11/24/12

It was one hell of a long and rough trip. I'll get in to that in another post, right now I want to talk about Siberia.

Hickoids were there Saturday night with The Unnaturals and Nick Name and the Valmonts. I met the rest of the fellas at the club after hoofing it from my hotel on Canal St. I'll get in to that later too...

I walked in just when Nick and the Valmonts were finishing. I wish I'd caught more, I liked what i heard. I did catch all of the Unnaturals and I loved the hell out of their set (and the CD! Thanks!). Some really inspired punk/surf, very cool. I hope we see more of both of them in the near future.

Hickoids get up and we do our thing on borrowed Unnaturals' equipment. As usual I wish I had mine, but I was really happy to be playing, especially after all the shit that lead up to that point. Once again more on that later.

Breakdown

Three beer tickets and a few free ones thrown in. Siberia is a lovely place.

It's been a rough trip

11/23/12

Hickoids at Fitzgeralds in Houston. This was a reunion show for the Axiom, a Houston club that was way before my time. There were a ton of people out for it. When I pulled up around 10 PM there were a few hundred folks waiting to get in and it was already packed inside. Nice.

This is the first of three nights of a little tour, Houston, New Orleans, and Lafayette. I had to work on Saturday (today) so I made the round trip drive by myself while the other fellas were packed up in the Freak. I was on the road by midnight and in the house and showering by 2:30. I didn't even speed all that much... I'm flying out to NO for the show tonight. I'm fancy.

I went to Houston early to hit Southpaw Guitars, the happiest place in the world, if your a lefty. I was/am looking for a lefty P bass, but they didn't have what I wanted (picky). I did see a really cool Gibson 336 if you have a spare $3200 you want to give me!

Breakdown

There was a backline but the bass amp sounded like crap. It was some fancy tube amp, but it couldn't keep up with the SPL level needed for the Hickoids. A backline is nice, but I wished I was using mine.

In the expansive backstage area there was a cooler of beer, pizza and cookies. I almost felt spoiled.

More tomorrow.

11/21/12

Hickoids at the ND the day before Thanksgiving. It's a beautiful time of the year. Decent turnout for a Wednesday night, especially since a lot of people I know were already out of town.

This was our first show with what should be the Hickoids lineup for a while. Tom(Tony), Davy, Lance, Smitty and Me. Smitty is even picking up the guitar and "helping" on a few tunes. He did this for a while when I first started, but he dropped it pretty quick. This time I think it's sticking around.

We are sounding tight and huge. Weekly practices for the last year are really helping. It's amazing what happens when a lazy band gets off it's ass. They get better! Amazing I know...

Breakdown

Three beer tickets good for tallboys. That's good with me.

My only "problem" the whole night is the stage cuts back behind the section I was standing on. It makes me paranoid I'm gonna step back and bust my ass. It's in my nature to do something stupid like that. And much more likely since I'm standing on the stage.

Houston/NO/Lafayette this weekend!

11/16/12

Davy and I made the drive to SA to knock out some backing vocals for the new Hickoids record. Joe Trevino is an absolutely amazing engineer. It isn't all about owning all the right equipment and knowing how to mic things up. It's mostly about having patience and looking/waiting for the right performance. Jones and I were there for a little more than two hours and over that time I heard him say "Don't worry about it brother, we are getting there" a dozen or so times. Saint like patience. Beautiful.

It was pretty cool actually hearing some of Smitty's lyrics I've never heard before. Generally it's way too loud (and I'm too busy) to understand anything he is singing. In the studio you can hear every word and he had me cracking up several times. I've been on the other side of the fence for most of my life. With the Ladies (and previous incarnations of my act) I'm the songwriter so I know what I'm saying and I've had my band mates say "Oh, that's what that songs about..." This time, that was me. Perspective!

11/10/12

Hickoids in Dallas at the Doublewide. It took forever to get there. Bad traffic on 35 and a couple of extra stops on the way. Forgive us, it is hard driving by the Czech Stop in West and kolaches make the drive better!

We make it and load in. My favorite thing about this club is it has three different sections. The main bar, outside and the music part. It's nice because the bar can make money on drinkers without having to force them to watch a band they may not want to watch. And it's great for the bands because the people in the music room want to be there! Smart.

The openers were Lois and the Psycho Sidekicks and Graceland. Both did a hell of a job. The Graceland folks had a bunch of matching Orange amps, It looked and sounded really cool.

We played and kicked our usual amount of ass. We had to do some serious hauling of the ass to get home. Scott had a gig at the San Antonio marathon and needed to be there at 6 AM! I did the last half of the drive (after much caffeine) to Austin. We pulled up to Davy's a little after 5. I don't know if Lutz and Smitty made it the rest of the way.

As for me I was still jacked up on the wake up juice when I got home. After a couple of beers I made it to bed around 6:45 and woke up the next day around 3. I was glad I was off...

Breakdown

Two free beers and $2 Lone Stars after that. Not bad

Doublewide in Dallas

Hickoids will be there on Saturday. You gotta love a club with a mural like that.