The show I'm gonna miss

On Saturday night this is gonna happen. As a last minute addition, the Hickoids were asked come and play a Dicks song on a huge bill. Hot Damn! Look at that lineup! Lucinda, Rosie, Butch, Terry, Alejandro, Roky (and so on...)  What a show!!

But there is one little problem. I'm headed to New Orleans on Saturday and I can't do it. This trip has been planned for a while now and there is no getting out of it (not that I really want to, it's been months since I've been to NO and we are only playing one song and it ain't even ours.)

So, what happens? The Hickoids do it without me.

Hunter Darby is stepping in. He was a Hickoid before I lived in Austin. He's also a bad ass player who will pull it off with ease.

We split the practice last night, the first half with me the second half with Hunter. It was really weird leaving with everyone else still hanging around ready to play, but since there are a few shows I won't be able to do this year, it's time to get use to it.

I'm still in the band, 100%. And if you see us in the US (other than this weekend) I will be the bass player. But this summer we head to Europe and I'm only gonna be there part of the time. They are planning to go for four weekends and between my day job and personal life there is no way I could swing that amount of time away. If I was getting paid (as in PAID, not $50 a show) it would be a very different story, but that's not how things work in our end of the pool. So we move forward.

I'm gonna be in Europe for some of the tour, but someone is gonna come and replace me (or I'll replace them depending on the schedule.) It will be cool, I'll get a chunk of time playing over there without fucking anyone over in the band or fucking up my life and finances (not to mention The Ladies!) It's not the best of options, but it's as close to a win/win as we're gonna get.

So this weekend, when my band mates (and Hunter) are hobnobbing with some of the biggest big shots of the Austin music scene (at the Moody Theater no less, where they film ACL) I'm gonna be in NO watching a bunch of brass bands at The Howlin Wolf.  This show will be one hell of a substitute.

12/31/13

It was the big fancy NYE show. We all made the drive separately and took along our ladies. Downtown Dallas was packed with folks ready for the big night. I saw multiple people walking in to our hotel with CASES of booze. These were not employees, these were guests and they were going to party. The drunken stupidity was inevitable.

Our hotel was a half a mile away from the HOB. I hoofed it over to set up my gear (Smitty brought the heavy stuff in the freak) and to check the place out.

The House of Blues in Dallas has three venues in it. One had a grunge show another had an oldies show and the big room had us opening for the Old '97's. I walked in the back stage entrance and off to the Hickoid green room. A lovely place with chips and salsa, a veggie tray, a coffee maker, a second coffee maker (for toilet coffee), a lovely assortment of soda and water.... and no beer... zero... we had to buy our own... NYE and no free beer for the band. Interesting decision since generally a "Blues" club feeds it's musicians booze like it's water and asks them if they want more when they are drooling and laying on the sidewalk (or ground if it's out in the country). We got food so it wasn't all bad but it still seemed odd. I never left the backstage area the whole night. The club looked like a cool place, but by the time I could check things out it was packed so I hid in the back.

RTB2 Kicked things off. They played the Saturday show at Antone's but I missed them then. This show they kicked ass! A little blues, a little rock and a little pop. A lot of sound for a two piece.

We were second and did pretty well. It was obvious that people were there for the '97's and wanted them on NOW! But we did our thing and did it good and by the end they were in to us.

The 97's went on and BOOM! The folks that were all reserved for our set boiled over into the drunken mob I knew was hiding under the surface. It's New Years Eve and these people ain't fucking around.

While they were rocking the Hickoids started drifting off into the night. We left by cab, van, car and foot. NYE would soon be in the past and another year of kicking musical ass is out there waiting for us.

Some BIG opportunities are on the way! Stay tuned.

12/27/13

Hickoids at Antone's, Austins semi home of the blues. Someone bought it again and they are shutting down for a few months to change things up. It's been a rough go for that place and now a bunch of people are gonna be out of work for the new year... ouch.

We were invited to play with the Old '97's for two of their three NYE shows. So we did this one and we will be doing NYE proper in Dallas at the House Of Blues. Hickoids are getting fancy on ya...

The first act was Sealion from Dallas. The had some sweet poppy tunes and a chick bass player! Always great. One of the guitar players had one of those reissue Fender '68 Princeton amps (I had an original, but it got too old to play out.) He said he picked it up when they were on their way to Austin. It sure sounded sweet with his Tele, no real shocker there.

We were next and did the Hickoid thing. It's always nice to play to a crowed club but a BIG crowed club is even better. There were a ton of people ready for fun and we gave it to them. You could tell that most of them had never heard of us up until then, we should stick in their brains after last night.

'97's were next and since pretty much everyone that was there was there to see them the place went a little nuts. They delivered the Americana Rock and the crowd wanted more, so they gave it to them. It's a very simple formula, but it seems to work every time.

I'm looking forward to Dallas on Tuesday.

Year End Wrap-up!

Shit, I've been busy! Hickoids played a ton and the Ladies and I really started to get things rolling (I really love this band!) We even had three Bigfoot Chester gigs! That's more than we had in the previous five years!

The Hickoids have two shows left this year, both with the Old '97's (Antone's in Austin on the 27th and House Of Blues in Dallas on NYE), and that will wrap things up, about 20 minutes before midnight, for this year.

On the Horizon for 2014, The Ladies and I are headed to the studio in late January (after Wiley has some surgery!). I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do with the recording, no plans yet for ANOTHER record, I just really want to get us on tape so I can hear it for myself!

Hickoids are headed for Europe again! June(ish) we will be hitting the continent (and possibly the UK). Right now everything is TBA, so stay tuned for details.

And as I mentioned here, South Filthy is booked for a festival in Mississippi for October. I am really excited about playing with Jack and Jeffry (and Walter) again. Hopefully we will knock out another record. We are making the drive after all...

That's it for now!

12/6/13

I am a week late on this one...

Hickoids made the drive to Houston and loaded our gear up those goddamn awful stairs. Good thing Rudyard's is such a good club. We were "Headlining" (last) on a cold and wet Friday night. The forcast kept screaming for ice and/or snow. It was gonna ba a long night. 

The drive there was easy and we loaded up and said our howdys. I got a falafel from next door and went back for the rock.

Shinta was up first. I love a band with a Lady! Good tunes and some screamin guitar. Bring it on! Barkin At Nothin had a splendid trio of songs about love, but their standout was "Get The Hell Out Of Texas". A brilliant piece of stupidity.

We went up and did the Hickoid thing. Finished and loaded back down the stairs... I hate those stairs... Started the drive home and everyone but me wanted food (damn falafel!) So we stopped at Denny's and watched some drunken Houstonians make fools of themselves. 4 AM, Friday night, it's a guaranteed good time.

The drive home was uneventful. The weather was kind and I stayed in the back and slept. Made it back home and into bed at 6:50. I was up for work at 8:45... Saturday was rough as hell. 

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).

11/30/13

The Ladies and I made the drive to Ft Worth. Draya was up there visiting family so it seemed like a good time to go and do a little playing out of town. Traffic was awful. 35 was a post holiday parking lot. It took us over four hours to make the drive, easily the worst part of the trip.

Finally make it to town and head to Fred's Texas Cafe. We are playing three sets and we learned a bunch of new tunes to fill things out. Four of my old ones (two have never been played by a band) I wrote two new ones and we snuck in three covers. We rocked that place.

One of the new ones was inspired by Otha Turner via Walter Daniels. After a Bigfoot show he was talking about doing a drum and fife thing but playing harmonica instead of the fife. I stole that idea in a heartbeat and threw some words on top. Suddenly I'm playing harmonica again. It felt really good, but I am extremely rusty and my mouth hurts like hell. There are many hours of practice in my future...

I won't get in to a blow by blow here, but Fred's is great. The crow was ready to have fun. We got people up dancing in no time and a lot of folks stayed for all three sets. The staff kicked ass and we got fed, free booze and paid. Thank you.

At the end of the night the Ladies and I came to the conclusion that we should play Fred's as often as possible. Before we tried it we were all a little nervous about playing three sets (I haven't done that kind of thing since I lived in Knoxville) but by the end it felt like we were the kind of band that's made for it.