3/15/15

Around 11 AM folks started getting to my house. Hickoids and Trixie Trainwreck were heading to Bend TX to play at Bob's. Once Smitty pulled up in the freak we started loading and he told me I should bring a guitar... Uh, I haven't played solo in a couple of years, but OK!

We made the drive, loaded in and bullshitted around for a bit before it was time to get noisy. Then I got up and did forty-ish minutes. Mostly I played a tunes I've been doing with the Ladies but I also threw in a few that don't generally get played outside of the house, including a couple of covers. It was fun, but I prefer the full band, I'm not going back to solo more than occasionally.

Trixie got up next.  She plays the acoustic, stomps on a kick drum and wails on a kazoo when she isn't singing. I think I met her three years ago at SXSW, she is from San Francisco, but lives in Germany and is partnered up with the Pony named Olga folks. She had a whipping little set and I'll get to see it a few more times this week!

Hickoids got up and played a decent first set. There weren't many people, but it was a great afternoon warmup for the big festival and we got free food and beer! Bob joined us (again) for a few tunes in the second set. It was good playing with him, but next time we need to plan out a couple of songs for him to play with us before we are on stage. There was a lot of standing around talking about what we were gonna play next. Maybe we'll start planning next time...

3/13/15

Hickoids were out at Riley's last night. We opened for the Beaumonts to a small and somewhat enthusiastic crowd. I got there after a quick 45 minute drive. Traffic was only messy through the downtown Austin area. Friday night, the first day of spring break and the weekend before the music portion of SXSW. It's the calm before the storm.

Our set was ok. We haven't practiced or played for a couple of weeks and it showed. Riley's isn't a rock club, so we can't play as loud as we usually do. It's weird playing at half throttle.

We finished up and the Beaumonts went on. A fair amount of people showed up for them. I caught the first two numbers an took off for home. That was a mistake...

Fifteen minutes in to the drive 35 was a three lane parking lot that eventually tapered off to one row of cars on the shoulder. It took an hour to go a half mile and two hours to get home. Could have been worse. The truck that had us blocked was crumpled in half and facing the wrong direction. I didn't enjoy the extra time on the drive, but it was better than that.

2/28/15

Once again it was the Hickoids last on a bill of three for a Saturday night at the Hole in the Wall. I got there late. It was cold and wet as hell and the crowd looked like it, it was dead as hell. 

I got lazy and only brought a bass head but it turns out the Hole's bass cab is a broken down piece of shit. When I turned up the low end or hit the string a little hard "flap, flap, flap" was the only sound the big bass driver made... It sounded ok if I was turned down low, but there was an incredible lacking of bottom end balls. I won't rely on the house rig in the future.

Our set was ok, by the time we went on the crowd had fattened up nicely and the were moving around a lot so maybe it just looked like more people were there (also barely anyone was outside smoking because of the shitty weather, another boost to the crowd).

We finished up a little early, got paid and loaded out in the cold cold rain. 

2/20/15

The Hickoids headed to Houston again. This time we went in three different cars instead of traveling the smart/green way... Tom picked me up after work and we made great time getting to Rudyards. Right about when we finished loading up the stairs (a long, single flight of horrible stairs) and parking the van the other guys showed up so we loaded them in as well. Up those stupid stairs...

We were getting paid to play a dog benefit. None of us have any problem with that, but we are all cat people. Pretty soon we are gonna have to do a benefit for some of those lonely neglected pussy's out there.

Anyway, we were middle slot on a line up of three. The crowd was solid and we rocked them for a good forty five minutes. There were no crazy moments, no one got naked or punched out. It was just a really good night of rock and roll. Followed by another three hour drive home...

1/24/15

This is way late... I've gotten lazy(ier) than usual...

Anyway, I did a pickup gig for a friend of mine, Hilary York, a couple of weeks ago. She needed me to hold down the low end for one of her Saturday night shows at the Continental Gallery so I did!

She and I hooked up a few days before to go over some stuff. At the end of that practice I had three pages of notes for the hour and half set. Loads of info and most of it was correct... The two of us had fun working on her set. We used to to a Sunday afternoon with another songwriter many years ago and we haven't hung out much or played together at all since then. Our little practice almost made me a little sentimental about a smaller, cheaper Austin.

When Saturday rolled around I made it down to the club with my gear and had a chance to meet the drummer (who was also playing his first show with Hilary) before we started to set up. It may sound weird meeting someone right before you play, but after a few tunes you know all you need to know about them.

There isn't much to report other than my notes for the first song were completely wrong... Like dead wrong. I was able to cover but it could have gone shitty fast. Luckily I'm quick on my feet when I'm holding a Bass.

12/14/14

One day at some practice Lance asked me if I'd play with this drag queen that was coming to town. Apparently there was a benefit for the Austin Drag Fest and they brought Miss Tammy Brown out to do her Christmas show then a set of her songs. She was bringing a guitar player but needed full backup. That was me and Lance.

We had one rehearsal where we plotted through some of the worst written charts I have ever seen in my life. On most of the songs I ended up rewriting the whole thing... They were so bad it was almost amazing. We played through everything three times, shook hands and met up at the show.

They had Lav mics for the play, but the soundguy was really a DJ and he didn't have a clue how to work them. Bad sound was a theme for the night. They did the show (a pretty funny riff of Charlie Brown Christmas) and only a couple of mics worked... for a dozen people... After the play the DJ, I mean "soundguy" took off... and didn't set anything up for the music...

It took about an hour and a half to figure shit out. Tammy's guitar player, Michael didn't have anything to plug in to then there was the "regular" mic problem... Some genius had a mixer with only two inputs... and Michael had to go direct so that left one mic for Tammy, Michael and the two backup singers (Cunty and Natasha). Well planned...

You could tell Tammy was not happy with the problems. She (and Michael) flew from LA to do these two sets to a sold out crowd (Tables were $400, this was no cheap affair) and the sound was absolute shit. And there was and HOUR AND A HALF BETWEEN SETS!!!!!!!!!

By the time it all got straightened out over half of the crowd was gone. Tammy, Michael and the ladies had to play on a bar while Lance and I played over to the side and on the floor. Tammy had everyone that stuck around come right down to the front so half of the crowd had their backs to us. It was so weird.

But the best part of it all was that it worked. We played the tunes (from a combination of old/reworked charts and visual cues) amazingly well. Lance and I even made up a couple of songs on the fly. At the top of the set Tammy came over with the wireless and had me "play something that makes people shake their hips. I said "That's my specialty!" and I kicked something off that Lance and Michael jumped all over.  And at the end of the set we just kicked in to a groove that eventually became Iko Iko at Tammy's request. So much fun!

So that was it a weird and wonderful night that was loaded with problems that were overridden with a little musical greatness. Lance and I are ready for Tammy (and Michael) to come back anytime.

11/15/14

This is way late because I didn't want to write it up. It was the last Hickoids show of the year and it was kinda boring and uneventful.

It was a benefit for KVRX so they could get a new transmitter and it was in the studio where they use to film Austin City Limits. In a place like that there are a bunch of load in/out regulations and parking permits and security checks but they had people helping us with the gear every step of the way. It's kind of annoying but everyone was nice and you could tell they were ready for a good show.

We were on first of three and the last band already had their gear on stage. By on I mean powered up... Silvertone tube amps from the early sixties that were "warming up" for three or four hours before their set. Someone has a lot of money for tubes. Or not... the bass amp was humming away and I couldn't find it's power switch to turn it off (it was "modified".) I'm doubting it made it through the night...

We did our sound check, waited around then rocked our set. There were only about fifty people when we played and in a space that big it looks like five. Most of them were in the bleachers so they were far, far away... in other words zzzzzzzz.

After the set it was get the gear off load out with lots of get here to wait for the security and/or elevator then get the truck load it up and go home.

The Hickoids are done for another year and it kinda ended with a whimper.

Boo.