8/2/19

First night of the first leg of this Hickoid tour. Tom, Lance and I flew up to New York last and made it to Home Sweet Home after Teenage Cavegirl had finished....

It went downhill from there... when we went up the bassrig didn’t work at all. We tried all kinds of cords and combinations of things and got nothin out of it. Fuck. Add on the fact that my mic stand wouldn’t stay up...

The les said the better. We played to a room full of people and I felt like I never got out of the starting gate.  

Hopefully the next one will be better. 

7/21:19

Late late late...

Lance, Harvey and I did it again the next day at our rehearsal space. That’s right. There was a little show on the little stage at the practice space.  It’s Austin, they sneak music in everywhere. Even if it’s inappropriate. 

Set was good. There were only a few people there, all of them were associated with the space and or us so it was a real friendly time.  Turns out we turned down another gig for this one. We would have played for more folks and made some money but this was a real nice way to spend an afternoon. 

7/20/19

Yesterday Lance and I backed up Harvey at the Knomad. We are now known as “The Harvey McLaughlin Trio”. Boom. 

This was the same show I played solo a few months ago. You know, Cris Burns puts it on... Anyway we were third of four and went on at five. Earlier than regular rock and roll time but we were all ready to bring it and we did!

The Differentials were on first. Hell of a set. They had five new tunes that fight right in with the rest of them. Such a good fucking band.  

Jean Caffeine played a solo set next. It was definitely a tough spot to play solo, between bands. But she got up there and punched her way through. Admirable. AND she borrowed my strap!

Our set rocked. We’ve had a few opportunities to rehearse since the last shows  we played. Added five new tunes (ten in total.) and it feels like a real band now. All of us are digging where it is going. 

The last band had the same setup as us, piano bass and drums. Kinda crazy and cool at the same time. Unfortunately I did not sick around (or catch their name...). Two beers when the sun is up makes me go home early nowadays. 

7/6/19

Hickoids played a party the other night out in Walnut Creek. A tiny little town about two and a half hours northwest of Austin. Two thirds of the drive was on two lane state roads through other small towns. I really like this kind of drive even if you can only drive slow at times. 

We were at the Rattlesnake Ballroom, a nice joint that has the bands play above the bar on an elevated stage... my paranoid ass was scared of a slip and fall every time I went up or down those stairs. Fortunately I didn’t pull any bonehead moves and stayed on both feet. 

Mikey Mumbles (or Mumbles Mike) was the guest of honor. They had a nice spread of bbq a couple of doors down for the carnivores in attendance. It was potato salad sandwiches and pasta salads for the veg”s in the house. Not the best but better than a candy bar from the connivence store.  

We played two decent sets. With the stage up like this you are so far from everyone and it’s really hard to make a connection with the crowd. We did our best but it still felt weird. They had a wireless mic so Smitty got to get out and mingle a bit, so there was a little bit of a connector there. 

After it was the lonely two and a half hour drive home being paranoid about deer jumping out at me. I saw a dozen on the side of the road but they all stayed where they were, thank god. 

7/3/19

I got a message the other day that I needed to speak with Bigfoot Chester HR so I went in a little early. Turns out everyone wants Angele back in after her stellar performance at the anniversary show. Perfectly understandable, she fucking kills it. 

So there I was sad and dejected, thinking I was out of a job...  until they slid an envelope across the desk that gave me my new job description. I’m in on guitar!!

We were back at the Sahara for our last, first Wednesday. It was pretty packed but we weren’t fooled... it’s just the day before a holiday and folks wanted to party!!

Angele isn’t 100% on everything yet so I split the set between guitar and bass. Still a load of fun. And we kinda killed it. I’m really looking forward to where we are going with this band. The five piece Bigfoot is awesome! 

6/29/19

Back at the Bang Bang Bar in SA the other night. Such a good place and when we showed up it was more crowded than I’ve ever seen!!!

Genzeles had a couple of tunes left. They seemed more on it than the last time I’d seen them. I think they might have a new drummer(?) but I don’t really pay that much attention so...

Tex and Pony Island were in the middle. Also with a different drummer (this I KNOW!) their set was solid. Apparently it was the new gals fourth time, including rehearsals with them. Pretty great work. 

Our set was good. I felt like we were a little all over the place, we haven’t rehearsed in a bit but the crowd was really into it. Kinda all that matters. 

Two folks were drunk enough to hit the floor. This one gal who was trying to grab Smitty’s junk (she fell right after, pretty funny). Later on this dude who was hugging the monitor right in front of me went down. Both were trashed but neither one of them were hurt. I’m doubting they even noticed!

6/22/18

And the second two shows were at Kick-Butt Coffee. I’ve been there for a couple of shows but I’ve never played there. And on this night I did twice!

Beautiful Delilah’s were first. Great as ever. I love playing with Trey but it’s really fun watching him rock out with someone else. And rock it they did!

Bigfoot went next. Our 25th anniversary show. It was pretty cool and a little redemptive after that last set at Sahara... we put out a cassette with a bunch of leftover stuff from the past and a couple of new ones that we did with Cris last month. It actually sounds pretty good, the new ones in particular. Couple of the old ones sound awful. My bass is mixed OUT of one of them...  bad bad production. Even for a cassette.

So we got Ted Roddy to sing a couple and Angele got up and played bass on five. In the past I’d get down and watch but this time I played some guitar and it felt really good. I played guitar on one recording back when I started and that was it.  After 20 years of waiting, finally I get to strike!!

Hickoids were last. Our set was somewhat subdued by Hickoid standards. But there was lots of time for bullshitting with the crowd and I even got to gear a story about Davy I’ve never heard before. THERE IS STILL GOLD IN THAT HILL!!