Saturday, September 7, 2019

Hickoids / HMT 2019 Tour Friday, August 9

On to Friday. During the day, Michelle and I took it pretty easy. Part of that "taking it easy" was exacerbated by the slow pace of restaurants in Spain. In particular, the restaurant across the road from our hotel, Las Banderas. We went over in the early afternoon for our second meal there and were probably seated for at least two hours. Nothing moves fast, but then we weren't, either. If I recall correctly, Michelle had a piece of swordfish that was roughly the size of my head.

Later, we headed over to Montejaque, and the second Hickoids show of the festival. The other Hickoids had been housed by the festival in a couple of rooms right next to the square/playing area in the town, meaning that those poor souls hadn't had much sleep. Folks (including them at times) were partying until the wee hours, and from what I heard, it was loud. Also, their air conditioning was apparently not the best. So it was a hot noisy time for the Hickoids, minus me. Our hotel was incredibly quiet at night, and our a.c. was kicking. And I had Michelle with me. It's a wonder they don't all hate me now; maybe they do.

Montejaque was just a few kilometers north of Benajoàn, which in turn was just a kilometer north of where we were staying. So, we just had a short drive to this one. Unfortunately, we had to park near an unfinished building of some sort (the guys' van was there, too) and walk a fairly long ways to the town square. This time, I was smart. I brought my cymbals. Of course, wouldn't you know it......they had cymbals there.....and they had them at every other festival show. Just that first one....well, we won't go there again.

There were a few shops and restaurants around where we were playing, so Michelle and I stocked up on a few snacks and drinks to take to our hotel room later. We were playing first this night, followed by the two acts who followed us the night before and then other acts, including Los Skarnales, from Houston. I was wearing my Astros jersey to this gig, and several of the Skarnales yelled "hey, Astros!" to me, giving me big thumbs ups. I was confused at first, because I didn't realize who they were!

Our set was okay. We played fine, but we're pretty unaccustomed to playing first these days, and the crowd just never really warmed to us, despite Smitty's best workings. That happens sometimes. Nothing to be ashamed of, but we just couldn't get the crowd on our side. Once the next acts started, things changed for the crowd, and they started getting into it. One regret I do have is that Michelle and I were getting a bit tired, so we went back to the hotel after Maf É Tulà. We missed Los Skarnales, who the guys were raving about the next day. I wish we would have caught some of them.

So endeth the Friday.

No comments:

Post a Comment