Antone's last Saturday with ETB was a success.

Wish there was a slightly larger crowd, but those that were there were totally into it for the live recording. Great sets by J Wesley Haynes Trio, Amplified Heat and Dixie Witch.

Had a bit of a meltdown during soundcheck tho. Realized my malfunctioning bass wah didn't want to run via DC adapter anymore. No biggie, will run a battery. Hooked up SVT and Antones' backline 2x15 and sounded like the fucking thing was blown. DAMNIT! Braved the blast furnace heat to get my 4x10 cab from Boss Hoss. Broke a caster manhandling it onto the stage. It sounded no better. WTF?!? Just got my damn SVT re-tubed, it can't be going already. Threw my bass into my guitar boat and broke a straplock off. Wow. 2nd time I've broken a straplock at Antone's, only this instance wasn't very awesome or rock n roll. Fired up the TB-600 and it TOO sounded like ass... What the hell?

Then started unplugging pedals, sure enough was the damn Wah pedal. Ripped it off my pedalboard and threw it aside. That is the 2nd Dunlop Bass Wah to fail on me in the past 18-months. Goddamn mass-produced piece of shit that you can't actually fix yourself... *sigh* So I will not be using a Wah pedal for the foreseeable future, as I can't afford another $110 disposable pedal and won't for awhile. Bah.

So for the finale when Tessmer and I broke our strings off, had to use my Phase 90 to make weird noises instead. Worked like a charm, fuck that piece of shit Wah. SVT thru the 2x15 sounded like God. Man, I really need to either get a 2x15 or get my Isovent back up and running. Whichever is cheaper. Would like a 2x15 as well as a backup, can prolly sell my 4x10 towards it.

Speaking of which, picked up my Isovent (FINALLY) from Austin Vintage. Bill Webb said he knows how to fix the wiring but can't really do anything about it til I get some speakers. Who knows when that will be. Mentioned that I might need special 15's with extra play on the drivers due to the isobaric mounting of the speakers. Shit. Asked if I should just have the stock ones reconed. "Oh, you still have them? Great!" And gave me the number of a speaker repair guy he highly recommends. (NOT Austin Speaker Service...).

Friends Monday w/ETB was great, good crowd all night and a profitable evening as well. Filled in on bass with Casey Epps that Tuesday. June will be a little light $$-wise so any extra work is greatly appreciated. Rusty Traps on kit and JT Coldfire on guitar. A fun night but probably more people onstage than in the audience. Dead as a fucking doornail. Was nice to make an extra couple of bucks, but damn. Ouch. And we played good to, especially cause I actually knew how to play a handful of the tunes, heh. The rest were "Slow blues in B, quick 4, watch for changes... 1, 2, 3!" And jump right in doing my best to act like I knew the songs, which I generally pulled off. A fun musical exercise.

In Corpus for the weekend to see family. But still working. Updating this blog. Loris Lowe from KLBJ/KGSR texted last night asking if the Truckers want to do Local Licks on KLBJ Tues the 22nd to promote the CD release on the 26th. Told her I AM IN, let me talk to rest of the band! I've gone on Local Licks twice and talked about EVERYTHING I was doing at the time, easily filling the 30 minute slot and playing music from a half-dozen bands. Gonna join Josh and Teal as they are available.

As for press leading up to CD release, Teal sent me a list of things going on: 1500 word front page feature in Austin American Statesman weekend section for Thurs 6/24, lots of airplay on KVET and other local stations, free download on AOL.com, "Van Tour" album is already at Waterloo with it's own listening station. Hell effing YEAH!

Can't wait for y'all to hear the new Truckers album. Will say about it that so far I feel it is the album of my career.

Am also talking to an artist named Bryce Clifford about a 10-day Canadian run for end of July. Talking particulars as far as payment and seeing if it will be worth it for me financially. This unfortunately is a BUSINESS and I have bills to pay. As much as I love to travel, if it ain't worth my time I can't do it. Will see what he says in a few days.

Played the Republic of Texas Biker Rally yesterday afternoon with ETB. The Backline SWR bass amp lasted halfway through first song.

Was happy to hear there'd be backline gear at this thing, less stuff for us to deal with. Get there, check out amp while loading stage, and had to shake my head. Dusty looking SWR 2x10 combo with matching 2x10 extension cab. Seriously? I can tell just by looking at it that it will a) sound decent at best (if it worked) and b) if it did work, probably wouldn't work for long. Whatever. Plugged in and took awhile to dial in tone, mainly because of the interview taking place with band that played before us, blaring through the PA. Let's just say it was a band that's been doing it for a long time but are neither intersting nor all that good. But they carried themselves like rockstars and the interviewer was totally kissing their asses. It was kinda funny, good for them to have some rockstar treatment or something. Whatever.

So finally get to soundcheck and start. Bass amp clipping badly. Dies halfway through first song. So I do the only appropriate thing which is signal sound guy that the amp is gone and mime some Pete Townsend windmills, just to keep it visually interesting. Took a considerable amount of self-restraint to not kick the damn thing over. But then remembered it wasn't my amp to kick over, heh. So they DI me and run me through PA and my monitors. Which sounded like ass when I could hear them, but usually coudn't. Have all this stage to run around on, why stand in front of my monitors just so I can hear myself, heh! We still threw down and had a good show. Tessmer's amp lasted entire set at least, heh.

As you can tell from this Blog I go through a lot of bass gear. It can be argued I am too hard on my gear but whatever. My roots are from the early 70's, back when bass players weren't pussies \m/,

Tonight is Eric Tessmer Band live recording at Antone's with Dixie Witch, Amp Heat and J Wesley Haynes Trio. Gotta go, still have a song by Eric's dad to learn for soundcheck and the show tonight. 2:04 pm now and I gotta load in at 4pm.

Gotta run.