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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