3/29/19

Hickoids at the Lost Well last night. It was our 35th anniversary show.... uhhh what?!?!?!  Yup. I honestly can’t remember how long I’ve been in the band. Somewhere in the ten to twelve year range... before I started writing this blog.  

Anyway, typical of me I missed the first band and got there while Mean Motor Scooter was on.  They fucking killed it. Never seen them before and I can’t wait to see them again! They also seemed like a sweet bunch of folks. 

Gringo’s were next. Another fine set of Gringo goodness. 

Then it was us. It was the current lineup, Lance, Cody, Tom, Patrick, Smitty and me. Jacob Schultz played the whole time with us so there were two keyboards and three guitars the whole time!! We were fucking massive. 

Wade Driver got up, Walter Daniels got up. Jonnie Hell (he was the first drummer I played with in the Hickoids!!) and Tommy Rowsey as well. I got to play with ALL of them! 

Lance and I were subbed out for two songs by Hunter Darby and Steve Mccarthy. I had no idea what tunes they were doing until Hunter told me.... “I was hoping to do longer songs to give you guys more of a break!”  I told him I was thrilled I didn’t have to play that fucking Eagles song...

Anyway we ended it with Truck/Donkey, it was a beautiful, drunken love fest. And one hell of a good time.  And  part two is tonight in San Antonio!

3/16/19

Late late!....  oh well. Took a long time to recover from the big festival. Even though I didn’t do that much I kept busy every day. And since I am a very lazy man this is a couple of weeks late!

Swishin at the ‘04 lounge. Ususally this is a gig I look forward to. Hicks (and the ladies/Bantam) have played it a bunch over the years. Generally it’s loads of happy folks having fun with great people working it. I guess half of that is ok?

Bar staff was terrible! Three people working and only one was serving anyone with any regularity. The “non-servers” were acting like they were doing you a huge fucking favor IF they looked your way....  That didn’t mean you were gonna get served but they might look at you. 

It’s the busiest week of the year for bars in Austin, guess they already made enough and said fuck it. 

Anyway we were on after Dinola, I loved their set. They’d played earlier, somewhere in town so they were way warmed up and it showed!

We played the best set we’ve had in a while. I like playing right there on the floor with all the people walking by you.  And some good person waded through the surly bar staffs bullshit and bought me beer!!! He must have gotten it from the one dude who was actually working.  

And that was it. The last day of the big festival. Anniversary shows are next!

3/15/19

My first of only two shows this SXSW. Hickoids were closing out the night at ABGB.  

I’d snuck in two other shows on Wednesday and Thursday. I literally snuck in the back door (no badges or wristbands for me!) to see De La Soul Wednesday. They were unreal.  And the crowd was so happy to be there. Still only about half as happy as I was!

The next night I saw Maseo dj and it was pretty dam cool as well.  I happened to walk by him as he was headed to the  stage, that dude.... too cool!

Anyway back to last night. I got there and Harvey was up, but for only the last two songs...  The Sloths were up next, LA rock and roll. With costumes and magic?!!!  A very pleasant surprise!

There was still a good crowd for us at the end. Those folks ate us up and we gave it good!!  Early on in the set Smitty knocked the mic stand over and broke it. As I saw it hit the ground I wrote up a little short story in my brain that had Paul, the sound guy, putting his worse stands in front of us whenever we played. Sacrificial lambs of live music. I asked him after if that was true, he denied it but I still have my suspicions. 

Only one more set tomorrow!

3/8/19

We’ve been swishin it an awful lot lately, I’m pretty happy about that!

Last Friday we did The Brick at Blue Star. We played there a year and a half ago, I was sick as hell and I am certain I played like shit. I may not have done much better this time, but it sure felt better!

This was a skate deck art show. Lots of nice decks done up in different ways. After our set I got a chance to check some of them out. Not before....  when I loaded in the band before us was rocking it, hard. After I parked Lance was setting up....  I took forever I guess.  

It’s hard to hear in that room.  You are in the middle of the space and the PA can’t really take up the slack.  Oh well, people said we looked good.  

After our set we hung out and watched Sex Pump. Man they had a lot of gear. It took me a while to realize who was in the band, but once I did it all made sense!  Pumpin!

3/6/19

Last night was the first Wednesday, so you know what that means?!! (Except for last month when my schedule was off...). Sahara lounge with Danny B!

Jeff Pinkus has been added to the bill with his solo act, Pink Banjo!!  He played last month but I was off in Hong Kong so Bigfoot (and I) totally missed it.... I missed it last night as well, but I’m gonna try my best next month!!

Danny and them were ripping through it when I got there. Jesus you get spoiled seeing that all the time. Near the end of the set Danny’s wife got up and sang a few. Nice to see the family makin it!!!

I was a little worried about our set. We haven played at all in two months and that means zero rehearsal... We were fine. More than fine.  I’d say downright acceptable!

3/4/19

Redux of Saturday nights show at the Saturn Bar. Except this time it’s across town at Gasa Gasa and the Hickoids take the middle slot. 

Not much to say here. Last show of this mini tour and everything was almost the same. Except I played bass and we were on a stage instead of the floor.  

Oh yeah, and there were a shit ton more people there. That’s the big difference. Folks on the edge of exhaustion one day away from Fat Tuesday, ready to keep getting wild and blow it all the way out. We all did what we could to provide a safe and happy environment to let that happen.  

I always miss this town when I leave.  

3/3/19

We doubled it up in Hattiesburg last night. At the Thirsty Hippo we got there and loaded our stuff to this huge back room where they had a big pile of Mexican food waiting on us. Even had a plate of veg stuff just for me!! This is a joint that knows how to take care of people. 

Space Trash was the opener. Bunch of locals wearing Spacey/Trashy clothes and doing some pretty interesting things with their music.  Even got a little mathy at points. But not in a bad way, it was more of an “oh shit!”

This was the last swish show of the tour. And we had a nice little set. It was definitely the best one since we left Austin. It also sounded good.  The owner of the place is also the sound man. He had his room down!

But everyone there wanted the Hickoids. That’s why they were there and that’s why we were there. And we gave it to them good. You have too, how often do you get to play Hattiesburg? You know you got to rock it when you do!