The final day of SXSW.
Am pleased to report the day went off without a hitch.
2 ETB gigs that day. Early matinee 4-hour set at Agave, then a later short set at Moontower Saloon.
Used Goldie Hawn to transport gear downtown as Boss Hoss was still sitting in a parking lot. Traffic aside made it to same loading area for Agave (5th and something) without incident. Well, the only place available to park and unload was also being occupied by some pedicabs so I unfortunately had to be a dick and block them temporarily. Sorry bout that.
But they weren't normal pedicabs, they were Samsung pedicabs who were only taking people who had a Samsung Galaxy 4S. Um what? Yeah. There was a guy running late to a show he wanted to see, and the pedicab could not take him under strict orders from Samsung. Crazy.
Anyway. Loaded in to Agave. The entire block of 6th Street was a convoy of beer trucks re-stocking the bars. Or I guess the venue finally read our rider, ha! Played an awesome 4-hour show to a packed house. Had a blast. Rob is really expanding on his drum solos and going more and more out there with them. Awesome! Great set and a great crowd, mostly foot traffic walking by.
Loaded out without incident or golf carts. Went home to catch some rest before the later show.
Moontower Saloon was pretty damn awesome. Outdoor stage in the beer garden, firepits under Live Oaks. Great weather. Venue and staff were top notch and great. And being that it was way south off of Manchaca Rd, it was NO WHERE NEAR DOWNTOWN \m/,
Our good friend JT Coldfire had set this up. Arrived in time to catch the rest of his set, jamming with our other good friend Andy McIntyre. Great crowd. We were a little concerned with noise problems as we were the last band and loud as shit, but the wooden stage soaked up enough sound to where we didn't have to turn down much, if at all.
Very fun and short set, pretty much a blur to me from exhaustion. But the camera crew who'd filmed us a few weeks back for a documentary called "For The Love Of It" were there and got it on tape. Good to see those guys again as well. A great night all around and a great night to end SXSW.
Afterwards Trin and I went to our good friend Jason Soules' new house for a nightcap. Good to hang with him for awhile away from the noise and distraction of a show. Played with him in Velvet Brick from 2004-2006, and he currently plays with Rob in Hyde Park Showdown.
Family.
And got to see a lot of our musical family this year over SXSW. Goons in golf carts aside, it was a good one.
Thank y'all for reading about it.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Busy week. Playing blind. Threadgill's.
Busy week indeed.
Monday morning renewed my HAAM (Health Alliance for Austin Musicians) coverage for another 2 years, picked up my new contact lenses on the way home (I'll get to that), cleaned up leaves around the Hobbit Hole and played ETB Friends monday residency that night. Tuesday early ETB rehearsal, met up with Kirk from Dead Oak to talk about the summer. Wednesday rehearsal with Adrian and the Sickness for a theater gig on Thursday, with Ocean of Stars rehearsal planned for later in the evening. Working on AATS and Ocean of Stars music in between. Two Dallas-area gigs with ETB on Saturday. Had declined a Friday show with Forever Town in Houston because I was too busy to accept it.
Some of the aforementioned plans changed late in the tuesday ETB rehearsal. We'd come up with another very useable 14 minute jam. Started working on 'Stray Dog' when something tweaked in the side of my right wrist. Shit.
Went home and bought a wrist brace. A similar thing happened few years back and I played a full ETB set wearing a similar brace without it affecting my playing too much or worsening the injury. So wasn't worried about that. But had a full weekend of gigs and a practice with AATS so wanted to go easy on it. Cancelled Ocean of Stars rehearsal just to be safe, didn't want to risk playing guitar and worsening it. But rehearsal with AATS went very well, felt fine playing bass.
So will be rocking the road warrior wrist brace tonight at the Blackheart with Adrian and the Sickness \m/,
ETB at Saxon Pub last Saturday was pretty interesting for me. (Apr 20)
My contacts were old as shit and financially hadn't been able to pick up the new ones. Was going to ride out the old ones til after the Saxon gig but no dice. One of them went unwearable, so would either have to wear my glasses that night (but take them off for our set) or get an eyepatch and wear the one good lens... but that would have left me explaining the eye patch all night and it wouldn't have been a very interesting story, so fuck that.
Wore my glasses. Not that eyesight had anything to do with my gear problems setting up. Got my rig ready, took off standby, hit some notes and nothing. Except for the transformers of my SVT clicking angrily every time I hit a note. Forgot to plug the speaker cable into it. Glad I caught that right away. Then I still had no signal, but that was the cable going into my wireless. No problem.
I wasn't the only one who had problems that night. Eric and I jammed for a few minutes while Rob fixed something on his kick drum pedal. Eric: "He's not hiding from y'all, he's back there fixin something." Heh.
Gear situations aside it was a fun show.
But playing and not being able to see very well. Wow. We played great tho I couldn't necessarily see Eric and Rob's faces clearly, but could see them well enough to catch cues. The audience was a different story. I could see that people had faces but that's it. So I didn't want to look at anyone because I couldn't see if they were looking back at me, heh. Awkward.
Fun show but yeah that was weird feeling disconnected from the crowd like that because I couldn't see them very well.
And finally, ETB's long-anticipated headlining show at Threadgill's World Headquarters! (Apr 12)
And it was awesome. The weather was absolutely perfect for an outdoor venue, clear and cool. The crowd was amazing, very good turnout! Lots of people who have been waiting for the make-up date to our two previous weather-related cancellations, lots of close friends and musical family.
We payed our asses off. Fantastic set. We were all on fire. The crowd loved 'Stray Dog', the new tune. Man that was a fun night. Thanks so much to everyone who came out!
Photos courtesy of Dave TV:
Monday morning renewed my HAAM (Health Alliance for Austin Musicians) coverage for another 2 years, picked up my new contact lenses on the way home (I'll get to that), cleaned up leaves around the Hobbit Hole and played ETB Friends monday residency that night. Tuesday early ETB rehearsal, met up with Kirk from Dead Oak to talk about the summer. Wednesday rehearsal with Adrian and the Sickness for a theater gig on Thursday, with Ocean of Stars rehearsal planned for later in the evening. Working on AATS and Ocean of Stars music in between. Two Dallas-area gigs with ETB on Saturday. Had declined a Friday show with Forever Town in Houston because I was too busy to accept it.
Some of the aforementioned plans changed late in the tuesday ETB rehearsal. We'd come up with another very useable 14 minute jam. Started working on 'Stray Dog' when something tweaked in the side of my right wrist. Shit.
Went home and bought a wrist brace. A similar thing happened few years back and I played a full ETB set wearing a similar brace without it affecting my playing too much or worsening the injury. So wasn't worried about that. But had a full weekend of gigs and a practice with AATS so wanted to go easy on it. Cancelled Ocean of Stars rehearsal just to be safe, didn't want to risk playing guitar and worsening it. But rehearsal with AATS went very well, felt fine playing bass.
So will be rocking the road warrior wrist brace tonight at the Blackheart with Adrian and the Sickness \m/,
ETB at Saxon Pub last Saturday was pretty interesting for me. (Apr 20)
My contacts were old as shit and financially hadn't been able to pick up the new ones. Was going to ride out the old ones til after the Saxon gig but no dice. One of them went unwearable, so would either have to wear my glasses that night (but take them off for our set) or get an eyepatch and wear the one good lens... but that would have left me explaining the eye patch all night and it wouldn't have been a very interesting story, so fuck that.
Wore my glasses. Not that eyesight had anything to do with my gear problems setting up. Got my rig ready, took off standby, hit some notes and nothing. Except for the transformers of my SVT clicking angrily every time I hit a note. Forgot to plug the speaker cable into it. Glad I caught that right away. Then I still had no signal, but that was the cable going into my wireless. No problem.
I wasn't the only one who had problems that night. Eric and I jammed for a few minutes while Rob fixed something on his kick drum pedal. Eric: "He's not hiding from y'all, he's back there fixin something." Heh.
Gear situations aside it was a fun show.
But playing and not being able to see very well. Wow. We played great tho I couldn't necessarily see Eric and Rob's faces clearly, but could see them well enough to catch cues. The audience was a different story. I could see that people had faces but that's it. So I didn't want to look at anyone because I couldn't see if they were looking back at me, heh. Awkward.
Fun show but yeah that was weird feeling disconnected from the crowd like that because I couldn't see them very well.
And finally, ETB's long-anticipated headlining show at Threadgill's World Headquarters! (Apr 12)
And it was awesome. The weather was absolutely perfect for an outdoor venue, clear and cool. The crowd was amazing, very good turnout! Lots of people who have been waiting for the make-up date to our two previous weather-related cancellations, lots of close friends and musical family.
We payed our asses off. Fantastic set. We were all on fire. The crowd loved 'Stray Dog', the new tune. Man that was a fun night. Thanks so much to everyone who came out!
Photos courtesy of Dave TV:
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