02.16.2013 - Hollywood & Vine - Glen Rose, TX

Well, happy late Saturday night! 

Tonight we played at a place called Hollywood and Vine in Glen Rose, Texas. I've lived in Texas for a good chunk of my life, but this was my first time to visit Glen Rose. I really didn't even know exactly where it was until I loaded the address in the GPS to head to the show. 

While I was only there a short while this evening, it seems to be a neat little area. I mean, you know you're in a unique place when you've got dinosaurs and a nuclear power plant all in the same area, right? Works for me. Anyway, whatever is in the water there, I kind of liked it. Google it. 

Now let's talk about the place we played... it was called Hollywood and Vine. As with many of the smaller towns, my GPS got lost once I was in the actual town - took me down a dead end road and I was on my own. From a block or two over, I see this big "Hollywood" sign. Ok, must be close to that, so I headed in that direction. Turns out, that was their sign. 

When we originally got the booking, I had checked out their website and saw that it was "Buffett inspired" and I knew that was probably a good sign. Boy, was I wrong - it was a great sign! 

The interior restaurant portion of the place was kind of a maze. Like an old house with pathways leading from room to room. Typical Margaritaville type signage on the walls, etc. Then, you find the patio... I have to say that, in all my years of having fun on patios, this has to be the coolest patio I've seen. Sand, strange signs all over the place, a real football scoreboard from the old high school, an old water well, Elvis on a balcony, a good sized stage, all kinds of stuff. Reminded me of something you'd see on Route 66. And, those of you who know me well, know my passion for Route 66. Probably enough said, I liked it. 

Now for the bummer part - We had to play inside. Yes, we were originally set to play the patio. However, the weather did not think we needed to do so. 40 degrees in Texas is considered hardcore winter weather :) So, all agreed that if we wanted to have anyone at all in the audience, we needed to move the show inside. 

They set us up in what I understand is normally a pool table room. Small room, tin roof, rusted. But, it was heated! The owner had explained that things were hit or miss right now and that they really didn't know what to expect. Something about everybody in town having spent all their money on Valentine's day. Got it, no worries. I have no experience in this place, but I'm assuming it was a "miss" tonight. It was hard to gauge how many people were there, just due to the way the place is set up (maze - you can't see the bar area from the pool table area). While the room we were in was never wall to wall, we had a steady flow of people and didn't seem to run anyone off. We messed with our set a lot to keep the volume appropriate and ease them into the wildness of what the end of our shows are like. 

Oh, and the kids. It was an all ages deal. So, I figured it might be in our best interest if I didn't use my "concert mouth." It was amusing to try to think of words on the fly to substitute during certain songs. I can say that I haven't laughed this much during a show in a while. 

Oh, and the kids... did I already say that? Well, that was just funny. It's not often we play somewhere that Heath's kids are able to attend. Tonight was their night. I don't know if Heath was counting or not, but I'd be really interested in knowing how many times he heard, "I love you, Daddy." Here's Heath trying his best to rock out a solo and his little girls are climbing on his monitor saying, "I love you, Daddy." It was just funny. From here on out, he's no longer Heath (like the candy bar). We're calling him Daddy. I'm not used to being around kids. BUT, I think they had fun! Now if we can just get them to tune guitars and load gear... 

In the end, it worked out. We met some really nice folks from Glen Rose, received some nice compliments and the owner (who wasn't the owner when we were booked) said she really liked us. 

We're booked there again (on the patio) towards the end of March. I figure, being Texas, we should be in the 90's by then, so unless we're having a tornado, hail or both, we should be good to go. Really looking forward to going back. I think I may have to go a day early or stay a day after to check out the town. A guy I was talking to on the patio was telling me about another place around there that Willie Nelson owns called Loco Coyote and it sounds really fun... yeah, so far, I like Glen Rose... 

We're off next week for recording and mixing sessions but will be back on the stage March 2nd in the Big D. So, I'm sure you'll get to hear me type your ears off after that - I just LOVE driving in downtown Dallas :)

Stay gold,

RH

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02.15.2013 - Oui Lounge - Fort Worth, TX

Well, I'd say that successfully removed the taste of roadside armadillo from my mouth! 

First off, about this place... I am not originally from Fort Worth. But, Oui Lounge, as I hear from the locals, has been around forever - a beloved dive bar near the TCU campus. Recently, Chef Tim Love (Love Shack, White Elephant, lots and lots of nice restaurants across the country) bought the place and cleaned it up a bit, but kept the 70's decor. It was very comfortable and I could see myself going there for a drink or ten if I lived nearby. Reminds me of the Cosmopolitan ads running - just the right amount of wrong. So, the venue was fine. 

This was to be a late show, so we showed up around 7:30 to get setup and sound check. Unfortunately, we were to be running our own sound for the night. Not a big deal when we use our own system, but I had never ran a board like what they had and Cisco & Heath don't mess with the audio at all. So, instant learning session on my part. I don't claim to be a sound guy, but someone has to do it, right?

So, I finally got the house sound up and running, then couldn't figure the monitor mix. It was irritating, but kind of funny as the mixing board was wall mounted, hid behind velvet curtains on the stage - very static-y velvet curtains - and every time I touched the mixer I got a little shock... Eventually, I got some sound in the monitors. 

By this time, it was past nine and we should have already started, so we just decided to go ahead and do it and tweak the sound as we went along. So, on with the show...

I'd say the first four or five songs were spent with me singing a line, then running back to the wall mounted board and adjusting levels. Too much of this in the monitors, not enough of that, too much guitar front of house, can't hear the vocals, the list goes on. Normal stuff that isn't an issue when you have someone running sound for you. However, it kind of sucks any chance of "performance" out of me when I'm having to do this during a show. So, if you were there, I apologize for the first bit of the show. I see a steady sound guy in our future. 

After a while, the sound out front smoothed out (although my monitor mix was still off the whole night - couldn't hardly hear the keyboards at all - and that's what I follow when I sing!) and all was well. 

Interesting crowd  mix. Had an even mix of older folks (our age) and college kids. That was much like Keller Tavern's crowd. Maybe we're seeing a trend. The places we seem to be doing well have had that mix of people and are less country flavored. Heath and I made a decision a while back to go with our gut and head more in our own direction, rather than trying to fit in with the places that want "country." So, it was nice to see the reception we had here. We have a few more of those shows on the books where they're going to want herd country (aka whatever country radio tells the sheep they should like). But, they will eventually come to an end as we find and grow our market. The Oui show helped with growing that market. 

Highlights from the show... Well, Candy made an appearance. She likes the college guys - what can I say? She was running late and was kind of beside herself during the first set. But, on the break, she came out of her box and got social. She's a pain to work with, but the beer goggled crowd seems to really like her. I'm cool with her as long as she sits there, plays her part and shuts up. Life is good that way. 

We also had a group of about ten women that were feeling no pain. They were a lot of fun and ribbed Heath a lot during the show. Heath was having a ball with it, jumped off the stage and played at their table, while they all got up and danced. Cisco seemed to be having a good time, too - he offered some of his hand percussion and we wound up with a stage full of audience members dancing and singing along with us throughout most of the last set. They were snapping pictures like crazy, hopefully some will make Facebook as I did not have my phone with me the whole time. Would have liked to snapped some of the interior, too!

In the end, we had a really good time and I think the crowd did as well. We'd play there again, for sure. Tonight, we're off to find dinosaurs in Glen Rose, TX... talk to you after that one!

Stay gold,

RH

02.02.2013 - The Happy Armadillo - Everman, TX

It's Saturday night and I'm back before midnight... Well, I guess tonight would be "the ugly." 

What a night! I'm somewhat obsessive about checking and double checking, then checking again to make sure I've got everything before I leave. Today, my stomach's been bothering me, not feeling 100%. Guess I wasn't all there, mentally. I probably should have known it was going to be one of those nights when, half way to the show, I realized my capo was still on the mic stand in the studio where I practice. Ok, I only use it on 3 songs, I'll improvise and we'll get through it. Right? Right. 

So, I show up to the place around 6:30. I go in to see where we're to set up. Small place, but the bartenders are friendly enough. It'll be fine. 

Next sign of the evening -  Heath shows up and had just received a speeding ticket! There goes his profit for the night. Oops! Ok, so Heath's nerves are a little rattled as well now. 

So, like I said, we set everything up and start our sound check. We get about two songs into it and the bartender comes over and needs to talk to us. I figured it was the "turn it down" speech. Nope... it was the "we were under the impression that you were a classic rock or classic country band" speech. Seriously? Did you not listen to our demo before you booked us? Anyway, the manager was "off duty" but, was sending this poor girl over to tell us that it wasn't going to work. She said the manager said they were already getting complaints about the style of music. Really? There were on about 6 people there while we were checking the sound. Plus, we didn't even play the full songs, we were just getting levels on the sequencing. We explained we did a few classic country covers in our set, but mostly play originals. Should we just try and see how it goes, etc? "Oh, you can't do originals at all. We just want covers. Classic country or classic rock." 

Here's the deal about bands that use a lot of electronics and sequencing - we can't just "play" whatever we want on the spot. We play what we programmed for the set. We have some extras programmed in case we get in a mood or whatever, but if it's not programmed, we can't do it unless it's acoustic... and you know how I feel about acoustic LOL. 

Anyway, so we're discussing between ourselves, trying to figure out a way to make it work. Our sound is country enough, that we were pretty sure we wouldn't run anyone off, just a matter of restructuring the set list to ease them into us. She comes back again and, you can tell, she's still getting an earful from her "off duty" manager who won't speak to us. So, we asked if we should we just pack up and go? "Yeah, I think that's what she's wanting. She (the manager) thinks you're going to run off the crowd." 

So, after an hour drive and an hour setup and running sound, we tore it right back down and packed it up. We never even played a full song. And no, we weren't paid either. "The manager" told her the contract was void because we weren't a cover band that played classic rock or classic country. So, in addition to wasting time, we wasted quite a bit of gas. Oh, and Cisco had turned down another gig the same night. So, he really lost out .

And the icing on the cake... after we're done packing things up, we're standing outside catching our breath and talking for a few minutes - 10 or 15 minutes, somewhere around there - and up pulls a cop. He had received a call that there were some people out drinking in the parking lot. Again, seriously? You cancel our show, then you call the cops on us? The police officer was very nice. We were drinking water, it was all fine. He went in the bar, we talked a few more minutes then left. Fair to say, we won't be back there to play... or to spend money. I don't like to bad talk a place. I really don't, but we kind of got screwed tonight. Generally, if a venue cancels, you at least get half the pay. Not here. If you're in another band and are thinking of playing there, I hope you are a cover band. If not, you might want to re-think. 

So, now it's 11:43, I'm on the laptop and we move on forward. Being in a band that does original music is a challenge. We knew it would be and that's ok. We just didn't think a place would book us without listening to us or exploring what we're about. Looking forward to the next show to get the bad taste out of my mouth... and, as Heath said in the parking lot, "Someday we're going to look back on this and laugh." 

Stay gold Ponyboys and Ponygirls,

RH