The Gringos (duh) were also on the bill. Lots of love from lots of friends!

About half way through the Gringos set Tom was itching to go. Smitty and Lance were staying back at the hotel so I took the first Hickoid I could home. Tom drove the first shift and got us to Waco, I slept. We stopped for gas and I coffee'd up and drove the rest of the way home. After a shower and a beer I was in bed by 5AM. It felt good sleeping in on Monday.

5/24/13

Day two

Friday night at the Grotto in Ft Worth. Our old pals the Me-Thinks were the big headliner we were right before them and the Beaumonts  were before us. 

It was a bitch of a drive from Austin. Nonstop rain and a bunch of wrecks, but the freak 3 did beautifully. She drives like a dream. 

Beaumonts are KILLING it live. They have a knack of controlling a crowd in a truly bizarre fashion. During their first song some dude in the crowd looked at me and asked "Did he just say stick my pecker in a dog's behind?"  Yes, yes he did.  

When we were setting up this dude was standing there saying "I bet you won't have half the fun I'm gonna have". I accepted his challenge and monitored his "fun level" for the rest of the night.  I believe I hovered in the 60%-70% range of his enjoyment level. I win!

Midland tomorrow.