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.

11/8/14

Back before this show was booked I'd heard all abut the eventual demise of the Triple Crown, San Marcos' finest place to play. It was falling victim to the same kind of property development that's been happening up here in Austin, clear out the old crap and build the new/fancy and rich folks will buy it up as fast as they can.

So it was a bittersweet drive when I headed down for the show. After (literally) hundreds of late, sweaty nights the last time I would play there would be with the Hickoids and we were opening for the Beaumonts.

Since the Dog and Duck closed on Halloween (and with this last show looming) I'd been bummed out about all the change in central Texas. I was getting all sentimental and missing cherry picked parts of my past. I even Tweeted about the show with the hashtag #anothergreatbarcloses.

I pulled in to the parking lot and loaded my gear then headed outside to talk with the fellas. At some point I said something about our last night here and I was told...

"Oh no, it's staying open. The guy that owns it decided not to build condos."

I was thrilled! The Crown was staying! And I had just posted the stupidest tweet possible in that situation...

It probably wont be the last time.

11/1/14

Bigfoot Chester was back for an "All Saints Day" show. We went on at the Longbranch around 11, first on a bill of three.

With Davy still "out of the loop" we played as a four piece, like it was 18 (or so) years ago when I first started out in the band. Except we are all older and the drummer is a different guy.

The crowd was good and our set was solid as we rocked through our regular stuff. A couple of songs were a little on the lean side, but I think that kind of thing can get ironed out with practice and we didn't practice for this show... It's a recent theme.

Speaking of themes, a bunch of people dressed up, including us. A few hours before the show (and twenty minutes before we were gonna practice) the texting began. "Are we gonna dress up?" Over the next hour there were forty eight texts about it... Literally, 48. FORTY EIGHT TEXTS ABOUT DRESSING UP FOR THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN!!!! (I wish I was kidding...) it was decided (and not by me) we were dressing up for the evening.

Bill did Lucha Libre, Walter did Harpo, Trey was some kinda fighting guy (I barely talked to him off stage and I couldn't figure it out on my own) I wore a suit and told people I was in Churchwood.

El Pathos and the Flash Boys played off in to the night and I stayed for both 2AM closing times (DST was over so we saw it twice). I got home at 4AM, but it was really 5AM in yesterdays reality. I was whipped and slept most of the next day.

10/18/14

The second South Filthy show was up in Memphis at a place called Hi-Tone (not to be confused with Hi-Tones in SA.) I made the drive from down in the Delta and wandered around Memphis for a few hours. It's weird to be touring with a band and your by yourself most of the time. Usually there are a couple of other folks around to help keep you from boredom. Not this trip... I did a lot of napping in a few parking lots around town to eat up some time.

Eventually I hit the club and hooked up with the other fellas. We went on 11ish to a decent crowd and had a set similar to the night before... Not so great, but it had some moments. One in particular was when we did "When the Saints..." and they threw me a solo.  

Bass solos are the worst. Especially if I have to play them. We did that tune seven years ago when we were touring Europe and I'd totally spaced that I was gonna have to step out for a verse until Walter pointed at me and shouted over the mic "Rice Moorehead". I made it to the end and I don't think I was too awful...

We finished up, got paid (poorly, Memphis is like Austin) and Jack offered me a place to crash, but I wanted to get on the road back to Little Rock. On my drive in I saw the interstate headed west had a couple of long construction spots that had traffic backed up for miles so I wanted to avoid that (even at 4 AM all traffic ended up being stopped...)

I got to Downtown LR and found a spot next to a building that would block the sun when it came up and I slept for a few hours. Then I bounced around "the rock" for a bit before I headed home.

Hopefully it won't be another five years before we do South Filthy again. I really like playing in that band. And, maybe, just maybe we can practice once before the show.

10/17/14

South Filthy hadn't played in over five years and we were booked for a reunion set at the "Deep Blues" festival in Clarksdale MS. This fella, Chris has put this thing on for the past few years up in Wisconsin but now it's down in the Delta. And it's out in the delta, as in out in the sticks at a place called the Shack Up Inn. Look it up online. You can stay in a spruced up sharecroppers cabin out by the cotton fields and your not expected to work and that's a huge plus. 

Like all things South Filthy it was a seat of the pants kind of affair. I flew in to Little Rock Thursday afternoon and drove down to Tunica where I stayed for a couple of nights *

We played the Friday night after Guadalupe Plata and Scott Biram, both put on great shows then we went on. The first five or six tunes were fine. But once we got into some new material we were pretty lost and it ended anticlimactically. Thats what happens when I am hearing half the set for the first time on stage AND I met the drummer for the first time a couple of hours before we went on...

It wasn't horrible but it could have been better. But once again I need to just shut up about how I think things  went, a lot of people had fun and told me it was great and that's all that matters. 

We have another show tonight, up in Memphis. Now that we've had a practice maybe the crowd AND I can agree how things went. 

* quick aside here. According to my phone it's an hour between Clarksdale and Tunica and I figured it would be no big deal since I make the  Austin/San Antonio drive all the time. I was dead wrong. Austin to SA is a busy highway with a ton of traffic and business all along the route. Tunica to Clarksdale is a four lane state road that is surrounded by cotton fields with very few business along the route. It's also dark as hell at night and the landscape is flat. Flat flat flat. And is so bleak out there at night that you could easily drift off to sleep. I had to fight it most of the way. 

10/11/14

ACL Week 2 Day 2

Once again the last night of the Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta was at the White Horse. I got there after Stevie T had finished and Mitch Webb was setting up. I shot the shit with Stevie and Joe Reyes (Mitch's lead player, truly one of the best guitar players in Texas) for a bit, hung out and watched some rock. Then the Hickoids were up.

We had a decent set and by the time we went on the crowd was packing in the front of the stage. They needed our love and or corn... and we gave it to them. Good.

The night want on an on. Javier Escovedo, Sean and Zander (really great work on the 12 string and bouzouki) and the incomparable Cunto! They were doing their last set with the "new" bass player. Those guys have has some shit luck keeping bass players. They also did a bunch of cool new songs (and many of the hits!)

There was a threat that we were gonna finish things off, The Beaumonts had the last spot on the bill, but Steve Vegas had a kidney stone so there was a decent chance they wouldn't make it. Apparently he loaded up on whiskey and pain pills and was driven to the show like a strung out fake country music superstar. They ended the fiesta in a blaze of spilled beer, oxy and irreverence, just like they should.