10/13/17

Week two, day one of ACL. Or my second and final sow of the festival. ABGBs with Beaumont’s, Winsome Losers and Rennie and the Banned Names.

I missed out on Rennie's first show ever... She had Lance and Cody (and another dude) playing with her. It sounded like they had a good first of many.

Winsome went up, hmm most of that band is familiar. Sometimes Austin to San Antonio. Is one big pool of talent that puts it's players in interesting and new ways. Great set. 

We went up and kinda killed it. Since Frontier Dan wasn’t here we were regular Hickoids. After last weeks three shows with him it was fun just being us. And the crowd gave everything we gave them back with a multiplier.

And then the Beaumont’s...  “Not As Cool As Jesus” is still the greatest song in the world. I could hear it for a week straight and not be tired of it.

10/6/17

First official night of ACL, we were at the White Horse. There were a bunch of bands on the bill so the sets were short but the rock was plenty.


Too much for recaps and I was tired as hell so I remember about a third of what happened... But we had PDB, Fishermen, Pat Todd, Roger Wallace, the Sons and Hickoids all jammed in to a Friday. The place went from mildly attended to fairly packed even though the "real" ACL crowds didn't seem to be out.


We were on after the Fishermen and had Dan up for four tunes. We did all the songs we know with him and the crowd ate him up. Smitty came out at the top of the set as an ear of corn and eventually he stripped that off... He had buckskin pants on underneath. Hickoids, keepin up the class!


I missed Saturdays show and we are back at ABGB, Friday the 13th for week two!

10/5/17

Last night had us in San Marcos at the Buzzmill.


When I showed up Pat and the Outsiders were setting up, I'd already missed Harvey... Damn.


Pat's set was great, almost all of the tunes were different than the night before. Stylistically similar but different "numbers". Mmmmm, Professionals!


Our set was short but rockin. They have a noise cutoff at 11 and we went on a little after 10. A decent amount of time, but with all of the bullshitting we do... During the first song I pulled a Davy Jones by stepping on my cords and unplugging my tuner... twice... Sigh.



We did Glorious Heroin and Half Breed/Eighteen with Frontier Dan. What a charming son of a bitch. We ended our set with Donkey Lady at lightning speed. It was more than a little unhinged.

10/4/17

It's (almost) Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta time! The true ACL weekend one officially starts Friday, but we have a couple of preview shows first.


Hickoids played at Jandro's in San Antonio last night. I'd never been there, but it's another new/cool place on St Mary's. The ever expanding street of rock.


We were last after two bands from Sweden and our buddies Pat Todd and the Rank Outsiders!!! Bring it!



I was running a little late so I thought I'd only catch one of the Swede collectives, but the night was running late... I showed up when Shady and the Vamp were two songs in. Rocking ass set. As were the Martin Savage Gang. Both bands had the core "Vamp" and then (I'm assuming) Martin Savage added in on guitar and vocals. Two sets of high energy rock and roll. A great way to start the night.


Pat was Pat. Always engaging while the Outsiders sling that no bullshit rock and roll. This was the first of three in a row we are doing with them. I'm lucky as hell sometimes. We get all of this out-of-town love in for ACL.



Speaking of, Frontier Dan is in to do his part. He is hopping up for a few songs each night with us. It's always a treat to play with that dude. The comedy runs high when Dan is around. AND he brought his Theremin!! I love it...


We finished up around the time I thought I'd be back home and in bed... No big deal, sleep will come later.

9/28/17

We did some Swishbuckling the other day. Hurricane Harvey dumped down on the Texas coast and some greasy rock and rollers had a benefit for some of the people it crapped on.


Thursday at the Paper Tiger down in San Antonio, we were in the middle slot. The crowd was ok, but it looked nonexistent in that space... Big joint, twenty people, it happens. No big deal, we gave it good.


I really got to open up the amp in that space. Lots of opportunities to let the feedback build between the guitar, amp and PA. Magical and one of the coolest thing you can do playing guitar with minimal effort!!


The Sons were last and the killed it (as usual).



You know, I think we got some Corn on the way!!

9/3/17

Late...


It was Lawrence's tribute at the Hole and there were a ton of folks there to celebrate his life. It was the type of night you'd expect to bump in to him... yeah.


Originally I wasn't on the bill at all, I was just gonna go see the Fishermen but Bigfoot got added on at the last minute so I got to rock for the Lar Lar one last time.


We'd practiced the day before. We were joking around about how we had twenty minutes so we only needed to practice six or seven tunes to fill the space. Got seven down and went home. At the show we were told we had a thirty minute set... rock in the big city.


I stuck around for most of the lovefest. It was a good night, but someone was definitely missing.

7/29/17

Late as hell...


It was the Hickoids at AGBG with Chicken Snake. They drove over from New Orleans to do a little rock and roll with us. I walked up after parking and Pauline was sitting outside talking with Smitty. She said "Don't you play in South Filthy?" My response was "Yes, Who are you? and I love you!"


New best friend. Seriously. I was a little out of it before I got there but not after we met!


They went up and killed it. The best standing two-drum, drummer I've ever seen. She actually made it groove. Not an easy task with so little to work with. And everything else made me happy as hell. We got to get back to NO for some shows with them.


We went up and it was the usual Hickoid stupidity. Loud and dumb with beer spilled all over the floor. At the end of the night Johnnie Hell got up and played drums with Lance sliding over to play the floor tom. Possibly the best musical Hickoid moment ever. My grin went on so long I forgot to type this up...