10/24/19

Crazy ass night of driving yesterday.  The Harvey band was playing at the Lonesome Rose in San Antonio at 9, a little earlier than usual.  That kinda guarantees a a traffic heavy slog from Austin.  I’ve done it enough times I’m used to that, but this rain came out of nowhere right at the beginning. And it came down hard the whole drive...  

Even when I loaded in and out it was a mad dash to avoid getting soaked further. It also got cold as fuck....  joy of joys.  

Our set was pretty good. First full set as a four piece and we played pretty good. The sound was a little weird and on occasion there would be some loud distortion coming through the monitors. It actually took me by surprise a couple of times and I screwed up what I was playing.  Weird. 

Then on the drive home 35 was closed heading north because there was a lake worth of water on the interstate.  So a usually less than three hour round trip turned in to a white knuckle six hour trudge.

Should be better going back tonight.  

9/2/19

It had to happen sometime. Last show of the tour in Denton at Dan’s Silver Leaf. It was a 14 hour drive to get there. We left Cookeville around 5am and got to Dan’s at 7.... brutal. 

Both bands got up. And the sets were pretty damn good considering everything.  We were in semi autopilot mode but at that point of the trip we were so tight it would have been hard to have an awful show. 

At the end we packed up the freak and made the four hour drive to my place. I got my stuff and said goodbye (foolishly leaving a 12 pack of Yuengling behind...) and after a shower and a drink it was all over and I was finally in my own bed. Yeah!

4/20/19

Hickoids were back up in Denton with Hammel and Slobberbone at Dans Silverleaf. Since Denton is on the opposite side of the DFW metroplex it feels really far no matter how clear the roads are... the distance practically doubles when you make the drive home, after the show, late late at night. 

We were last, Hammel was first. He did basically the same set as the night before. That is not a complaint. That fucker is still killing it after all of these years. Still at the top of his game. No way to complain about that. 

Slobberbone did the same in the middle slot. KILLIN IT!! 

Since it’s their hometown club the majority of folks there were out to see them. So by the time we went on it was pretty thin... that happened last year when we played there with them. Oh well. It’s not like we are gonna cheat on our set and play half assed. Too dumb to know how. 

Near the end we did “Canada” and half way through I noticed a woman with a Rush shirt on! After she told me she was VERY happy. They love that Canadian rock everywhere! 

7/15/18

Bigfoot played a nice little party the other day. The house was way the hell north of Georgetown in a neighborhood that was on a golf course. I was driving Bill and we were getting more and more worried the closer we got. 

“They are gonna hate us aren’t they?”

“What are we in for?!”

“Is this some sort of ‘murder a band’ scenario?!!!”

I mean, we were playing in a neighborhood on a golf course. That isn’t the usual Bigfoot thing!!

I rang the doorbell and was greeted by a big, bearded dude covered in tattoos. Right behind him was three pinball machines and two full sized arcade games. We are safe. This is gonna be a lot of fun. 

We did two sets and only padded things out a little here and there. You’ve got to when you are (usually) a one set band. But the four of us have been playing together for so long that we have a ton of material. Two sets are relatively easy for us. 

After we packed it up, got paid and headed back to Austin. These kinda shows can be a real downer. This one was the exact opposite of that!

5/26/16

It was a bitch of a drive getting to Little Rock. As usual the Arkansas interstate system is shaky as hell. There were a couple of spots when it was down to one lane in both directions and we spent a fair amount of time stopped. Par for the course up here. The weather was shitty as well. At a few points there were sheets of rain pounding on us. The wind and the semis weren't smoothing things out either. We survived. 

The White Water Tavern is a pretty cool joint. It's all patched together and rough around the edges. Reminds me of some of the places I played when I lived in Knoxville. Between that and the hospitality it kinda felt like home. 

Frontier Circus was first. Pretty much the same ass whipping as the last time but now they have three guitars (don't worry they still have the theremin!) Beautiful. 

Our set was a little rough. Took us a while to get going but we were running properly by the end. 

According to sources this little tour is gonna be plagued by bad weather. I keep hearing about rain, wind and tornado... 

Tulsa tomorrow. 

4/29/16

I bummed another ride with Lance for this last one. It was only to San Antonio but since there was a backline we carpooled like responsible little Austinites.

The show was at San Antonio University. From what I heard it was the final for the RTF students. All I really know is we got paid before we played! Jacob was playing with Javier (who was up next) so he got up and Hickoided it for the set. Nice to have him back for the night. There was a fair amount of "reminding" going on, but he always catches up fast.

Our set was ok. At times we rocked it, but we are always a little behind reality when we play on a big stage and we need to rely on monitors. We are a club band. Someday we may get there...

Javier had a great set. There was a little bit of rain and a lot of lightning, but that added to the kick-assness! Rock and Roll in the rain is fucking great.

We were dry for the drive home and we made it back before midnight! I like easy/early gigs like this.

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.

9/26/15

Then it was Saturday and we were still in New Orleans. Well most of us were, Cody had to jet off to play a show somewhere in Central Texas, but the rest of us were there and so was Rowsey. And the folks over at Siberia casually  mentioned that their happy hour band canceled on them. I just happened to have my Les Paul and Tom had his Bass. By some miracle of chance (i.e. planning) all of us had our Swishbuckling gear, so we strapped it on for one more round of pirate rock.

The crowd was thin, but since we finalized the the show a couple of hours before it happened you can't expect a huge turnout. It's a little bittersweet, we probably played the best show of the year (for the 'bucklers) to ten people. You could tell that we all knew the songs better and the confidence level was high. Smooth sailing would be an appropriate metaphor here, or a half assed pun...

I played through Cody's rig, a giant Marshal head on a 4X10 Orange cabinet. I went through the second input and kept the volume on one and a half. When it went to two it was way too much. His rig has no tremolo (I've come to rely on it) so I had to screw around with my delay pedal to try to mimic the sound the best I could. I eventually got something decent but I couldn't help thinking I sounded a little like The Edge...

After the set we packed up the Freak Van started the drive back home. We really got on the road around 11PM after a dinner at America's shittiest diner and we made it to my place around 7AM. Not a bad little drive.

8/27/15

Hickoids were first on a bill of three last night in San Antonio. We played a new(ish) club called Paper Tiger. It was the White Rabbit a few years ago and it's right across the street from the Mix. I got there early and a couple of the guys from the club came out and helped me load in, Damn!

The stage is big and I was told they installed a new bank of monitors earlier that day. This place is nice. SA has a lot of money coming in. People finally figured out that San Antonio is a cool, cheap place to live. For the time being...

The rest of the guys showed up and we sound checked. About a half hour before we started the sound guy asked me how I wanted our mix to sound. Uhhh, what?

"Do you want the guitars on the left to come out on the right so it sounds like stereo? Or do you want it balanced across the front?" I was poleaxed. Never has a sound guy asked me that, NEVER! I didn't know what to say, but I opted for balanced across the front, but it might be cool the other way.

We played our set. It was decent. The crowd was light and in between songs they were silent. I mentioned all the quiet was gonna sound great on the live recording... It got the laugh I expected.

We finished, they fed us some pizza! I loaded up and headed home right after and made it home before midnight.

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.

3/20/15

Friday of SXSW I only have two shows today!

#1 AGBG with the Gay Sportscasters.

I drove down to South Austin on an extended lunch hour from the day job to fill in for this show. Tom (who took over for me a couple of years ago) couldn't make it so I was back in for one. The stage was packed with three dancers, three guitars, a singer, bass and drums. It's a decent sized space, but not with that many people on it.

I was switching between both sides of the stage. When I was singing I was on the opposite side of the bass rig. That's always a little weird, but you get used to it. There were a bunch of kids at the show and they all got eyes and ears full! The 'casters would have been my dream band when I was a kid. All of that jiggling flesh and dirty talk, I would have been in heaven!

We finished up and as I was changing back in to work clothes the rain really picked up. I was soaked by the time I got back in the car. At least the post show shower was taken care of...

#2 Triple Crown with the Hickoids.

After seeing the Residents and 숨[suːm] at the Paramount (!!!!) I made the drive to San Marcos. It was a shitty, drizzly night and it kept getting colder. I made it to the club right when Pony was finishing up. We loaded up and rocked a thin but excited crowd. The Triple Crown is a locals bar and it hard to get the central Texas locals out during SXSW even in San Marcos, but we still had some good, drunken fun during the night.

The most memorable moment was after closing one of the other bands on the bill had a truck with a dead battery (if you keep three iphones plugged in and the overhead light on for hours on end without turning on the car it will drain the battery...) So Smitty pulled up the freak van and got them jumped, but then he locked the keys in the freak!!! Chalk that one up to exhaustion. Tom and I broke in and eventually everyone got to go home home, but now without feeling a little bit stupid first...

3/13/15

Hickoids were out at Riley's last night. We opened for the Beaumonts to a small and somewhat enthusiastic crowd. I got there after a quick 45 minute drive. Traffic was only messy through the downtown Austin area. Friday night, the first day of spring break and the weekend before the music portion of SXSW. It's the calm before the storm.

Our set was ok. We haven't practiced or played for a couple of weeks and it showed. Riley's isn't a rock club, so we can't play as loud as we usually do. It's weird playing at half throttle.

We finished up and the Beaumonts went on. A fair amount of people showed up for them. I caught the first two numbers an took off for home. That was a mistake...

Fifteen minutes in to the drive 35 was a three lane parking lot that eventually tapered off to one row of cars on the shoulder. It took an hour to go a half mile and two hours to get home. Could have been worse. The truck that had us blocked was crumpled in half and facing the wrong direction. I didn't enjoy the extra time on the drive, but it was better than that.

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...

10/18/14

The second South Filthy show was up in Memphis at a place called Hi-Tone (not to be confused with Hi-Tones in SA.) I made the drive from down in the Delta and wandered around Memphis for a few hours. It's weird to be touring with a band and your by yourself most of the time. Usually there are a couple of other folks around to help keep you from boredom. Not this trip... I did a lot of napping in a few parking lots around town to eat up some time.

Eventually I hit the club and hooked up with the other fellas. We went on 11ish to a decent crowd and had a set similar to the night before... Not so great, but it had some moments. One in particular was when we did "When the Saints..." and they threw me a solo.  

Bass solos are the worst. Especially if I have to play them. We did that tune seven years ago when we were touring Europe and I'd totally spaced that I was gonna have to step out for a verse until Walter pointed at me and shouted over the mic "Rice Moorehead". I made it to the end and I don't think I was too awful...

We finished up, got paid (poorly, Memphis is like Austin) and Jack offered me a place to crash, but I wanted to get on the road back to Little Rock. On my drive in I saw the interstate headed west had a couple of long construction spots that had traffic backed up for miles so I wanted to avoid that (even at 4 AM all traffic ended up being stopped...)

I got to Downtown LR and found a spot next to a building that would block the sun when it came up and I slept for a few hours. Then I bounced around "the rock" for a bit before I headed home.

Hopefully it won't be another five years before we do South Filthy again. I really like playing in that band. And, maybe, just maybe we can practice once before the show.

8/10/14

I made the drive solo to the South Texas Popular Culture center. It was a quick, hot drive. Like really hot, like middle of the summer in Texas on the asphalt hot. It was hot. I hit the door with ten minutes to spare. Apparently we are going on sooner than I realized... Ahem... Well I made it!

Today kicked ass. It brings up the question "why couldn't this show be filmed?" A small sweaty room packed with people who want to rock and roll and have a good time. THAT'S the kinda place where we need cameras! But there weren't any and if there were we would probably just fuck it up anyway. It just as well we played and people liked it and only pictures were taken.

This was a benefit for Davy who is still out of commission (and will be for some time) there was a little over $2000 raised for him to cover the huge medical bills he is facing. It's good we could help with a little chunk of it.

The current version of the Hickoids is rocking along nicely. After one practice and five shows we sound like a coherent band. Everything is different without Jones (duh). None of the intros are the same and (obviously) the tone and the playing is "off". But Cody kicks ass and Tom has really stepped it up. Lance and I are awesome (no bragging... well...) And Smitty... still puts a smelly ass (and smelly from ass) microphone in my face. People like it.

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...

SXSW Wrap Up

Here it is, the big wrap up. As always it was a clusterfuck of a weekend. I had a lot of fun running myself in to the ground and I saw some pretty cool bands, but the festival is just too big for Austin. It's been that way for the past ten(ish) years and it's just continued to multiply. If you've read any of the post-festival fallout (examples here and here) you've probably noticed a trend towards the negative, there are some very good reasons for that. Austin and SXSW are changing and it may not be for the better.

It's not easy to see the changes when your living here, they can be too small and/or subtle. It's like plastic surgery. At the beginning you may notice one or two small changes here or there then suddenly one day you look up and you can't recognize Joan Rivers anymore and it scares the hell out of you. She may have the same personality but something isn't right... That's what Austin is like right now. I still love her and I don't want to move, but the grievances are stacking up. I know I'm gonna sound like a pissed off old man by writing the next few paragraphs, but they are accurate and my grievances need to be aired.

Read this first http://i.imgur.com/KRWNNiR.jpg

Imagine that in the "land of the free". The city is forcing a business owner to dedicate one of it's parking spaces (on private land) to another businesses vehicle. It isn't even an Austin (or US) based company, they are from Germany. I like the Germans a lot, but they should not be able to force another business to store their cars and prevent an actual customer from using a parking space and the city shouldn't be writing policies for it to happen in the first place.  The Car 2 Go folks have also taken a number of the regular downtown street parking spaces and converted them into Car 2 Go only spaces (as in if I park my truck in one I will get towed.) If you drive a Car 2 Go you can park in any of the regular spaces and not have to pay for it... So one Car 2 Go can prevent two regular cars from parking. Are you pulling your hair out yet?

Last year I pad $20 to park, all night,  downtown a week and a half before the music fest. It was a total ripoff, but I justified it because it was very close to where I was playing and I was getting paid. This year I saw signs that were offering $35 parking for three hours. When did this become Manhattan? I parked on the street in San Fransisco for three hours for less than five bucks just a couple of years ago. The last time I checked there are a lot more people in a lot less space in SF and NYC then there are in Austin, why are we paying this much for parking?

We have the metro rail. It was screwed up as a concept when I moved to town twenty two years ago, now it's a screwed up reality. This is a two parter.

#1

They never bought the proper sensors for the trains. They are loaded with the gear that is meant for freight trains. The sensor is different because a freight train travels long distance at a fast speed, so people at an intersection a half mile away will be stopped from crossing the track when a freight is barreling down. This makes sense. Metro Rail trains don't travel at freight train speeds. They also stop at multiple stations along the track, so they need a different kind of sensor. Currently when a metro rail train is stopped at a station you are not allowed to cross the tracks anywhere near it.

On my daily (bike) commute to work I cross Guadalupe at Airport four times a day. This intersection has two stations about a quarter of a mile on either side of it (this is also pretty stupid, it's miles in between the stations on either side of those.) If there is a train at either station I am not allowed to cross the tracks. There have been days where I have literately spent a total of twenty extra minutes out in the sun waiting on the metro rail to leave it's station and go past. It sucks in February, it is misery in August.

#2

But part of me was ok with it. Since I live near two stations I would head downtown on Mondays and get my mail from the PO box and get a little lunch and head home. It was nice and it was $2 a person to do the round trip. That's all changed. Now it's $5.50. There is no longer any "local" service. If you come in from the Lakeline Mall stop (the northern, end of the line) it's $5.50 for the round trip. If your headed all the way downtown, you will save a lot of money on the 30-40 mile round trip and you won't have to pay for parking or screw around with traffic, it's a great deal when you factor in everything. But when you get on in my neighborhood and your charged $5.50 for the ten mile round trip that was $2 a month and a half ago it can piss you off.

The train is no longer meant for local use. It's only purpose is to move people who don't live in Travis County, or pay taxes in Travis County to and from their Travis County jobs. Sure there is a little less congestion on the roads and that's a good thing, but it does very little for the people who actually live AND work in Travis County. It just makes it harder for the "locals" to get around.  Why are we making it easier for people to use the services of Austin when they don't pay the taxes that fund them?

I am not even gonna get in to the toll road fiasco... it is awful and depressing on a whole different level.

So how do I feel about this year's SXSW? I liked getting to see a few new bands, but I didn't really take advantage of anything. If I wasn't playing I wasn't gonna be in the middle of it. Especially since there was no easy way in or out of downtown (or parking when you got there.) It was too easy to say fuck it and just stay home. So that's what I did.

Hickoids getting in to the Hall Of Fame was pretty cool, but it wasn't that special and we had to pay for booze and food. Sure they had us stand for pictures in front of a banner covered with booze and food manufactures names and now my picture can be used for advertising, but we couldn't get any of those products for free... I would have had more fun if I stayed back at the White Horse watched some music.

One of the stupidest things I saw had to be the SX Subway thing that was set up right next to the convention center. It was a little, fenced in "village" with banners all over the place.  I'm guessing that since there was all the bad press over having rubber in their bread they spent some cash trying to make Subway "hip" and "friendly" again... Pitiful. Don't forget that SXSW let Subway coop part of the name so they got paid and allowed to allow it to happen. Pitiful times two.

So all of this bitching is coming from someone who still loves Austin. I have no desire to move and I have no idea where I'd move to if I did. I am also an optimist (believe it or not). No matter how many times my nose is rubbed in to the figurative shit that is humanity, I still want to believe things will turn around for the better. I'm hoping my grievances are just Austin's (and SXSW's) growing pains and that things WILL improve in the future. Let's just hope that we as a city can grow up enough to fix some of this before our souls are gone.

3/15/14

Yeah this one is late. I'll have a SXSW wrap up coming tomorrow (I hope) Saturday night kinda knocked the crap out of me.

The Hickoids first set started at 6PM at the '04 lounge. The drive was ok, I found decent parking and for the first time during this years fest, I used my own bass rig! We set up and played after A Pony Named Olga, again. Our set was ok, it was a little early in the day and I think we were all in the marathon mindset, as in don't blow your wad too early boy, you got three shows today. 

The '04 is a cool place, but where the bands set up is right where people walk by to go to the bathroom. So your rocking out with your eyes are closed and when you open them back up someone looking at you like "Get out of my way, I have to piss" It's strange.

Johnny Hell was there and he got up for two songs (Lance played a show before this one, so he was happy to take the break) as always it was nice playing with him. He and Lance even did a little double drumming on "Stop It", the world needs more double drummer lineups! After the set we quickly packed up and headed to...

ABGB on Oltorf. We were on at 8. I parked in the back and loaded just my bass and cords in (backline!) I was immediately asked what I wanted to drink and eat. I could get use to this. I had a couple of lagers but I held out for the pizza until after we played. When we showed up DD Dagger was on the stage and whipping ass. I haven't seen Allison blow sax in years and I really, REALLY liked this band. I've got to do a show with them and the Ladies it will be an "Animalistic Rock-A-Thon"! 

This set was a lot better than our first one. All of us were giving it a little extra gas and the sound was really good which makes the job a whole lot easier. It also felt more like a real show, ABGB has a stage! We did our thing and the crowd was in to it. We finished the set, ate some pizza and head to...

The Triple Crown. "Olga" was up when I got there. I settled in to the back and hung out with the Grannies and a Beaumont until they finished. Grannies were next, I hadn't seen a whole set from them since Europe last year so I caught every song. Sluggo was playing a cheap SG copy and I knew it wasn't gonna last. During the solo on the last tune of their set Sluggo jumped up on the bar and started playing the guitar with an ashtray. Then he hopped to the ground, took it off and started swinging. Pop, Pop, Pop. The satisfying sound of a cheap guitar hitting linoleum. 

We were next and we played fine. I used Tom's bass rig because it was still on the stage and no one, including me, felt like moving it. There was some definite ass dragging going on in our third set (fourth for Lance!) But we survived the full 45 minutes and broke our shit down. SXSW was over for us. Now all we had to do was watch the Beaumonts! They were great as usual. Nothing new, just regular old, bad ass Beaumontin'.

After that Smitty and I went to IHOP and got some food. I drank almost a full pot of coffee and I was still buzzing from it after the 45 minute drive home. I drank three beers after a shower and finally went to bed around 6AM, twelve hours after the first show started (and that doesn't include me being at the day job from 10-4). The next day I woke up around noon, ate and managed to stay awake for a couple of hours before I fell asleep again. When I woke back up it was Monday afternoon and I was still on the couch. It's kinda a SXSW tradition.

2/8/04

It was an easy drive to San Antonio, traffic wasn't too bad and I was parked behind the Mix in no time. There was some sharing of gear so I only needed to bring my bass and some cables. Easy!

I got there and the Hormones had about four songs left. Tom was (is?) playing bass with them and this was his first show. I thought it sounded pretty good from the outside. According to Tom I heard the best part of the set, I think he said "The first part was shitty". I'll have to take his word on that.

Next up was our old friends the Guillotines. They now have THREE guitar players with THREE Marshall half stacks!  Talk about a load of sound, they were supersonic.

We were last. The side of the "stage" (there is no stage, you stand on the floor at the Mix) we were on had the stickiest goddamn floor in the world (only a little hyperbole here). Tom and I were leaving chunks of shoe behind. I tried to spend most of the set in front of Lance and away from the glue trap floor, but every time I sang I had one food stuck...

I survived the set/floor, helped with the load out (after all I brought barely anything) and made the drive back home. An easy Saturday night.

12/1/13

It was a driving kinda weekend. After I got home from Ft Worth I cleaned up, had a beer and went to sleep around 4. I woke up at 1 and lazed around til 5 then I drove to SA.

HIckoids at Sam's. It was a benefit for our buddy Jerry. There were a bunch of cool bands on the bill, but I saw no more than two minutes of two of them. This weekend I am that asshole....

We had a decent set. Nothing amazing, but nothing awful. The crowd was a little on the sparse side (in a room that big you need a hundred or so people to make it not look empty) but they were spirited and fun to play for.

We finish up and I hung out for a little bullshitting with some folks. Then I hopped in the truck and headed home for some more sleep (after a beer).