He's Back, Folks

Over two months since I've written?? Goodness. I had no idea it'd been that long. Wow. Well, a lot's happened, but nothing too earth-shattering. Maybe one or two things.

Band shows. Yes, they've been occurring. More Swishbucklers than anything else, really, but still.... SXSW was pretty decent this year. Four shows, four days. Not bad. Let's see if I can get through all this in an almost linear fashion.

In the month of February, the Pocket FishRmen had shows two Fridays in a row. February 8th we played the Nomad, always a favorite venue, and what I remember of the show is good. Cannot remember who we played with, though. Probably All Monsters Attack. I only remember two drummers being at the show, though. Hmm.....oh, yes! Sexy Finger Champs. There we go. Yes, very fun show. We'd drawn the last slot, but enough folks stayed around to make it an overall good time. (Funny how quickly I'm forgetting these shows and line-ups. I don't know if that's a good sign or not.) February 15th, we played at the Limelight (formerly Wacky's, I remembered!) in San Antonio. That  show turned out much better than I feared. It was Patrick's birthday show, so the line-up was Harvey McLaughlin, us, and the Sandworms, another band of Patrick's that plays infrequently, as in almost never. The audience built steadily through the night, and all was great. We even got all individually asked by this young woman there if we would play her swingers' party sometime in the summer. We'll see if that comes to fruition, but I think we all agreed to it if it involves enough money.

Now, one thing that I didn't mention yet. When I was driving to the February 8th show, I noticed the temperature gauge in my HHR didn't move from the stone cold position, which indicated that most likely the thermostat was stuck open. I made it home fine, but after discussing the situation with a few folks, Matt Silaski insisted on coming over to help me change the thermostat. I readily agreed. He's a great dude, and it's a job I didn't feel like tackling all by myself. So, he did. The thermostat was truly trashed, and together, we had it changed out within a couple of hours. Without losing much coolant, even. All was good, all the way through the trek to San Antonio on the 15th.

On Friday, the 22nd, Michelle and I did our frequent grabbing of Chinese food before she went to work, but I took a side trip to get some gas at a station near the house. Right as I was pulling into the station, a bunch of warning lights came on the dashboard, and the ol' HHR started running as if it were missing a cylinder. Despite going ahead and putting some gas in the car, I thought this might be it. I'd been waiting for the signal to go on to a new vehicle for awhile (largely with the "I'll help you" urging from my mother), and this was the final straw. I limped the car home and immediately began the search for a new one. I had Michelle take me to get a rental the next morning, as I searched.

The rental car was a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, and I liked it quite a bit. The 2019 Santa Fe (no Sport) was a model I was looking at already, and this was the early favorite. I also looked at the Honda CR-V, Ford Flex, and the Toyota Rav4. Either the size just wasn't right, or there were other issues. The Santa Fe was the one. Plus, I just liked the dealership. They didn't pressure me at all, and kept lowering the offer without me even griping about anything. The whole experience was as painless as it could be. I bought the one I test drove. Had it by that following Tuesday. Which was good, because, due to an impending band Mardi Gras trip, Michelle and I had to bump our anniversary dinner to Wednesday night (our actual anniversary was that Friday). I had a new car to take us in! First new car I've ever owned. Hope it lasts a long, long time. I plan on babying it as much as I can.

But, of course, fetishing my new car was short-lived, as I had to take off on this aforementioned band trip. The Hickoids/Swishbucklers were going to play Louisiana around Mardi Gras. I say "around," because we actually left after playing Lundi Gras night, but hey, close enough. Cody wasn't with us for the first couple of nights of this trip, so it was Swishbucklers and Hickoids (with Tommy Rowsey on guitar) on the first night in Lafayette (Friday, with We Are The Asteroid), and Swishbucklers the second night in New Orleans (at the Saturn Bar). The Lafayette show was tons o' fun, although I don't think the Hickoids were at our best. We hadn't had much time to prep with Tommy on guitar. I still had a blast at the show. Saturday night turned out pretty well, although Dave Catching's band played before us, and the crowd had dwindled before we hit the stage....or floor. At least, we got to park on St. Claude, right out front.

Being Mardi Gras and all, we were staying Biloxi, about an hour plus away. We had already checked into our hotels there before driving back for the show. And, then it was back to Biloxi, to bunk for the few hours before the next day.

Sunday morning, I felt like garbage. Not sure what was up, probably just lack of sleep, but I felt awful. We were expected at a party in New Orleans that all the folks we were involved with were going to be at. Some sort of chefs' party. Good food, in other words. And boy, did the food perk me up.  I felt better almost immediately after eating. Sometimes, the fix is very simple. And it was a good thing I felt better, as both bands had a show in Hattiesburg that night. After we picked up Cody from the airport. Yes, he flew in for the last couple of shows. We played at a pretty nice bar there with a band called Space Trash. I fell in love with this band almost immediately. Not the most polished, not the most dynamic, but I think they'll get there. The ideas were certainly there, pretty original, and they were great folks. I wish them well.

We got back to our hotel at a decent time, and I finally got some decent sleep. Which helped for the next day, most definitely. One downside, though. I got bitten several times by bed bugs during the night. Yes, you read that right. My first time for this (I think). Tom was staying on the couch in the room, and he was bitten as well. Patrick was in the same bed as me this night (he'd been at the casino the first night, pre-Cody), but he didn't get bitten at all. Something was up. I had checked the bed for bugs, as I usually do, but can't vouch for how thoroughly I checked. There will be more on this development as this post progresses.

Monday, it was back to New Orleans. We had some time to ourselves before the show, and I spent some time in the Quarter (trying to dodge parades!), before heading to our show, which was at a bar called Gasa Gasa, uptown. I ended up walking all the way there. Wasn't a problem, although after making the trek, I wonder if there weren't a couple of areas locals would have said "you didn't walk through there, did you?!"" I ate at a burger joint near the bar and showed up a little ahead of schedule. And Gasa Gasa was a great time. The Hickoids shared the stage with Dave Catching's band and the Gools, the same two bands the 'bucklers played Saturn Bar with. We had to get a drum set together, as the house kit the bar supposedly had was pieces at best. Well, the drums were fine, but the hardware was pretty much non-existent. Anyway, great show. Great friends there (special appearance by Jacky Morgan!). And we got in the van and drove home. Yes, all the way. I picked up the mid-Louisiana shift for the second straight time.

Let's see, what's next? Well, I got home, and Tom was convinced we'd been bitten by bed bugs in Biloxi. At that time, I still thought it was a couple of very large mosquitoes. Once I looked at the bites online, I realized he was right. So, I quickly washed all my clothes, and after seeing some sort of small bug under my backpack, washed and dryed that as well. I told Michelle what had happened, but since nothing of mine other than my backpack had been near the bed, was hoping for the best. I still thought we might have brought in some strays from somewhere else, as Tom and I had walked around the area quite a bit Sunday morning. I suppose we'll never know. But I did tell Michelle to be vigilant, although I thought we were in the clear.

The following Friday, the Swishbucklers had a show at the Brick at Blue Star in San Antonio. While I like the place itself okay, it's not the best place to have bands play. It's one of these multi-use things, with several businesses and yet not much room for parking. After unloading (which you can't even do near the door), I had to park about four-tenths of a mile away. Sucky. Don't know if I'll agree to shows there anymore. Or so I write. Ha! Anyway, the show itself was fine, although the makeshift stage they had was somewhat rickety and a bit small. Still, we had a good crowd. Sex Pump played after us, and I thought they were great, but the crowd had started to dissipate by then. The opening band....I forgot the name....we played with them at Paper Tiger before....was especially great, playing punk covers from the "glory days." Great deep set list.

The following week was SXSW....and I think I'll stop this post here. There will be more to come on the subject of bed bugs (did they, or did they not have them?), and of course, rock and roll. And other things. I've missed writing. More to come.

The Swishbucklers / "Ghost Story"

Good afternoon! Your narrator had a pretty damned fabnabulous time last night downtown. Wait, what??

That's right. We're in the throes of Free Week in Austin, which is a time where the downtown clubs band together and charge no admission to see live music. This concept has been going on for....well, over ten years, maybe more now....and in the past, when I've participated in it, still hasn't been the best attendance week. Apparently, the concept has taken hold. Downtown was nicely populated last night, despite chilly weather.

The Swishbucklers had a gig at the Empire Control Room. Set time was 11 pm, and this time, they had a backline!! Yes! So, I got downtown about 8:00 and quickly noticed there were quite a few folks already down there. I parked under I-35, which has been going on since I've lived here....but last night was the first time I did that. Eight bucks. Not great, but not exactly the usual fleecing you get downtown.

After rolling my cymbals, etc. over to the club, I saw on FB that Amplified Heat was playing down the street at Mohawk, so I went down to see them, after stopping in Valhalla to harass Mr. Jason Craig. Seems like I only get to see AH about once a year or so. To my surprise, they were playing outside, where it was pretty cold, but the floor quickly filled up. Very nice to see! There was one guy who kept videoing them with his phone, with the LED light on....and kept turning during songs to video the audience. After the third time of that, I moved to the other side of the floor. Sure enough, after the next song, the same dude walked over and did the same thing again. I really think there are people who are partially brain dead and still function in society. After moving to the back of the floor, I saw a couple more tunes and headed back to the Empire.

The Swishbucklers had not rehearsed since before our last gig in San Antonio, but we pulled it off pretty well. (I rehearsed all the recorded songs at home before going down, so I felt ready for once.) The crowd was dancing, and we sounded okay. Rice had a new guitar he was using, and he was unfamiliar with it still....and yet, I thought he got some great sounds out of it that seemed to compliment what Tommy Rowsey was doing really well. It seemed like we left too long gaps between songs, and yet we managed to play our entire repertoire (all eleven!). The backline kit was playable, although the drum throne had disappeared when I got up there for some reason (the previous drummer didn't use the kit). The first throne I was handed by the stage manager was low to the ground and non-adjustable due to cobbled-together after-market hardware. I was sweating that for a bit, but then the stage manager handed me a much, much better throne. What were they, made of thrones?? Anyway, the snare stand was the cheapest $20 variety, and drifted some but not too much. If it hadn't been downtown, I would have brought my own throne and snare stand, too.

After the gig, I headed over to C-Boy's to see Michelle. Rice and Brandy joined, too. After helping Michelle close down (good training....I might need a job soon!), we headed to Kerbey Lane for late-night grub.

The only watching I'm reporting today was a return to the "Ghost Story" series from 1972-3. I had started watching those many years ago and just stopped after a few episodes. It's a show William Castle produced and had Richard Matheson onboard as well. It didn't do well ratings-wise, even going so far as to change show name to "Circle of Fear" halfway through the run. Still, it only lasted one season, and there are only 23 episodes in total. The one I watched yesterday had Melvyn Douglas and a pint-sized Jodie Foster. It was okay, but I see why the show didn't quite make it. I suppose the idea sprang from other anthology shows such as "Night Gallery," but there's no real visual flair to this show. Where "Night Gallery" used interesting lighting and camera techniques to help invoke mood, this show is pretty static with basic lighting and standard shooting techniques. Still an okay watch. I might check out a couple more episodes before putting the set away for another few years......

I Suppose You'd Call This a Full Week (and Weekend)

Sunday, glorious Sunday. Other than this blog post, I'm not doing much else today. And I've earned it.

I had a full week of development at work, and that following a weekend where I, more or less, worked the entire time....at least through monitoring and updating. And, of course, what should happen Friday? Another one of these government shutdowns. Which means I'm out of work until the budget situation is resolved. I won't even go into that much, you know the details. It would be nice to know how long this will take, so I could maybe make some plans.....but that's an impossible task. In a way, I hope it takes awhile....although I don't want struggling friends to be out of work.

This weekend was filled with a couple of shows, both out of town, one for the Hickoids and one for the Hickoids offshoot, the Swishbucklers. The Hickoids show was Friday in Houston, with an all-star line up of friends, at one of the last shows to take place at Fitzgerald's. Fitzgerald's has been sold to a developer and is about to be razed for the future, as they say. Shame. I can't say I have a deep, emotional tie to the place, but I have played there several times over the last 30 years. Oddly, I feel more of a tie to Rudyard's. But anyway....

The Hickoids' set was one of the roughest times I've had playing in a while. It seemed like nothing on my drum kit would stay put or work right. The most major thing was that my kick drum pedal kept sliding to the left and right while playing, no matter how hard I clamped the sucker onto the rim of the kick drum. Dash Rip Rock had used my drums prior to us playing, and I wondered if that guy's pedal had oozed some oil onto the rim. I don't have this problem normally, so something had changed, for sure. In the middle of this, the general bounciness of the riser kept moving my rack tom down, which would cause it to catch a stick occasionally and flip it majestically in the air. During "Best Liquor Store" that happened no fewer than three times. The mic stand next to me kept sliding toward me, sometimes catching my shoulder and causing problems. At one point, while playing and after nudging the mic stand back to its proper place, I turned to hit my right-side crash and broke a stick at that moment. This was pretty much the scenario for the second half of our set. As we began our last number, "Brontosaurus," for whatever reason (and I've NEVER had this happen in 40+ years of playing) the hi-hat stand's pedal hooks came out of the holes they fit in, so the pedal was fairly uncontrollable for that whole song. And the kick drum pedal started sliding again. I kept trying to move it back as we played, and at one point completely lost where we were in the song. I looked up to see everybody looking at me. Harrumph! I cued some way to get back into the fast part of the song, and mostly everybody followed me. What a fucking nightmare. After leaving the stage at the end of the set, I immediately went backstage and yelled "FUCK!!!!!!" at the top of my lungs, startling the relaxing Beaumonts. I hope they're okay.

It seems everybody enjoyed the show, so I'm happy about that. I was not happy at all, but I'm just that way. I don't like letting the band or the show down. My bandmates seemed undisturbed about it all, so that's good. For the record, Smitty had been sick as a dog for a couple of days, and he pulled off not one, but two performances that night (also with the Texas Biscuit Bombs). I was pretty amazed by that. Man of steel, there.

Last night in San Antonio was a different story, playing-wise anyway. The Swishbucklers took the stage in between Dr. Green Dreams (from Bend, OR!) and We Are The Asteroid. We had a pretty killer set. Tommy Rowsey (original Swishbuckler) has been playing with us again, and he's getting better integrated into it all. I had a great time overall. Dr. Green Dreams rocked us and We Are The Asteroid....jeez, what can you say there? They just get better all the time. And they started off great! Just a fun night. Thank you, Jerry Clayworth, for putting that together. Jerry also talked with Michelle about the possibility of doing a burlesque/bellydance event there. Could be cool......Michelle really liked the room.

All this with allergies from hell!!!!!!