12/31/13

It was the big fancy NYE show. We all made the drive separately and took along our ladies. Downtown Dallas was packed with folks ready for the big night. I saw multiple people walking in to our hotel with CASES of booze. These were not employees, these were guests and they were going to party. The drunken stupidity was inevitable.

Our hotel was a half a mile away from the HOB. I hoofed it over to set up my gear (Smitty brought the heavy stuff in the freak) and to check the place out.

The House of Blues in Dallas has three venues in it. One had a grunge show another had an oldies show and the big room had us opening for the Old '97's. I walked in the back stage entrance and off to the Hickoid green room. A lovely place with chips and salsa, a veggie tray, a coffee maker, a second coffee maker (for toilet coffee), a lovely assortment of soda and water.... and no beer... zero... we had to buy our own... NYE and no free beer for the band. Interesting decision since generally a "Blues" club feeds it's musicians booze like it's water and asks them if they want more when they are drooling and laying on the sidewalk (or ground if it's out in the country). We got food so it wasn't all bad but it still seemed odd. I never left the backstage area the whole night. The club looked like a cool place, but by the time I could check things out it was packed so I hid in the back.

RTB2 Kicked things off. They played the Saturday show at Antone's but I missed them then. This show they kicked ass! A little blues, a little rock and a little pop. A lot of sound for a two piece.

We were second and did pretty well. It was obvious that people were there for the '97's and wanted them on NOW! But we did our thing and did it good and by the end they were in to us.

The 97's went on and BOOM! The folks that were all reserved for our set boiled over into the drunken mob I knew was hiding under the surface. It's New Years Eve and these people ain't fucking around.

While they were rocking the Hickoids started drifting off into the night. We left by cab, van, car and foot. NYE would soon be in the past and another year of kicking musical ass is out there waiting for us.

Some BIG opportunities are on the way! Stay tuned.

12/27/13

Hickoids at Antone's, Austins semi home of the blues. Someone bought it again and they are shutting down for a few months to change things up. It's been a rough go for that place and now a bunch of people are gonna be out of work for the new year... ouch.

We were invited to play with the Old '97's for two of their three NYE shows. So we did this one and we will be doing NYE proper in Dallas at the House Of Blues. Hickoids are getting fancy on ya...

The first act was Sealion from Dallas. The had some sweet poppy tunes and a chick bass player! Always great. One of the guitar players had one of those reissue Fender '68 Princeton amps (I had an original, but it got too old to play out.) He said he picked it up when they were on their way to Austin. It sure sounded sweet with his Tele, no real shocker there.

We were next and did the Hickoid thing. It's always nice to play to a crowed club but a BIG crowed club is even better. There were a ton of people ready for fun and we gave it to them. You could tell that most of them had never heard of us up until then, we should stick in their brains after last night.

'97's were next and since pretty much everyone that was there was there to see them the place went a little nuts. They delivered the Americana Rock and the crowd wanted more, so they gave it to them. It's a very simple formula, but it seems to work every time.

I'm looking forward to Dallas on Tuesday.

10/11/13

ACL Week Two Day One

Big night at the Hole in the Wall. I showed up right when Two Hoots and a Holler were going on (I missed the first band) and the place was already crowded. They have a fiddle! I'd never seen them with anything other than the classic two guitar, bass and drums (sometimes one guitar). Nice set, Ricky can still whip it.

Purple Stickpin were next. Dan is not playing guitar with them anymore, sad but they replaced him with TWO other guitars! (Jones is one of them) They were HUGE! Loads of sweet guitary goodness swirling around over Tex's growling.

At this point the Hole was one in, one out. They were at total capacity. The AC was doing nothing in the back and you could barely feel it up front. Too may bodies for a thirty year old AC to keep up with. Most everyone was there for the Old 97's. They were in Austin recording this week and jumped on the bill as the big act. The crowd was PACKED in the back room. It was actually a little on the spacious side up front while they were playing, but completely impossible to stand in the back. Unless you like sardine life or the Japanese subway.

They finish their big rock and roll set and the Hickoids were up. About a third of the crowd took off and the people who were left were primed and ready to party. Lots of drunk and happy all over the place. We punched through Hickoid hits old and new. As usual I took my jacket and tie off after the first song and before I even got a chance to get sweaty on my own someone threw a beer at me. I was soaked and by the end of the set I smelled like warm, flat beer and sweat. I couldn't keep the chicks off me...

In and Outlaws finished things off. What a great band. I'm liking them more and more every time we play with them. The upright and the accordion blend together in an amazing way. Some really interesting and cool sounds played by some serious bad asses. Yeah.

They finished up and it was 2 so the lights came on and we all headed home.

White Horse tomorrow.