7/30/12

This was one of those times where being exhausted made things better. Me and the ladies at the Frontier Bar, our first show with the double drummer lineup and we were mighty. We opened things up with "the record" * and went on from there. There was a proper amount of slop to make things pretty and we played as if we were on tour for the last five days.

I love this band.

Heather Bishop opened the show. I'd never seen her with a band before, they were great. Her bass player was wearing an Otis shirt so that made me real happy. Dickie Lee closed things out with his cosmic cowboy leanings. I hadn't seen him since he opened for the Hickoids a couple of months back, this was another great set. Brooks, the former Hole in the Wall bartender who has seen me play several hundred shows and has poured me several thousand beers, was still with him playing leads on a telecaster. That fucker is good. And hell, Donnie on drums... i know 75% of that band!

Breakdown

I've been friends the bartender since he was 19. I got two drink tickets and was taken care of after that. I like Frontier Bar and we will be playing there again.

I pretty much have this week off with practices/shows starting back up next week. I'm gonna go nap.


* The record means we start with the first two tracks on "You Make Me Feel...".

7/29/12

Hickoids at Padres in Marfa. This time we had a chance to enjoy the town for a few hours. We were there last year, for the final show of the tour. We'd left the club in San Diego at 3AM the night (morning) before and got in to Marfa about a half hour before showtime. I played solo for 45 minutes then the Hickoids played for about an hour. We were beyond exhausted, and then we drove home. This time was a hell of a lot nicer. We still had the 7-8 hour drive after the show, but it only took us three and a half hours to get there from Midland so we had a few hours to wander and bullshit with a bunch of cool people.

We were there for the Viva Big Bend festival that was put on by Texas Music magazine. We kicked some serious ass. Kicked it in the way that it can only be kicked after you've played the last four nights in a row and spent a ton of time in the van, motels and suffered through a pile of shitty truck stop food together. We are Hickoids.

Last time the stage seemed pretty big, but with two extra people (and ALL of Scott's gear) it was crowded as hell up there. I only had one little area to jump around in. And zero places to hide from Smitty and the microphone of death. He took a shower before the show, but that mic has Smitty stank living deep in it's recesses. Plenty of "Smitty" stored up inside...

Breakdown

Free food, free beer....  We are spoiled! And it's gonna be hard to go back.

The hay made it through the whole set, no hay dust in every inch of everything we own!! A huge win for the end of the tour (and for Padres).


Me and the Ladies tonight!

7/28/12

We are already in the van and heading to Marfa. Midland doesn't offer much for afternoon entertainment...

Hickoids and the Beaumonts at the Blue Max. It's a club stuck out in the middle of drilling supply companies, railroad tracks and a 1/8 mile drag strip where you can pay some cash and punch your gas pedal to the floor... for 1/8 of a mile. I was told by multiple people that there was a lot of oil money in town and folks generally spend it on booze, drugs and their cars. So there is a lot if drag racing.

I loved the club. They had a big spread of BBQ with a bunch of sides to feed us AND the regular customers. The coolest part was when the owner, Erica came and asked what she could get me because she knew I was a veg. Once again I'm spoiled when away from Austin.

Beaumonts were pretty amazing once again. Troy's voice was shot so Steve took over the singing. It was great. The same set we've seen for the past couple of days being sung by the other guy! They also got Lance and Tom up to sing, once again, one hell of a set.

The freak van has been filled with their beautiful music. ALL of us have been singing their songs over and over again. It's hard to argue with the truth, Toby Keith is one I the ugliest women I've ever seen.

Someone brought a mini bale of hay for the Hickoids set. For the first time in history it wasn't torn apart and thrown all over the club. We even took it with us and its in the van right now. Maybe it will be our new mascot or Davy's eventual replacement. Most likely it will be all over Padres this evening.

7/27/12

Hickoids in San Angelo at the Penny Pub

It was another sloppy set, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Beaumonts continue to kill. Song after song of brilliant, smart ass country songs. I'm really happy we are playing these shows with them. This is "tour" will continue to kick ass.

Charlie's holy happy hour was the opener. He lived in Austin for years and he and I played in many of the same songwriters nights back in my early days. I found out he was on the bill a half hour before we got to town. Nice surprise.

Breakdown

We'd been at the club for about 15 minutes, basically long enough to unload the freak and I was offered food and beer from two different people. Once again, spoiled by leaving Austin.

Davy and I finished the night with a smoke by the pool at the best western on the 306. It's really calm and quiet. A nice end to the night.

We will be back San Angelo. Midland tomorrow.

7/26/12

Hickoids at the Hole. I got there just as the Beaumonts were starting they were strong as always. I'm glad I like them since this was the first of three shows with them. I was running late because I went to see BC and Draya's other band, Hey Gurl at the Frontier bar. Yup, half of my band was playing in another band at the same club we are playing on Monday. It's even weirder, Wiley was playing in the band after Hey Gurl... It's an Austin thing, play in as many bands as you can as often as possible. The slow orgy continues.

Hickoids had a good but sloppy set. The sound guy kept having us turn down so he could mix the room better. I get it and I appreciate a sound guy caring how things sound, but we will play better if our boxes are loud. It's a fact. A band like the Hickoids does not need a finely crafted soundstage where every nuance is revealed in layers of beauty. We are a cow punk band. We need to be loud.

Breakdown

I didn't pay for one beer last night! That's even better than the old hole. I even got lucky while we were playing, folks brought up four lonestar tallboys and sat them in front of me! Eventually half of them spilled all over the stage but it was pretty close to closing time so it didn't matter. Beer!

San Angelo tonight.

7/25/12

This is the way to "tour". Granted you never get too far, but it sure is nice sleeping at home when your "on the road". Two days away from home for a five day tour is a pretty sweet deal.

First night at Nightrocker's in San Antonio. Hickoids played with the Limes from Memphis and The Hares from SA. It was a nice night musically and a decent turnout for a Wednesday. After our set we loaded up the Freak with all the gear and I drove it up to Austin so everything would be set for our second "tour" date, tonight in Austin...

Breakdown

Two beer tickets, this time it was fine since I was driving the Freak home and didn't need to be pounding them down...  It's the exact opposite of driving home as Davy's passenger. Then I like to guzzle beers AND liquor so I don't pay attention to the road. It's a self preservation thing.

For these shows we are playing as a six piece. Lutz is with us for the whole time and that means his entire pile of gear comes with us. Two guitars, a pedal steel, a keyboard, an effects rack as big as the steels case, a Fender twin and a keyboard stand. He travels with five hundred pounds of gear at a minimum. And it's in the back of the van with two other half stacks, my bass rig, drums, various guitars and the merch. Packed!

The freak did fine on the drive home but it will be interesting to see what happens when five more Hickoids are on board.

This week

Practice with the ladies last night. It's our last one before our first show with the double drummer line up. It keeps getting tighter and sounds so damn good... reconstituted Rice, exciting stuff! Our debut is on Monday the 30th at Frontier Bar in east Austin. We are on at 10:30 and will be kicking ass by 10:31 at the latest.

Prepare for a brunch of activity on the blog in the next week. Not only with "the Ladies", the Hickoids are hitting a few dates in west Texas but we start things off tonight in San Antonio and Austin on Thursday.

Many things to follow.