01.11.2013 - Wet Creek Bar - Fort Worth, TX

Oh, where to I begin? I guess we should start with a Happy Friday tonight, right? Ok, so Happy Friday!

Now, onto the show... what a mixed bag of emotions for me tonight. Ever heard of paying dues? I thought I did that in my teens with my first semi-successful band. Anyway, it's a new band, we're staring all over from scratch, I guess we're paying again.

So, let's start out with the bar... Place was called Wet Creek in Fort Worth. I had never been there, no one knew anything about it, we were booked, we showed up.

Place wasn't in a great neighborhood, but that's par for the course and fine. They had a taco stand in the parking lot, bonus points there - I do love me some late night non-FDA approved tacos after a show.

Now, if you're reading this, I'm assuming you know what the band sounds like and what we look like, right? Lots of keyboards, 80's guys with some TX country mixed in, that's us... here's the big sign that I pulled into and parked at:

So, I'm sitting in the car, chain smoking, going, "Crap, we're booked in a biker bar. We're going to die once we take the stage." So, I wait for Heath to show up, we go into the bar. Well, I was half correct. It was a biker friendly venue. We did not die. Actually, the crowd was very friendly, as was the staff. The PA system... not so friendly. I don't know what the Hell was going on, but we were getting some wild interference, almost like a CB radio, and we simply could not get rid of it. One of the guys that worked there said, "yeah, that happens some times - we roll with it and it all works out."

Ok, fine. We rolled with it, but talk about a distraction. Imagine trying to sing a song, remember words, remember guitar chords, remember keyboard triggers, and work the crowd while you've got a mix of white noise (that wonderful static sound like when you're old TV's would go off the air) and radio noise popping in and out whenever it felt like it. Not fun. I give the crowd credit for not throwing something at us whenever it happened. Oh, and the worst interference of all was during a cover we did of Blake Shelton's "Home." It's a stretch for me to sing that in the first place, let alone when I can't hear myself or the music. Ugh. Thank God for beer.

The other stuff going on was the typical cover stuff. As I've said a million times, we're not a cover band. But, tonight we were pretty close to one. We were booked for a four hour set. No choice but to throw in a hefty lot of covers. As always, we managed to fit in all of our originals (which is getting to be quite a few now). But, I'm just not into the covers... to me, if I want to sing covers, I'll go be a patron of a bar, get drunk and sing karaoke. I love karaoke! Anyway, again, part of the "dues" thing. We have a few more months of having to do these long shows here and there and we'll survive, just kind of kills the mental energy for me. I tend to blow off the lyrics and make up my own words or mess with the crowd to keep myself entertained. We'll never make it as a cover band and I'm ok with that LOL.

Finally, the icing on the cake... there was a mixup, misunderstanding, something like that, on the pay and we wound up making less than expected. I will say that it seemed genuine, I don't think they were trying to screw us. But, it just kind of was a bummer. Took away from my taco money. Luckily, it wasn't enough of a difference that we lost money.

So, enough of the negative...

Now for the good parts... like I said, the staff and crowd were very nice. It was a small crowd, but we didn't seem to run anyone off and it was kind of fun to see the bikers slamming their pool cues to the beat of the songs. Also, as with the past shows, the originals seemed to be nicely received. Maybe we just pick covers that suck, not sure, but they seemed to get into our own songs more than the covers. That feels good. Oh, except for that one damned song that Heath and I swore we'd never play... Yeah, we did Margaritaville... and, of course, people danced. Damn you, Jimmy Buffett!!!

In the end, after the dust settled, it wasn't a bad show. Heath loved the place and I didn't mind it either. Cisco always seems to be happy wherever he is, so I guess he had a good time - he and Heath crack my up on stage and I enjoy working with them. Just the technical glitches and stuff through me for a loop during the actual show so I didn't really enjoy it while I was doing it tonight.

Would I play there again? Yeah, I would. Now that I know what to expect, it's fine. However, I'll be much happier when were doing the 90 minute all original sets - that's the real goal and I'm sure we'll get there soon. We're doing this because, in Texas, you HAVE to play out to get fans and pay your dues. If you haven't had some crappy shows, they know and will laugh you right off stage. It doesn't work any other way here if you're in anyway related to country music.

Tomorrow night, more of the same... we're playing a place we've been warned doesn't like the volume beyond 1 on the dial... Our agent handles Dion Pride (Charley Pride's son). I heard they asked him to stop like after an hour because of the volume when he played there... I also hear they payed him the full amount, though. So, hey, who knows... I will use my best "inside voice" and will report back later in the weekend :)

Ok, I will leave you with my favorite image from tonight, from the Men's room at the bar... I hope you find the humor in it.

Stay gold,
RH