8/9/19

Day two of the fest. We were playing in our home base of Montejaque. All we had to do was walk downstairs and we were at the gig. Yeah!

DJ Scratchy got up in between all the bands. He played loads of great tunes from all over the musical landscape. He was also telling us about his time touring with the Clash!! Loads of great stories. 

We went on first and the set was way better than the night before. Not the best, we really aren’t use to being the the opener and it took us a bit to get rolling, we got there eventually. Crowd was decent for us but it really picked up later for Los Skarnales!!

But right after us was Maf E Tula. She is this gal from Costa Rica plays acoustic guitar does some throat singing and totally rips it. She backed by the rhythm section of the Jake Levinson band (who also rips it but in a very different way!). We are lucky enough to be in the bill with them every day of the fest. Really lucky.  

Then Skarnales got up... I was hanging with these dudes the first night. We got all drunk and stayed out late as hell (apparently I was singing at the top of my lungs in the square at 6am...)   Their set was unreal. I’ve not been the biggest ska fan but these guys totally changed my mind. Unreal. And some of the most charming folks I’ve ever met. 

Oscar Ornelas and Tamara Mack were the last two acts of the night. Both did some pretty great blues/rock and roll. They shared the same band and those dudes were on fire. Kind of a theme here. 

8/8/19

Well we made it to Spain! And to the Pueblos Blanca’s music fest. It take place in four towns up in the mountains and it’s a rotating fest, you play in a different town every day.  Pretty cool setup and you don’t have to move all of your shit every single day. A beautiful thing!!

Last night we were in the bill at Villaluenga  Del Rosario. A cool little town that’s as cute as it is hilly. A totally out of breath hike from where you can park to where you play.  

Our set was pretty awful... none of us were rested or ready for it so it was kind of a guarantee we weren’t gonna be good. It was as if we were in six separate bands all trying to do something different. I’m betting we just got the bad set out of the way. 

8/5/19

The Brooklyn shown last night was pretty good. We were at Our Wicked Lady and I played with both bands on a dying bass rig... guess it’s gonna be my dream to someday play the city with a solid rig and mic. They also didn’t have enough inputs for my mic. 

Anyway we had a hell of a good time in spite of the bass issues. Both bands played really well and the crowd and the club were really in to it. The best feeling you can get when your out on tour. 

Spain is next!! 

8/4/19

DC last night. We were at the Black Cat which is a pretty cool club. We played upstairs in the little red room at the front. They have a freight elevator. The best fried to the musician with gear playing a second story club. Yeah!

The turnout was better than the night before but it was still pretty light. I think almost all of the folks that showed up were actual fans, that helped. 

The Harvey trio went first. Nice little set. And it was good to learn that my at home practicing was mostly correct. No massive screwups. A good feeing. 

Hicks were last and we rocked through our set pretty hard. Other than our typical “what do you wanna play next?” stuff we packed it in nice and tight. Nearly professional operation here. 

Brooklyn tomorrow. 

8/3/19

Last nights show was way better than the night before.  We were at the Waverly Brewing Company in Baltimore. Max from Western star opened for us and even brought a backup bass head for me to use.  I was back in action!!

Max did his solo set first. It sounded pretty different than how I’m use to hearing those tunes but he killed it.  I really enjoyed his set. 

We went up and played pretty well. The crowd was thin but we gave all we had. After the night before it felt like a really good, much needed rehearsal. 

DC tomorrow. 

8/2/19

First night of the first leg of this Hickoid tour. Tom, Lance and I flew up to New York last and made it to Home Sweet Home after Teenage Cavegirl had finished....

It went downhill from there... when we went up the bassrig didn’t work at all. We tried all kinds of cords and combinations of things and got nothin out of it. Fuck. Add on the fact that my mic stand wouldn’t stay up...

The les said the better. We played to a room full of people and I felt like I never got out of the starting gate.  

Hopefully the next one will be better. 

7/21:19

Late late late...

Lance, Harvey and I did it again the next day at our rehearsal space. That’s right. There was a little show on the little stage at the practice space.  It’s Austin, they sneak music in everywhere. Even if it’s inappropriate. 

Set was good. There were only a few people there, all of them were associated with the space and or us so it was a real friendly time.  Turns out we turned down another gig for this one. We would have played for more folks and made some money but this was a real nice way to spend an afternoon.