5/23/15

Plaidstock!

Wow. What a great night. The Hole in the Wall was packed the whole evening with with people hoping to see Davy Jones get up and rock the guitar. They weren't disappointed!

I played three times. The first was with an old college buddy of Davy's, Dan Hill. I met Dan about twenty minutes before we played. It was a total seat of the pants set, I even had him show me the progression of a tune on the stage right before we went on!

About a minute after that the room packed out and then Davy showed up, total rock star style! Dropped off at the front door with EVERYONE in the room cheering him on. Yeah! He got up with us and jammed on "One Meatball". I haven't played with Jones in over a year and the last show was this crap gig we did with that lawyer....

Anyway our little set was pretty good considering we'd met minutes before.

My second set was with Bigfoot Chester. And we whipped it good.

My third and final set of the night was with the Hickoids we also backed Frontier Dan from the Frontier Circus. One of Little Rock's finest. It was a beautiful mess of a set.

About ten minutes before we went on the city of Austin was hit by a tornado. No joke, a tornado. They had a silent auction on the porch and it got nailed. As in the tent it was under was picked up and slammed in to the ground. Everyone was soaked and the inside of the club was basically a swamp. Water was all over the floor.

Then we went on. Yeah!

Davy didn't get up with us, but he was there. Turns out I'm the only Hickoid who got to play with the man... Lucky me!

So that was just my little part of the fest. There were around twenty bands on the bill and a shit ton of people at the show. Over ten grand was raised for Davy. I was hoping for four. Glad my estimate was way off.

More tomorrow!

5/22/15

There was barely any traffic on the drive to San Antonio. I made it to Hi Tones in no time. Chief Fuzzer was on (you could call them three-fifths of the Beaumonts.) I caught five tunes and I dug the hell out of it. I love being impressed in new ways by people I already like.

The Grannies were up next! That's right, Grannies! They played their first show of this Texas stint Thursday at the Triple Crown. I missed that one because I knew I'd see the next three. They did a bunch of stuff they played with us over in Europe a couple of years ago. I love shouting "Meet me at the corner, the corner of fuck and you." Makes me feel like a real tough guy...

Those Goddamn Beaumonts were next. At this point the amount of gear that was being moved around was ridiculous. Chief Fuzzer had a guitar amp, drum kit and the bass rig for the night on stage. The Grannies went on and they moved the guitar amp and drum kit and moved another drum kit and two guitar amps on to the stage. When the Beaumonts went up they moved both the guitar amps and the drum kit then set up two other guitar amps, a drum kit, the steel rig and then put the bass amp to the other side of the stage. When the Hickoids went on we moved the steel rig, drum kit and one guitar amp off the stage and put two guitar amps and a drum kit back on to the stage.

We left the fucking bass amp where it was, there was already too much gear moving going on. Thank the lord I don't believe in the Ladies weren't playing. If another drum kit was moved around I'd...

Beaumonts kicked it in their usual fashion and we did the same right after. We finished the set after the lights came on and they started booting people out immediately. No talking, no handshaking, just go. I said a couple of quick goodbys and headed home.

We've got two more days of these shows coming up including Plaidstock! More to come!

5/16/15

Bigfoot Chester had a decent little show at the Carousel the other night. We were gonna be the first of three bands on the bill, but the second one canceled the day of and by the time the third showed up there wasn't much of a reason to play. The already thinned out crowd had gotten even leaner.

We went on after a bunch of short story readings. The Carousel can be a pretty eclectic place, there was belly dancing before the reading. We did a dozen or so tunes and we played fine for the most part but after all of the readers and their friends took off there weren't too many folks around to watch us.

I keep fucking up this one tune, it happened this show and the last couple of rehearsals. For some reason I keep confusing two Howlin Wolf songs (Commit a Crime and Who Will Be The Next One) They have some similarities, but not enough for me to keep confusing them them. Hell, we don't really play "Commit" that much anymore! Doesn't mean I won't keep fucking things up...

Joe from Churchwood was there and he hopped up and did a couple with us (one of which is the aforementioned "fuck up" song). He sang on two "regular" Bigfoot songs but he sings them so differently than we normally do we had to change up the arrangements on the fly. Easy enough on the song I'm not continually messing up on, but I was a bass playing, fuck up, machine when we played my current "nemesis".

Anyway we finished up, got paid and hung out for a bit. Better luck next time kid.

4/4/15

This one is way, way... way late. It couldn't be helped I went to Asia and brought Davy Jones with me.

Anyway, The Hickoids played the roller derby again. This time we played two half hour sets instead of just one and because of that there was a little bump in pay!!!

The derby takes place at a "civic center" so there is a bunch of checking with security and unloading here and parking there kind of crap you have to deal with just to get your stuff to the stage, which was the floor.  You kinda have to show up early to this type of thing.

Our first set was pretty lame. It was before the first half of the bout so the crowd was barely paying attention to us. That's how it works in the derby world, people are really only there to see chicks wailing on each other and I can't blame them one bit. The band is about fifth on the list of things people care about when they go to the roller derby.

Second set was better, around 30% of the crowd was paying attention to us, not bad. There were even a couple of roller girls up at the front and THAT is why we play these things.

When the second half of the match started up we loaded up our trucks and took off in to the night. 

3/21/15

The last day of SXSW, this one was a doozy, four shows!!


#1 Hickoids in a parking lot downtown

All of the Hickoids met up at the 04 Lounge (where sets two and three would happen later) and we hopped in the freak to make the first show. It was in a parking lot behind where Lovejoys use to be. There were two big stages set up side by side and as one was rocking the other had another band breaking down or setting up. Everything was backlined so there wasn't much to haul, but it was right in the middle of all of the SXSW mess and it was cold and raining.

Our twenty minute set was ok. The best part was when some folks with kids were watching and Smitty yelled "Kiss my pussy now!" and you could see the parent's smiles fade as the kid's perked up.


#2 Hickoids at the 04 Lounge

We freaked it back to the 04 and eventually got up and played. This set was better. We were close to the crowd and not getting wet, a huge advantage over the previous set. Also the crowd was a lot better. Being inside on a chilly, rainy day means more people IN the club.


#3 Rice Moorehead and His Ladies at the 04 Lounge

That's right, the Ladies are back! Lance is in as the newest "Lady". He doesn't cut the same figure in a dress as the gal he replaced, but he sure can whip them drums! Our set was pretty good. At this point I was kinda delirious and mildly drunk so there was no holding back. The crowd seemed to like it. There were lots of laughs when I was spewing dumb jokes and lots of rocking when we were... uh...rocking! More from the Ladies soon!


#4 Hickoids at the Mix.

Nice way to end the festival. I made the drive from the 04 Lounge. This morning I came prepared with everything I could possibly need to spend the night (including a six pack). I got some food and checked in to my hotel for the night. It felt so good getting those wet ass shoes, socks and jeans off. I sat around for a bit, smoked out and watched some Sarah Silverman on HBO (hotel!) and eventually dressed myself in dry clothes and made my way down to the Mix.

Roky Erickson was playing across the street so the neighborhood was packed, but inside the Mix was kinda dead. I got there as Trixie Trainwreck was going on. I figured I would have seen her play twenty times at this point, but this was only the second, glad I made it early!

About half way through Pony's set the Roky crowd came over and packed the place. The were eating that German rock up!

Then we were up. The place was still crowed as hell and the five of us were running on fumes, adrenaline (and a few of us were also a little bit tipsy.) What an amazing set. I can't really remember too many specifics but there was an overall vibe of "let's have the best night ever!" coming off of everyone in the room. Whatever we gave them, they gave it back and we threw it right back at them again. It was one hell of an hour.

At the end of the night there a lot of hugs and goodbyes and I made it back to the hotel cleaned myself up and drank the six pack, smoked and watched some more HBO. Nice finish to a busy ass week.

3/20/15

Friday of SXSW I only have two shows today!

#1 AGBG with the Gay Sportscasters.

I drove down to South Austin on an extended lunch hour from the day job to fill in for this show. Tom (who took over for me a couple of years ago) couldn't make it so I was back in for one. The stage was packed with three dancers, three guitars, a singer, bass and drums. It's a decent sized space, but not with that many people on it.

I was switching between both sides of the stage. When I was singing I was on the opposite side of the bass rig. That's always a little weird, but you get used to it. There were a bunch of kids at the show and they all got eyes and ears full! The 'casters would have been my dream band when I was a kid. All of that jiggling flesh and dirty talk, I would have been in heaven!

We finished up and as I was changing back in to work clothes the rain really picked up. I was soaked by the time I got back in the car. At least the post show shower was taken care of...

#2 Triple Crown with the Hickoids.

After seeing the Residents and 숨[suːm] at the Paramount (!!!!) I made the drive to San Marcos. It was a shitty, drizzly night and it kept getting colder. I made it to the club right when Pony was finishing up. We loaded up and rocked a thin but excited crowd. The Triple Crown is a locals bar and it hard to get the central Texas locals out during SXSW even in San Marcos, but we still had some good, drunken fun during the night.

The most memorable moment was after closing one of the other bands on the bill had a truck with a dead battery (if you keep three iphones plugged in and the overhead light on for hours on end without turning on the car it will drain the battery...) So Smitty pulled up the freak van and got them jumped, but then he locked the keys in the freak!!! Chalk that one up to exhaustion. Tom and I broke in and eventually everyone got to go home home, but now without feeling a little bit stupid first...

3/18/15

The Hickoids had our first show of SXSW last night. We were at the White Horse and there were a bunch of label mates and friends on the bill. Lovefest all the way.

I got there late when the Hares were finishing up. Great fucking set (well, what I caught...) Horns rule. Not much else to say because, Horns Rule!

The Protest were up next. They have a new guitar player who moved all the way from LA to join them. The ever expanding awesomeness that is Pinata Protest is a pretty amazing thing to behold. When I first started in the Hickoids they were just another little punk band from SA. Now they have employees! Well deserved and really cool.

We went on at midnight a bunch of the Protest's crowd stuck around for us and we gave them some of the good stuff. It was a sloppy set filled with our special brand of stupidity and some girl in the front flashed us! That's almost as good as getting paid. Almost.

Beaumonts were last. They finished out the night on a beer soaked stage littered with cans and telecasters. I heard two songs I think I've never heard before! New songs make me so happy!

Rumor has it there were a couple of uber famous people in attendance, one of which was planning an Electric Kool-Aid Acid type of evening. I didn't get invited... Hell they didn't even offer me a beer or ask me to play bass with them! Guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing.