5/30/22

 

Last of the three Bigfoot shows. Finally home in Austin.  It felt real good sleeping in my own bed last night! We were up at the Parlor with Gravyboat, hicks and Pat Todd for our third afternoon show in a row. 

We were second and quite frankly played a pretty great set. After three days, it’s to be expected. Kinda on fire. 

And the “boat” and Hicks were pretty great at well but Pat and the Outsiders just killed it again.  I know I’ve said that a hundred times, but it’s true. One of the best bands out there, in any style. 11 out of 10 and just fucking awesome. 

Here is where we come to the hard part. This was my last show in Austin. The wife and I are heading north to get the hell out of this state and away from the republicans that have been running it for the last ~30 years. It really sucks here. Austin in particular gets more depressing daily. So we made the decision and are headed to Baltimore. That’s right, we are choosing “murder town” over Austin and both of us are backflip thrilled for the move. 

I won’t dump too much but if you don’t already own a house or you aren’t going to school, there is no reason to be here. It never was what it wanted to be and it’s way worse than it was. 

Gonna miss the hell out of a bunch of people! But we won’t miss this city. 

So I’ve got one to go down in SA with Harvey and the Hicks and that is it. Boom!

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. 

10/5/19

Day 2 Part 1

This was at the Parlor and z Apocalypse was gonna play but they had a scheduling issue (even though Jeremy got up with us for some guitar on Fruit Fly!) Pat and the Outsiders filled in!! It’s been a couple of years since we played more than one show in a row with them. Like I sad yesterday, I’d see them everyday if I could. 

We went up and had a really good set. Standing on the floor with folks, not on a stage and eye to eye might be my favorite way to pay. It’s a bad way to do it  when you are sucking but if you are doing things right, even just a little, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. 

Part 2

At the Lost Well and things were running a little behind after the earlier show. It’s how it goes...

Sweet Nothin from Albuquerque was first. A bunch of young dudes Tom knows and the two tunes I was able to catch rocked in a really nice way. 

It’s Tom’s birthday and his band Monkeyshines got up and had a great set! So good I started questioning his playing in the Hickoids... gonna have to have a long talk with that man someday....

The Swish set was decent. The crowd was in to it and we threw down pretty hard. Fun fun. 

The Fishermen and Dinola were the next two. What can I say... go back and read other posts. For both of them. 

We missed Pong, Just like we missed Screech of Death at the Parlor earlier. With this many shows it’s hard to hit them all.  

And there will be more tomorrow!!

10/4/19

First night of ACL! And we were at the Continental?! Oh shit!! It was a cool night. Hickoids were second of four. Lots of friends. Lots of love. 

Zofo was first. It’s Javier and a few badasses from town killing it. So good to see another dimension from Javi. I love that dudes stuff. 

Our set was great.  Really nice crowd and they were in to us. And Frontier Dan!!  That’s right. He’s here all weekend and was up for about half of our set, we hit all the high points and it was fun as hell. 

But Pat and the Rank Outsiders were next. I didn’t even realize they were playing till I saw the lineup earlier in the week. Fuck yeah. 

Guess what? They fucking killed it. I think I could watch them every night and not get bored. They make me so happy. 

The Sloths were last but we took off before they went on. Too whipped and too much coming to run myself in to the ground this early on. 

8/24/18

Here we go. This was the big one, LA with Pat Todd. I’ve been waiting for this show for months. 

Pat and the Outsiders are one of my favorite bands ever. No bullshit. Just straight forward rock and roll. And what a good fucking set.... they blew it away. The five of them really play as one piece and they don’t let up. Each tune backed up against the last. Bam Bam Bam. 

The crowd really ate it up. It’s the Outsiders hometown, they have that built in advantage. But they don’t cut any corners with the rock. I don’t know if they could. 

Pat does this thing (seen it more than once) where he tells the crowd three songs left, two....  At the end of the last one he even counts down the choruses, 3...2...1... It’s as if he’s saying “you only have this much time left with us. Enjoy it.”

We went up and the place was still packed. We hit them hard. Best show of the tour. My mic was right at the end of the stage and it kept falling over but two different dudes were catching it and popping it back up. Stagehands who paid cover!, I love LA!

Tucson tomorrow. 

10/6/17

First official night of ACL, we were at the White Horse. There were a bunch of bands on the bill so the sets were short but the rock was plenty.


Too much for recaps and I was tired as hell so I remember about a third of what happened... But we had PDB, Fishermen, Pat Todd, Roger Wallace, the Sons and Hickoids all jammed in to a Friday. The place went from mildly attended to fairly packed even though the "real" ACL crowds didn't seem to be out.


We were on after the Fishermen and had Dan up for four tunes. We did all the songs we know with him and the crowd ate him up. Smitty came out at the top of the set as an ear of corn and eventually he stripped that off... He had buckskin pants on underneath. Hickoids, keepin up the class!


I missed Saturdays show and we are back at ABGB, Friday the 13th for week two!

10/5/17

Last night had us in San Marcos at the Buzzmill.


When I showed up Pat and the Outsiders were setting up, I'd already missed Harvey... Damn.


Pat's set was great, almost all of the tunes were different than the night before. Stylistically similar but different "numbers". Mmmmm, Professionals!


Our set was short but rockin. They have a noise cutoff at 11 and we went on a little after 10. A decent amount of time, but with all of the bullshitting we do... During the first song I pulled a Davy Jones by stepping on my cords and unplugging my tuner... twice... Sigh.



We did Glorious Heroin and Half Breed/Eighteen with Frontier Dan. What a charming son of a bitch. We ended our set with Donkey Lady at lightning speed. It was more than a little unhinged.

10/4/17

It's (almost) Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta time! The true ACL weekend one officially starts Friday, but we have a couple of preview shows first.


Hickoids played at Jandro's in San Antonio last night. I'd never been there, but it's another new/cool place on St Mary's. The ever expanding street of rock.


We were last after two bands from Sweden and our buddies Pat Todd and the Rank Outsiders!!! Bring it!



I was running a little late so I thought I'd only catch one of the Swede collectives, but the night was running late... I showed up when Shady and the Vamp were two songs in. Rocking ass set. As were the Martin Savage Gang. Both bands had the core "Vamp" and then (I'm assuming) Martin Savage added in on guitar and vocals. Two sets of high energy rock and roll. A great way to start the night.


Pat was Pat. Always engaging while the Outsiders sling that no bullshit rock and roll. This was the first of three in a row we are doing with them. I'm lucky as hell sometimes. We get all of this out-of-town love in for ACL.



Speaking of, Frontier Dan is in to do his part. He is hopping up for a few songs each night with us. It's always a treat to play with that dude. The comedy runs high when Dan is around. AND he brought his Theremin!! I love it...


We finished up around the time I thought I'd be back home and in bed... No big deal, sleep will come later.

10/1/16

ACL night two.


Hickoids were last at the White Horse. I got there just as Chrissy Flatt's new group (New Mystery Girl) was going on. Hell of a good set. For years she was doing more of a folky solo (sometimes with a band) set. Now it's a lot more rocking and I think it fits her better. Nice work lady!


Pat Todd and the Rank Outsiders were back in Austin! And of course they whipped ass. Fuck, it's really good to see, hear and play with those guys again. I can't really add much, nothing has changed since the last time we played with them. Other than all of us ageing...


Our set was a good sloppy mess. A decent chunk of the (big) festival crowd stuck around for our stupidity. They were drunk and there was still music.. why not! During one tune Lance broke his kick pedal. I kept playing till he straightened it out, a lame ass bass odyssey that shouldn't have been heard by anyone... But I had no choice. With the show going on and all.


We finished with the lights on. The crowd was quickly tossed and the night ended with a bit of a whimper...


More next week.

3/17/12

This is late... and I'm still tired!

Hickoids had two shows on St Patty's day aka the day before my birthday/ my last day of sxsw.
#1 Woopsy party at Trophies. It was the standard setup, three stages with bands going on all the time. We were inside and followed by the Grannies. Every time I play here I get up on the first song and remember "oh yeah, I need some glow in the dark fret markers". The stage and lighting is weirdly dark and shadowy. Usually that would be a good thing but I keep missing notes! It's possible that some day I'll fix this...

#2 Nightrockers in SA. Davy and I showed up and Pat Todd was going on! They were just a four piece but they rocked it. Before we went on I walked by Lance and he said "Hi, I'm Trevor" so I said "Hi, I'm Devin". He asked "did you say Bevin?" I lied and said yes. Fast forward and we are playing Bennie and I look at Lance and he is singing "Bevin and the jets". I lost it.

I'll do some kind of SXSW wrap up thingy in the next couple of days.

3/15/12

Busy day. Three shows.

#1 Casters at the Dog and Duck. Tom was filling in on drums. Now he has filled in on bass, drums and guitar for that band. We did our set under the big tent and we rocked it pretty well. The crowd seemed to enjoy it. Bill was telling folks we were Canadian and we were gonna move to Austin and get on unemployment. I think someone booed.

#2 Me and the Ladies at the Local. Hell of a good set. The old drummer, Jill was there and she got up on bouncin. It was lovely. I popped a string on Boyds Creek and was ready to call it quits (we'd been playing for 45 minutes at that point) but the crowd made up play two more. Didn't do too bad, especially with a five string guitar.

#3 Hickoids at the Karma Lounge. This was an official showcase for Saustex and we played with some of our old friends from the left coast, the Grannies and Pat Todd. BIG rock and roll night. I know it wasn't the Springsteen extravaganza (which I would have loved to been at) but the "little room" rocked. Pat always looks me dead in the eye when he's singing. Imagine that, a connection with your audience!

More to come.