3/14/14

For the second year in a row Peelander-Z hooked up Bigfoot Chester with an afternoon show at the Grackle. It's the fourth year they've had this party and they always have really cool bands on the bill. This years lineup did not disappoint.

I snuck this show in on a long lunch from the day job and I made the ten minute drive in twenty five. But, I got some serious princess parking, right on the street by the club! Last year I parked and had to walk a half mile to get to the gig. It's a small but glorious victory.

I get there and The Otonana Trio from Japan is on. The singer has a mic stand attached to his guitar and is jumping all over the stage. The rhythm section is tight as shit and on fire. They get to their last song and it's a mini-rock opera about ramen. The first part was about how great ramen is and how all of the world loves and celebrates it. The second part was about how the bad people came and said ramen was no good for you and it was made by people who wanted to hurt you. In the third part a ramen superhero came and saved ramen by defeating the bad, anti-ramen people and made all of the world love ramen again. A super cool comic book in a song.

The next band was Wolf Face from Tampa. They all had their faces covered in hair and wore basketball uniforms. The singer's name was Michael J Wolf and the songs were about things that happened to them in high school. As in "This song is about what my basketball coach said to me..." What a rocking/funny set.

We were next, we did seven songs and pretty much whipped it. I used Purple's bass rig. 6 x 10" with 500 watts! I nice, loud, warm and thumpy. A huge improvement from yesterday's rig AND I didn't move shit! During "Harpoon Man" Walter jumped off the stage, blowing his harp on the big solo at the end. Yellow ran up and started faking a harp solo with his Iphone. It was a real vs fake harp off! Pretty funny shit.

We finished and I pack up my crap and say goodby to the Bigfoot fellas and Yellow comes up to me with a concerned look on his face. We have the following conversation (keep in mind Yellow speaks broken English with a Japanese accent and he is a highly animated fellow.)

Yellow "Are you going to play somewhere else?"

Me "No, I've got to go back to work"

Another gig?

No, My day job.

What do you do?

I sell stereo's.

Oh, You very busy!

Yeah, I came here on my lunch hour.

(Smiling and laughing so hard he is almost on the edge of hysteria) Your lunch hour?! You a very busy man!!! VERY BUSY MAN!!!!!!!

He shook my hand again, slapped me on the back and said "Have a good day, busy man."

I did!

3/16/13

My last full day of SXSW. Two shows!

#1

Bigfoot Chester at the Grackle. Peelander Z asked us to play, we couldn't say no. Especially after Yellow kept calling us "Sexy Boys". It's impossible to say no to that.

There was some transportation issues so our set was pushed back a bit. I'm told that using an Austin Chronicle for a gas funnel is a bad move... I can believe it.

We were gonna play five songs, but they made us do one more! Is it an encore at that point? Or just a slightly extended set?

Run to the truck and dodge traffic to,


#2

Hickoids at the 04 lounge.

I'd never been there before, but like most people who have played in a band in Austin, I've practiced across the street at the Music Lab. I am so happy I don't do that anymore.

It's a pretty cool space. The "stage" is between the main area and the bathrooms so people have to walk right beside you to pee. It made for some comical moments at times.

We did our set and the weight was gone. Boom. SXSW was over (ok I went and saw the Meat Puppets that night) but there were no more shows for me!


Breakdown

Free Lone Star at the 04! And two free beers at the Grackle (more than enough for the hour and a half I was there).

I got to use backline bass rigs the whole fest! That saved me a ton of time and strain. Thanks Tony (and the Dog and Duck and Peelander Z)!

Europe next!