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...

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.