9/24/16

By the time I got to San Antonio and started loading my gear in to the Amp Room I was thinking "I'm about a third through with this shit." Still sick. Hickoids were on some bill for an SA paper... I pay zero attention most of the time, I pay even less when I'm sick...


The stage was one of those that looks big until your on it. Gear made it worse. They had a drum riser that was tiny. Not really big enough for the average kit. And there were big monitors all over the place, eating up the precious real estate we so desperately needed.



Our set was ok. No rehearsal since the last show so we weren't as tight as usual. Also three of us were a little sick (flashback!) So that added to our sluggishness. New bass is great. With Bigfoot it was easy to get settings that work. With the Hickoids there is a little more "action" so the settings change more. I don't have them down yet, but it's coming.



I loaded out and was driving home before the next band went on. I wasn't waiting around for anything. The drive home was easy and I was on the couch a little after 2AM.



ACL is coming!

9/23/16

Playing a show when your sick sucks. Loading the gear, driving, talking, smiling and even standing for 45 consecutive minutes sucks... But sometimes you play really good!


Bigfoot was at the Local last night. We were near the end of a bunch of bands for some tribute show... I wasn't really paying that much attention, I felt like shit. But the Coffee Sargent's were on before us and had a great set. They had two guitars, two keys, bass and drums and it sounded like one big beautiful mass.



I have a new bass and I hadn't even had a rehearsal with it so i was a little nervous about playing the show. I brought the old one but it stayed in the case. The new one is bad as hell. Even my sick ass could tell I have a really nice new machine. It's new. Only my second time with a new bass in my life and the last one was a $200 hunk of left-handed crap. The new one is lovely.


Our set was good. I only sang one and I was barely able to get through it. All of us have been sick in the last few weeks so no one was !00%. But you can really get a good performance when three fifths of a group are high with fever.

9/10/16

Hickoids went up to Ft Worth last week. Our set was good and the opener, Duel, kicked some twin lead ass. But I don't wanna talk that. This post is all about the Me-Thinks.


It was their record release and they asked us to come up and play. Those dudes are great people and the music is top notch, we couldn't say no!



We finish our set and swap the gear, the "thinks" load in their amps, drums, smoke machines and a bar! A bar! On to the stage!! Then they stared the set. Nothing but covers. For their record release party! Guts! They played the first two tunes from that Cheap Trick Live album. Two Spinal Tap songs. TWO! Replacements and Beaumonts (and many, many others.)



There was a raffle where seventeen of the twenty-odd spaces on the wheel were labeled "cold taco". I saw a few folks eating cold tacos at various points. No euphemism here.


Somewhere in the set they all left the stage and a guy dressed as Peter Criss came up and played a drum solo, then sang Beth to a backing track. Fuck me it was funny.



Later on, I don't remember what song it was but when it got around to the lead, Ray took off his guitar and handed it to one of the dudes from Duel. He plays the solo, Ray sits at the stage bar, orders a beer and has a couple of swigs (they let the solo go on and on!) then they swapped back. The ass-kicking continued.


I spent a lot of time up at the stage at the bar. I was getting pretty lit up in the best possible way. With that easy access to beer and shots it was impossible not to... Then they played "I Like Drinking" by the Beaumonts. The place went nuts and the smoke machines went on. Lance was standing next to me (we were still mostly behind the drums) so I lit up a joint. Passed it around and the good people in the stage bar had an extra good time.


Eventually they finished up with what they were planning on playing and they were gonna call it a night. But there were too many people yelling that they played both songs from the single. I mean it was the release party... Speaking of which I totally spaced on getting a copy... Idiot.



Thanks fellas, that was one hell of a night! Pure Rock and Roll.

8/27/16

Bigfoot was at the White Horse last night. There was a benefit for Louisiana flood victims and we were on the bill, middle of three. But it's not really the typical club times. Each band played for an hour and forty-five, a big boy show. We actually had to work (for a change...)


We went up after a whipping Cajun band. Folks were dancing and I was afraid we would drive them off. I was wrong. For the first time in recorded history, Bigfoot Chester got people up and kept them dancing for at least the first hour. Unbelievable.



Of course we ended up hitting a pile of Blues "sludge" that cleared the dancers away briefly. But they came back and spun around when things picked up closer to the end.


Two Hoots and a Holler were last. Kick ass as always. Ricky's eyes still roll back in his head when he solos, especially when he is going for it. And he had Lisa Pankratz playing drums. She is one of the baddest around and she makes the coolest pain faces when she plays. I could watch that forever.

7/29/16

Hickoids played a benefit at the Spider House the other night. It wasn't actually at the Spider House, it was at the place next door. The one that use to be a plasma "donation" joint. Anyway, we played there.



I'm actually pretty clueless as to what the benefit is for other than a lady who I think worked there or is friends with folks who work there or is in the "scene" around the club. 


Fuck I'm clueless... It's only a few days later and I actually can't remember who else was on the bill... I know I met a couple of cool folks once we finished and I remember I had to pay for my beer (all of it) and I remember heading home early, but that's about it. Other than our set.

It was decent. It took a while to get going. Cody's gear was fucked (standard) and Smitty said he wasn't feeling so hot so we weren't peak Hickoids, but I had fun and I thought I played my ass off!



Good enough for me.

7/7/16

Late, late, late...


The Ladies had a hell of a show the other night. We were at the Hard Luck and we went on a little after the sun went down so it was a little cooler than when the openers went on. Still hot as shit but cooler.



We kinda whipped it. After a couple of months without shows and a couple of rehearsals before this one we were ready to kill. And we did. We even pulled out a new one we'd worked up a pretty cool arrangement on. Right before the peak we layer each instrument on before all of us and pounding away at it while BC and I are howling at full volume.



Good sweaty fun.

7/3/16

I made the hot as hell drive to San Antonio solo. Since it was a holiday weekend the driving was extra stupid and cops were everywhere. 35 was loaded with them.


After a couple of hours I made it to the Paper Tiger, we were going on second to last at a BBQ festival called "The Meat Sweats". I'd hoped for some sides and I was starving when I got there. But all of the stands only had meat, no sides. Shit. The Greek place across the street was closed and the taco stand wasn't by the strip club... It's tough being a vegetarian at a meat festival.


Anyway, we went on after the Beaumonts and had a decent but very sweaty set. The club has garage style doors and they were open, Jesus it was hot. I actually wore the sportcoat for the first song, idiot. I was melting. At a couple of points it might have looked like I was grooving along with my eyes closed. Not the case. The sweat was burning them and I couldn't keep them open.



Texas in summer.