Monday, December 1, 2014

Weekend with Bleu, Thanksgiving vacation (sort of), Final Whskey Sisters show, Back to business

Had my first official weekend with Bleu Edmondson Nov 21-22

Before that played with Eric Tessmer Band at The Roost on Wednesday Nov 17.

THAT was a blast. Awesome venue and great sound. And we were tight as hell from the previous weekend of shows, so felt like we were on fire. Played some older stuff we didn't play the previous two sets either. Pretty good crowd too, which is always awesome. Fun set!

Rig that night:



Didn't get to have an official full band rehearsal before the weekend with Bleu, but got together with Hec Rivera to run the material with him. I wanted to be tight, and not still be relying on my notes to make sure I didn't miss any turns.

Friday night in Ft. Worth at Whiskey Girl Saloon, a wild west bar in the Stockyards area of Ft Worth, sort of a weird Western themed area. Good sized place, and Axl the sound engineer was just an awesome dude.

Set was really good. Crowd seemed a bit lukewarm, but they were digging it. I was still a little rusty on things but didn't have to consult my notes onstage --  and couldn't even if I wanted to. Am still in glasses after the lost weekend of gigs and emergency van repairs, and I take them off when I play for fear they will fly off my damn head heh!

Weather turned slightly colder and shittier for the drive to Canadian TX (I had to look it up on my phone, waaaaaaay North Texas by the Oklahoma Panhandle.



I was fighting a headache/hangover for the entire drive. Had my fun after the show but didn't go overboard. It was probably the whiskey at the hotel room with Clint and Hec that did it...

The Stumblin Goat was a pretty cool place, seems to be a rather new(ish) venue. Owners and staff were very nice and glad to have us out. FOH engineer was very apologetic as there were problems with the sound that took quite a while to finally sort out. So instead of getting some rest at the hotel for a few hours before the show, we hung out at the venue and had dinner there.

Before doing so I found myself puking in the toilet from drinking the night before. I don't always get sick when I drink, but when I do it's very late in the afternoon the following day. Weird. Did feel better tho! And sure as hell took it easy as to not have a repeat on the 8-hour drive back to Austin the next morning.

But our set went very well, finally getting a feel for the music. Great response too. As per the crowd, it was really good, and Bleu had a very keen observation: "There were more young people than older people, so there must be something cool about this town."

True that. A lot of the small-towns-I've-never-heard-of-before typically have an older population, as the young people go off to college and never return other than to visit family.

And maybe this bottle opener helped:


Good show and a good weekend all around. Kind of bummed that we're done for the year... I was just finally getting a good handle on the music hahaha!

And again, the staff of Stumblin Goat was all top notch. A good place run by great people. Stayed for awhile after hours and after load-out just hanging out. Lots of complimentary T-shirts, hats and coozies as well!

Had some celebratory drinks in Clint's room with him and Hec, but didn't overdo it as we had an 8-hour drive back the next day. Took lots of pics on the way back, as there was little to do:

North Texas. It was 38 degrees when we left.


Red River. To the East, the border line between Texas and Oklahoma.





Evidence of an old brush fire


Gas station stop. And talk about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre...




Lots of depressed little towns along the way. Anson TX is one of them.


We made it back into Austin area around 4pm, made really great time and great driving/ass-hauling by Bleu, even with the wind tossing the van around like an empty tallboy. And it was also 80 degrees when we rolled into town. WTH? It was upper 30's when we left! Oh yeah. Texas.

Then to wake up bright and early Monday to prep for my parents coming up from Corpus to retrieve me and Nacho for a few days + Thanksgiving with them. Also made arrangements to have all the van repairs done. They will be helping with that, and I will hopefully be able to pay them back when Bleu's schedule kicks in for next year.

Had a good visit, tho was still trying to get work done down there. Still scrambling to find bookings for Ocean of Stars, but email is having less than stellar (see what I did there?) results. When the van is fixed I will have to go to these places and meet the booking agent in person...

Got back into Austin in time to go see the final Whiskey Sisters show at the Continental Club with Heather.

Awesome show, rather cathartic, and packed to the fucking gills. Good to see all those friends and musical family under these circumstances one last time. I ventured to the front a few times to get pics and video, but would have to retreat to the back soon after. It was THAT packed.

Pre-show hug:



If you don't feel something when watching this video, check your pulse. You might be dead.


Was hoping there would be an after-show get together for drinks but that did not materialize. Josh and Teal packed up their gear and headed home to begin the drive to California forthwith. Glad I caught them outside, or I might have missed saying goodbye to them altogether. Pete the Beat was there as well, and we talked of jamming some time soon \m/,

Said goodbye to Barbara, Lonnie and Phil, and many of the slightly bewildered fans and friends. This is a huge group of people who will now have nothing to do on Thursdays... :( So I made sure to invite as many as possible to the Ocean of Stars show at the Gypsy Lounge on Dec 17th ;)

And speaking of which, posters have been ordered so I can start the groundwork of promoting the show and getting the name out there. Printing these up as generic 13x18 posters.



And while I was at it, made a mockup of album art for the EP. Even tho I'm nowhere near being able to print copies.


And since I was on a roll, made another logo


Feels good to be busy (or at least trying to be) with my own original music. It has been far FAR too long...





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