8/2/14

Day two, Seattle

We finished the drive to Seattle, napped it up at the hotel then headed to Slims. What a cool joint with some really good porter on tap! We played here the last time we were in town five or six years ago. That time we were on the inside stage and this time we were outside (it was so nice outside) where the stage is the bed of a truck. 

First off was Adrian Conner, she played an SG through a Marshall half stack and she played it exactly like that kind of rig should be played. At first I thought the bass player was just solid as shit, but it quickly became clear that she was really just a badass. And the drummer played like an animal. I really liked their set and I wish they played longer. 

Communist Eyes were next and they had a real punchy set. But before they went on I was told my old buddy Miss Xanna was there! Apparently she and her wife moved up there a year and a half ago and and they are digging it. She also hooked me up with some very tasty, legal weed!!!  Washington state, you are a brilliant place. 

We got up and it was the first time I've ever played a show when the stage was an all metal truck bed (I have played on several other truck beds in the past but this was the first all metal one.) It was nice and bouncy up there and it kept throbbing a little after the beat. That really kept my head in the songs, I didn't want to screw up too much. 

After we headed back to the hotel and I got three hours of sleep before I went to the airport for a shirt trip to Vegas! I've been working hard, I NEED a break...

Lance, Cody and Smitty are hanging in Seattle for another day. Tom had it the worst. His flight home was at 6am and he has to do inventory right after he gets there. Awful.  

One more little thing. I guess I was a little to harsh on the Austin airports security. SEA made me break my case down and they swabbed it (I'm assuming it's gonna happen in Vegas as well) so it's not an AUS thing, it's a TSA thing. 

8/1/14

Day one of a mini Hickoid tour in the Pacific Northwest. 

We all met at the Austin airport at a ridiculous hour to make our 6AM flight. The Austin airport has a strange policy of checking every guitar case that goes under the plane for explosives residue. I get it at some level, you don't want a bomb on an airplane (duh) but EVERY guitar out of AUSTIN???!!! That's a whole lot of swabbing. Anyway my bass case is a weird vault kinda thing and it's a real pain in the ass to put back together so I always have to go to the back room to help them out. And that means I've got to get there earlier than usual. Let's just say that at 4:30AM I am pretty useless...

We finish the first flight and have a three hour layover in Vegas. Then another two hour flight to Seattle. We grabbed the rental and make the drive to Portland. It could have been easy but it took around two and a half hours to go 40 miles...

Traffic clears eventually and we make it to the hotel and later to the club, Tonic Lounge. Nice place! We were the last of three bands on the bill. First up the Lovesores. Some pretty sweet rockin punk and the lead player was amazing! Then our old buddy from Austin JT (whom I hadn't seen since the last time we hickoided it up in the PNY) latest band Adios Amigos, an (almost) all instrumental four piece with a bass 6 holding down the low end (and a real badass on lead, it's a theme) Some sweet shit. 

We finished things up with a pretty good set. We were all feeling a little punchy by that time (we'd been up for more than 20 hours at that point) we were mostly semi-reacting for the majority of it. But the crowd liked it and that's what really counts. 

Currently we are in the rental heading to Seattle for tonight's show at Slim's. We are all fairly well rested and our stomachs are full from a great breakfast at the restaurant (Montage Cafe) where JT works. He even comped us the meal!!! It's a fine way to live. 

Another gig I don't want

Last night after Hickoid rehearsal a panel van was blocking our way out. A couple of the fellas walked over to see what was up. Apparently a band was loading a piano (and other gear) in to the truck to play a show later that night.

It was a little after 11 by the time we could get out and they were just heading to the club. To a show that starts at midnight at the earliest. On a Thursday. And they had to move a piano...

Add that to the list of shows I don't want to play.

7/11/14

It was the Bigfoot Chester 20th anniversary show at the Hole in the Wall. Guests and Bigfoot alums made it up on the stage for three sets of musical goodness and to raise a little money for Davy who is still doing his best to whip cancer. The best part of the night was that a ton of people showed up! We are popular once every 20 years!!! It's not much but we'll take it.

Walter and Bill were the only ones who played the whole time. I think either Trey or Billy Steve (who isn't in Bigfoot, but played all of the last two sets) played a little less than them and I probably came in fifth on the who played the most list. I think I did about twenty five songs with Walter and Bill topping out around 35.

The first couple of Bigfoot lineups played as well as the Giblets (which is a Bigfoot hybrid with Billy Steve added and Cindy Toth (my old bass player) on bass.) The slow orgy that is the Austin music scene continues to roll on...

Special guests included Joe from Meat Purveyors (who was dressed as Davy which was kinda freaky, especially when I would just catch a glimpse of her from the stage) Joe from Churchwood, Ted Roddy and a couple of others I'm forgetting (it was a late night.) Texacala showed up too late for her songs, we played them without her. It's unfortunate, but there was a tight as hell schedule that we tried our damnedest to adhere too, she ended up the only "casualty" of the night. 

So that's pretty much it. We raised a decent chunk of change for Davy and took over the Hole for a Friday night and rocked a whole lot of people. More Bigfoot to come!???

One more thing, The beer they now give to bands at the Hole is atrocious. You use to get Lone Star and now it's something called Mexicali (I think that's the name, but every sip I took got me closer to permanent blindness so I'm not 100% on that.) It's the kind of beer that makes you wistful for Black Label, Schaefer or some other swill. 

Sad.

6/28/14

It was good to be back with the Hickoids. It felt like I was putting on an old boot that was lost under the bed for years. It felt familiar and a little odd. And I think a cat left something in there a few months back...

We went on after the freight train that is Mojo Nixon and the Toad Liquors. They tore it up on the front stage and played a bunch of the hits and Mojo said all the dirty things in the middle of the songs that you want and need to hear. It's always good seeing them, but it was hot as hell and I was literally dripping with sweat so I only made it through a few songs up by the stage. Stupid Hickoid costume.

We went on in the back. Obviously we played without Davy and we didn't get a practice in between them getting back from Europe and this show four days later, but we did just fine. There was a good crowd for the first part of our set, I think we went on a little long because there were only a handful left at the end. That's the what you get by going on after Mojo.

I'd never played with Cody before and we even did one of his songs (that I'd never heard) near the end of the set. He gave me the cords before we started and it turned out they were wrong... I came in hard on the wrong note, never a good thing.

At some point in the set I was sweating so bad (and I'd taken off my sport coat and tie many tunes earlier) I asked if it was the 40th anniversary of the Hole's air conditioner. Smitty set me straight by pointing out that anniversary passed five years ago.

Anyway we did our thing and it felt pretty good, it's good to be back to Hickoid normal. Or I should say Hickoid normal for now.

6/25/14

Bigfoot Chester was at the Hole last night. We played the back stage, third on a bill of four. I knew it was gonna be a weird evening when I showed up. I got there and the first band was getting close to finishing on the front stage. The place was jammed with people and it was hot and sweaty everywhere. It wasn't weekend, crazy, sardine packed in, but you had to rub up against everyone you passed when you went from room to room.

The Founding Fathers went on in the back. Those guys look really old with that white hair and the tricorn hats (and long woolen coats...) I don't think any of them invented electricity, but they still rocked them electric guitars pretty hard. Then Black Joe got up with them (Walter and I played with him years ago) and I should make a really inappropriate joke about Andrew Jackson here but (this time) I'll leave it alone...

Bigfoot went on a little late. We knew we would have a short set ahead of time, but we only got six songs in... And one of them we played at double time... it was rough. I had to change the bass pattern because my hand would have fallen off if I tried to do it the regular way. That was by far the lowest point of the set. We really whipped Whale and Harpoon Man so at least we ended things on a high note.

It was a little bit painful, but it was our first show as a four piece in ten years, we were gonna fall on our faces it was more of a matter of how hard. We got a little scraped up, but it wasn't so bad.

Mixing the Ladies

There have been a couple of good mixing days on the new "Ladies" recording. Everything is at the tweaking stage and we (may) have something out soon.

The recording process is pretty cool. You put down layers and layers until you get some you like then you massage them in to a coherent track. Inevitably in the middle of all that there are some moments where your thinking "umm, we thought that was a good idea?" But after a little finessing you can generally make the pieces fit into something cool. Just like life, working with what you got is all you got. We got something pretty cool with this one.

It's possible that we are riding on the creative edge of music and we may have invented a new style, Jungle Soul! All of those drums (that really come out heavy on the recording) mercilessly beating away with sweet soul rhythms gliding over the top. It's a powerful sound that makes your ass bounce at the same time. That is art to me.

Kurtis is still a lot of fun to work with. There are definitely times when we are fucking around and not getting much done, but that's balanced by knocking shit out fast and right. It's all about knowing what your doing.