Forgot to mention second half of last week Tuesday night. Details of the rest of the week may be sketchy due to lack of updating this thing in a more timely manner.
But I digress:
After ETB's set at Antone's, Trinti and I went to Saxon Pub to catch Matt Smith's World. If you ever have a chance to see them, do yourself a favor. You will spend the next few days collecting the pieces of your blown mind. Seriously. He is producing Tim Abbott's album so Tim was there as well. Also bumped into Spanky, good friend and great bassist from the circle of 6th Street musicians. Has filled in for me with ETB several times.
But yeah. Matt Smith's World: Amazing. I'll leave it at that. Had Ernie Durawa from Texas Tornadoes drumming that night. After the show didn't meet him, but met his wife and "Pig Floyd", their pet pig. Awesome. Got acquainted as Triniti took pics.
Next morning I somehow wound up with a Pig Floyd hair embedded deeply into the bottom of my foot. And I was wearing Doc Martens that night, meaning the hair had stayed on my clothes all the way home, fell off in the bedroom onto the floor, and next morning somehow harpooned my foot.
By Wednesday morn the brakes on my van Goldie Hawn were grinding so bad it could not be overlooked any more. My finances are still recovering, but had to be dealt with ASAP with all the hills/turns in West Austin. Called Eric and made plans to have him help/show me how to replace front brake shoes. Took him 30 mins if that (with stitches in his finger), and $35 in parts. Now all I need is a good jack and a caliper press and I will never have to pay someone to do that ever again. Something about teaching a man to fish, or repair brakes. something.
Thursday went to see Hell's Belles (all-female AC/DC tribute from Seattle WA) at Continental Club. Adrian Conner has played guitar for them for 10 years or so. I have known her for 5 or 6 and have never seen them play. Have had opportunities, but always had a gig or something going on (broke). Face-melting. Great fun. Good to see Adrian finally get to uncork for 90+ minutes. That and Amber Saxon (Bug Girl, new H/B singer) also sounded great. The energy never wavered. Awesome.
Spent Friday afternoon re-wiring both my bass cabs (pulling the EV 15's from Mergilli's Dietz replica and dropping them into the Dietz cab). But the wiring was iffy on Dietz so had to put them right back into the Mergilli cab to use for Friends that night. Which was pretty good. The crowd and the night, not me taking apart both bass cabinets only to put my main one back together as-was.
Saturday was ETB's debut at the Saxon Pub. We were all really stoked, very legit and historic place, and they don't book crap. Then we receive word that we've picked up another early set at Friends before Saxon. Did not conflict and we could use the money, so we simply kept pushing the Saxon show and showed up to Friends unannounced, heh. Still melted faces and had a great time. However, we now had to tear down after playing 3 hours straight and head forthwith to another gig. Working a double you could say.
And we didn't know what to expect. We'd told as many friends as we could, but for a venue we were new to, and headlining on a Saturday night... this could really go either way. And I figured we'd be way too loud anyway. Saxon is intimate, covered in wood and sounds great. But we're a pretty damn loud band...
So we roll in and immediately start breaking shit. Both of our mic stands fell out the back of Goldie Hawn into Saxon parking lot. One the base broke off. Well shit. Then I pick up the other and the base broke off of IT as well! WTF?!? Not good. Then as Triniti heaved the tilt-castered merch case into Saxon it caught on the door eave and a wheel goes tumbling off of it. Fucking hell. Haven't even loaded on stage and already 3 things have broken just getting the gear inside.
But things turned around soon as we took the stage, all tired and sweaty from the earlier Friends set. And turned down as much as we can... But the place was damn near packed when we started! Awesome! Lot of familiar faces, people who see us for free all the time now paying $10 a head to see us in a new place. That is support. Thank you all for being supportive, people! YOU helped make that night an overwhelming success and helped us get a solid foot in the door for a new venue for us. Awesome!
Great set. Now a blur. Spent all of Sunday and most of Monday recovering from the energy expenditure of Saturday. Awesome. Eric had a wedding to play, and a possible private event which hadn't totally materialized we canceled anyway just cause Eric's stitches needed a rest.
What an awesome week. Need to post pics. Yeah I always say that... *sigh*
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