11/13/11

Another day at Jovitas. My buddy Ken Jones (aka Poetken) asked me to join him in a little round robin songwriter swap. I did and it was fun. I am not into the whole four songwriters on the stage playing one song each going around and around (I've played this way and it's been called a guitar pull, one of the worst names). Most of my songs are two and a half minutes long and when your followed by three others that have songs four to five minutes long you get kinda bored. The "mini set" route is so much cooler. Three songs each and switch. It gives you time to build a little something. Three songs about murder, love or sex. Or some of each really changes the dynamic of a boring songwriters night.

Breakdown

The staff was the same as the last show so everything was great there. My solo setup Is so good it hurts. My Guild jazz box into that Top Hat portly cadet is so sweet I could explode. 5 Watts of dreamy goodness.

11/5/11

It's back to me and the "girls". Wiley's first show/ 5th rehearsal/ 2nd time to play with us with a full drum kit and it was pretty damn great. The "band" before us was a couple of older gentlemen with a couple of mics and some weird black tower they sat the computer on. The computer had the music they sang to. They did hits like "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Unchained Melody" and they mentioned something about releasing a cd...

After us was Chuck's Wagon. Three guys from Australia and two from Central TX. Some pretty bad assed straight up country with a little edge to it. Fine stuff. They opened for the Hickoids here.

Breakdown

It was at Jovitas and the beers are cheap and the crowd was decent. The LPB-1 still rules. A nice and simple Saturday night.

11/28/11

Hickoids have been on a little break (and are on one again until NYE) but we snuck one in last saturday.
Uncle Billy's out in the Oasis complex near lake Travis. I haven't been to the Oasis in years, they always hyped being on the deck to watch the sunset, with ALL of the new decks I am certain they have pushed that to the limit.

Breakdown.

Billy's is just one of the may parts of this bar/restaurant complex. It's a brewpub and I am very happy to say the porter was excellent and free! (the first sign of a good place) They fed us (second sign) and paid us (trifecta!). I could get spoiled by this.
Tom filled in on drums (Jonie Hell was in Vegas, bastard) and Lutz filled in on the 5th man duties. The sound guy was really cool, but he had his work cut out for him. Mixing in a glass concrete huge room has got to be the hardest thing, but he made it sound really good.

Truck stop question

So why does a truck stop in Carl's Corner TX have all of these maps for BC?

10/15/11

First mobile post

I'm on i35 sitting in the back of the freak van heading home. Hickoids played at this place called the Kessler theatre and it's one hell of a nice place. The deco front is really cool...

We could hear ourselves on stage which is something we aren't too accustomed to. It's amazing what good gear and competent sound people can do.

Breakdown

I ended up with three drink tickets, not bad but lone stars were $4 each! That is painful to my sensitive Austin wallet.

My rig rules

This is only the second show I've played with it, but It is incredibly versatile. I love turning up the tube tone and makin things "Bootsy"! One hell of a good sound.

Gear nerd

That is a picture of my new and old favorite toy, the Electro Harmonix Linear Power Booster (LPB-1).
I picked up the old one years ago when I was playing solo all the time. I needed a preamp for my acoustic, most PAs don't have enough gain for a straight acoustic and I found that thing used, in a guitar store and fell in love. After a while I used it so much I got tired of changing the battery (notice the four screws on the top, total pain in the ass) so I added the wall wart. That made it sound like shit so I moved on.

Just the other day I saw the "new" LBP and I said to myself "GET IT!" so I did.

I don't use it for solo stuff anymore (hollow body and an amp for solo now) but that thing does some amazing things to the electric. I've been using a modded blues driver and a compressor for a long time and they sound great, but putting the LPB in front of those two takes me to supersonic delight! I'm a guy who never used a pedal until a couple of years ago and now I have (and need!) three. What a cool toy.

New/Old

The new one beats the pants off the old one. The fact that it has a foot switch alone makes it better. The only bad things I can say about it is the case is cheap and the battery that came with it was total crap (but who would actually use that thing anyway). This thing sells for about $25 and that is one hell of a steal.

A little more about "CHiP's"

For background see this.

I finally paid the ticket. They added a $12.95 convenience charge to the total making it $167.95. I could have avoided the charge if I'd shown up in person or mailed in a check, but then California would be out all of that extra money. They could go broke....